Wedding Dresses

I had to find a place that will do bridal dress alterations since my bridal salon burnt down and won't be back in business until fall.

First, I had to alter my traditional dress. My qi pao needed some taking in on top, so my mother and I went back to the store in Chinatown for alterations. While I was changing, my mom found another style in the 20% rack and told me to try it on. It fit better than the original and had a nicer pattern. Even though it was more expensive, it came to the same price with the discount. We decided to exchange it. At first, the store clerks didn't want to give it to us because they said that it was a new style and someone had mistakenly put it in the wrong section. However, I know from my own retail experience, that the retailer must give the customer the price at which the item was found. It was marked with a 20% and if it was a mistake, that's their problem. My mother and I were not leaving without the dress and its sale price. At first, I was embarrassed that my mom was haggling. I hate haggling; I'm just not good at it and I feel like it's almost cheating. My mom's always been a cheapskate, too, so I wasn't sure what to do. But, while we were staring at the clerks and the clerks were staring back at us (as the tumbleweed rolled by), I remembered that on a consumer show I saw, the main advice that the person on the show said to cut wedding costs was to haggle. So, I stuck to my guns and in the end my mother and I won the draw. I strolled away with my new qi pao, glad that my mom had gone in there with me.

The next thing I had to do was find a place to alter my wedding gown. I went to a couple of places for their rates and they're almost $300 (about half for what I paid for my bridal attire). However, they just looked at my dress and gave their estimate. Then I went to The Designer's Fit Alterations/Creations and they are charging me under $200 for taking in, hemming, and bustle. Lena, who's in charge at Designer's, spoke with a commanding spirit, but was humourous as well. She was also very knowledgeable and informative. She took charge immediately without putting any pressure on me to do anything. I appreciated her approach and gave her my business. The only scary thing is that I won't get my dress back until four days before the wedding. Yikes! Well, if I don't get it back in time, I'll just have to walk down the aisle in my qi pao. Instead of the white veil, D will just have to lift up the red one with the traditional stick.

My dad says that the stick the husband uses to lift the veil is the same one with which he uses to beat his wife. That's when my mom smacked him one on the shoulder while he laughed! Very funny, Dad.