The Best-Ever Bargain
The topic comes from Carnival of the Couture, a project of Manolo the Shoe-Blogger. Each week fashion-minded bloggers respond to new topics. This week is hosted by The Bargain Queen. I haven’t participated before, but this week’s question was so easy to answer that I had to respond:
What is your best-ever bargain? Where did you find it, how much was it and why is it your favourite?
My best ever bargain was my wedding gown. I found it among the regular dresses at a Filene’s Basement in St. David’s, PA. (Not THE Filene’s Basement in Boston, MA, but one of the TJ Maxx-ish outposts.) The Filene’s price tag read $200, but the original was still attached. The dress came from Holt Renfrew, a Canadian department store. The original price was $1195.
It was a beautiful dress of celadon silk taffeta, with an empire waist, and a long-sleeved illusion bodice embroidered with sequins and pearls. I had been looking for a slightly unconventional gown for some time, but couldn’t justify spending thousands of dollars on what I’d found in bridal shops. Also, most of the colored bridal gowns were blue, pink, or champagne. I’d never yet found green, which suits me because I’m a redhead.
I took the gown into the dressing room, tried it on, then went out to the three-way mirror. Another woman there looked on.
“It’s beautiful,” she said. “But where would you wear it?”
“My wedding,” I smiled back, somewhat dazed.
As I removed the dress in the dressing room, I looked for the tag. The designer used his name and last initial. They were the same as those of my fiance.
I took the dress to the register. The clerk said they were running a promotion. She offered me a scratch card for the chance to win an additional percentage off. I scratched off 20%, so my $200 dress only cost $160, and there was no sales tax.
I sped home and called my parents, friends and sisters. “You’ll never believe this!” I crowed. “I found a beautiful, unique dress, the designer has the same name and last initial as my fiance, and it only cost $160!”
It was truly the best-ever bargain.
May 16th, 2006 at 10:19 pm
Love your story! I’ve had other amazing gown and costume finds, but none as good as your wedding dress!
May 20th, 2006 at 10:26 pm
Wow, that is indeed the best bargain ever, and a beautiful story. Congratulations!
May 23rd, 2006 at 3:18 pm
the Chanel scarf you found as a wrap to go with your bridesmaid dress for my wedding was another goodie, as I recall!
May 24th, 2006 at 3:31 pm
I’ll try to post pics, but the site is being difficult. Thanks for appreciating the dress story, but my sister is right–there was a second-best bargain. She and I went shopping in Dayton’s Oval Room after we picked out bridesmaid dresses for her wedding. I wanted a wrap to wear in church. I spied a green and gold velvet scarf by Chanel–the only scarf in the whole place. Not only did it match, but when the saleswoman rang it up, there was no sale price in the system, so she gave it to me for 50% off the last sale price. I paid just over $60, about 10% of the original price.