I know I wrote a while back about the hard time I was having finding a flower girl dress. The ones I loved the most were like over $150...And who is going to spend that on a 2 year old that will only be wearing the dress for a few hours?!
Sooooo I did some research and found some sites that offer discounted knock-off dresses. I finally found a
website that makes replicas in China, at half the price.
The only complaints I could find about the site was that some people didn't realize they were ordering replicas and not straight from the real manufacturer. And like two people complained about the quality being a little cheaply made.
I figured I would take the chance and order the flower girl dress from there. Because she is only going to run around in it for a few hours, so who cares if it is not the greatest quality, right?
So I contacted the company in China about two months ago and found out the color they recommended that would be closest to David's Bridal's Watermelon.
And I went ahead and placed the order.
That is the dress I ordered. Only I ordered the white dress to be in Watermelon and the tan sash to be in black. It looks just like a miniature version of my bridesmaid's dresses...And I purposely made it the opposite colors of theirs, which is black dress with Watermelon sash.
So the dress should have cost like $150+ but by ordering the replica from China it only cost $70 including shipping and tax and everything! I thought that was a good deal. And I knew I was taking a gamble, but I went ahead with it anyway.
So yesterday the dress came in. And, well, the quality is great! So I don't know what people were complaining about.
But then I took out the bridesmaid's sashes and held it up to the dress...And OMG I FREAKED OUT!! The color is soooo wrong! It is way too light of a pink.
And the dress looks HUGE! I have no idea how a two year old is going to fit in it and not trip down the aisle! I know I am short (only 5 feet) but when I held the dress up to me, it went down to my knees! AND the bottom of the dress is a balloon hem, so I don't know if it can be shortened or not. And it probably can be taken apart and put back together by a professional seamstress...But won't that cost like $100? And doesn't that defeat the whole purpose of going with a discounted dress?
So yeah, I admit, I had a panic attack and cried...Quite a bit of crying, actually.
But then after a few hours of thinking about it, I started to get a little more positive. I thought about the good things about the dress:
1) It really is a similar style to the bridesmaids, so she'll match very nicely as far as that goes.
2) The quality of the dress is not at all crappy
3) It came in a week earlier than they said it would
4) My bridesmaid's dresses are NOT solid pink...Only their sashes are. So if you don't hold the sash up to the dress (like I did) then maybe no one will notice how different the colors are?
I don't know...I know I will always be able to tell how the colors are not the same. But I am trying to look on the bright side. Like I said, if my girl's dresses were solid Watermelon, then the flower girl dress would stick out like a sore thumb. But I am hoping it won't be so noticeable.
Now I just have to worry about the length of the dress. Maybe she'll grow in the next 3 months. LOL
Later I will take a picture of the dress and the sash to show the comparison. I couldn't bring myself to do it last night.
But for now I will post the pictures my sister took with her camera phone yesterday...I was at work when the dress came and she opened it and took pictures and sent them to me.
Here is the front of the dress on my bed:
Here is my Grandmother holding up the front of the dress:
Here is my Grandmother holding up the back of the dress:
OK I need to stop looking at these pictures...Because the more I look at them, I am starting to freak out again at how HUGE it looks...
:-\
