"Just come get your money back"

    WEDDINGS.. I had two kinds of advice from people: fight tooth and nail for what YOU want or compromise because ultimately it isn't that important. I think now I am kind of lying somewhere in the middle. I'm okay with that. Yesterday however, I was NOT okay with compromising.
    Mid- January (three months before the wedding) I had still put off getting a wedding dress. This quintessential piece is crucial to a wedding, I can't be convinced otherwise. I knew what I wanted but hadn't found any online or in stores. Total depression. Finally I entered a local wedding shop, took home a magazine and picked out the perfect dress! Two weeks, tops, and it would be mine. So the waiting game began. Finally it was the big day and I called only to discover that my dress wouldn't be in for another week. That was okay because I had ten more weeks. So I called every day, just to be sure that I wouldn't miss it. Irritatingly, no one never had specific wear-abouts about the dress, any ideas about timing and never would call after promising to do so. I know, I know, seems slightly annoying but by now I began to factor in whether or not the seamstress would have time to take in the dress, add sleeves, add a slip and be prepared in time for the wedding.
    Finally, three weeks after ordering the dress, it came in (YAY). As soon as I walked in the door I was greeted with "Hi, the dress came in but I'm returning it." By this point, I was chuckling because she was pulling my leg because of my incessant calls, right? Wrong, so very wrong. The dress had come in white in the back, beige in the front and with dirt caught between the layers. Considering the time waited I was frustrated. So off the dress went and an identical one without the flaws was en route.


So much beauty in one picture.

    This should have been the point where I pulled the plug, I guess. At least seven other people told me about different mishaps from this shop, but I wanted to extend the benefit of the doubt. Well the expectant date for the new dress was another two more weeks, roughtly the final week of February- a mere 7 weeks before the wedding. Then I began calling every two days or so, just to make sure she hadn't forgotten to call me (again). Well finally, finally, the two week mark was up! Another phone call happened like this, " Oh hi. No, no dress. I don't know when. I haven't worked in a few days." Then the owner promised to call me back with information. She never called. I continued calling every day until yesterday. Yesterday was almost the SIX week mark- let me repeat- SIX weeks which was originally supposed to take TWO. This left me with seven weeks before the wedding and first reception. The aloof manner she presented seemed ridiculing and beyond my comprehension- isn't the customer always right?
    So I used Mama to call and demand that my dress gets overnighted or something drastic like that. Yet again, I had no dress, nothing resolved and a promise to return my phone call within 30 minutes. As the 30 minutes rolled past, I was fuming. I mean, I'm being patient, I'm trying to give a fair chance to the store yet no one is trying to do anything to help me! So I called, prepared to demand my money back if the dress wasn't in through the week, only to hear the owner say, " No I haven't heard back from the man. No I don't know when it'll be in. Why don't you just come get your money back?" Floored that she suggest it, I quickly used every ounce of sass I possessed to say that I surely would be getting my money back.
    I picked up my money an hour and a half later, dropped by the other local bridal shop which came with excellent reviews, found the PERFECT dress for half of the price of the other dress, and left with it in my arms. Talk about a relief! :)