Affairs 732 by Mori Lee
Want to know how I found out? Three of my bridesmaids had received their dresses, while the fourth was told that the dress could not be shipped to her. Two months after she had placed her order. Less than four weeks before the wedding. I swear I stopped breathing.
So what is a girl to do in this situation? (Besides freaking out, of course.) We knew it was too late to order a new dress, even if one was available, since it was way too close to the wedding. It seemed our only options were to look in classifieds and eBay for used dresses, or to call bridal stores to see if any of them happened to have the dress in the correct color and size already in stock. After the online option proved fruitless, we called all the bridal stores that carry the Mori Lee line in the Houston, Austin and Dallas areas, while Bridesmaids L and A tried the stores near them in California and Kansas. None of the stores had the dress.
In a last-ditch attempt, I drove across town to Bea's Bridal (where Hyena Sis bought her dress) to see if there was anything they could do. The guy who runs Bea's called the Mori Lee warehouse to see if they happened to have any of the dress in stock. No such luck, but I wasn't ready to give up hope. I asked if the warehouse had ANY other Mori Lee dresses in stock in "Wine." They happened to have a different halter dress, in the correct color and size. It is pretty similar, and looked like our best option with so little time left.
Affairs 836 by Mori Lee
After conversing with my bridesmaids, we decided to go for it. They said the dress could be delivered to Bea's Bridal in 10 days — WAY less time than it takes to ship a new dress. I placed the order, and started breathing again. Bridal store guy, you're my hero. Four days after I placed the order, Bea's called to tell me the dress had arrived. I can't say enough good things about this store.
We didn't want it to be so obvious that three of the dresses were the same and only one was different, so the girls and I decided we could make some minor tweaks to the original dresses to make them all look slightly different from each other. We're adjusting the straps on Hyena Sis' dress to include some rhinestone work on the back. Bridesmaid A said she would tuck the straps into the top of the dress so it looks strapless. We also discussed removing the bow belt on one of the dresses and replacing it with some kind of sparkly brooch. If we're going the mismatched bridesmaid route, we're going big. Going home is not an option.
Here's what it might look like:
Dresses by Mori Lee / Brooch image from Melbourne Blogger / images altered by me
What do you think? Do you have any ideas for other minor changes to make the original dresses look different than each other?
I LOVE the mis-matched dress look! (and the BM's heads on the models, ha. Awesome!) I just gave my girls a color and fabric (which happened to only come in two dresses at DB) and let them chose their dresses. I think it turned out fine, even when my pregnant BM tried on her dress and it was waaay too short because of her belly and added a bit of black to the bottom of it. No sweat. We brides take things in strides. :)
ReplyDeleteSeriously though, I love the new look and am glad it all turned out well.
Also, good to know about Bea's service. When I was a BM for my roommate Lynsey the two of us went to try on dresses at a formal store in Bryan (it started with an 'N' I think?). She wanted taffeta dresses because she liked the shiny look to them, and when we asked the lady (not sure if she was the owner) if they had any dresses in taffeta she replied: "We might have one or two, but I don't really order much in taffeta because I think it's really ugly." Wooow. Way to lose a sale and insult the bride, lady. Good to hear there are more pleasant consultants in BCS!
ReplyDeleteAwww, I am so sorry that happened! I guess I wasn't the only one with bridal panic recently :)
ReplyDeleteBut seriously, I think the other dress is also beautiful, and the mismatched look will be great! I'm not sure that I have any other ideas for changing up the dresses, but what you have looks good.
OMG I think I stopped breathing for you. I may or may not have nightmares about this tonight. I have no suggestions for other ways to make it different but I think your ideas are great. Maybe you could also put a colored sash on one of the girls (in your wedding colors of course). I really like the replacing your sisters belt with something shiny.
ReplyDelete