My Recessionista Experience (or "How Far I Would Go For a Deal")

Not sure if I've mentioned this before but I'm getting married. And in true Recessionista mode, my wedding dress needed to be both amazingly beautiful AND an amazing deal.

Well, this weekend I succeeded in finding the perfect dress.

After visiting the Vera Wang boutique in Toronto, I realized that I really, really wanted a VW for my dress. Only problem is, the most reasonable dress I tried on was $3950. I walked out of the boutique in love with that dress but thought that there must be a better price out there.

I called the VW boutique in NYC. They also had the dress ... for $2950 AND they were willing to give me a 10% trunk show discount.

So yes, a deal ... but was it the BEST deal?

Thanks to a fellow recessionista, I found out that Saks was having a 70% off sale on their sample wedding dresses, including Vera Wang, Monique Lluillier, Kenneth Pool, etc., etc.

And thanks to my amazing fiance, we drove down to NYC the same night in time for the second day of the sale. I thought it would be picked over, but there were still tons of dresses left and they were all 70% off (not "up to 70% which is what most sales are at) and there were no lines and no crazy shoppers. Compare that to the Vera Wang sale happening in NYC this weekend when the line ups will start the night before for savings of "up to 70% off, I think I did well.

In any case, after sending my fiance to stroll 5th Ave., I tried on a bunch of dresses and found a beautiful, beautiful gown at 70% off. AND on top of that, the ladies at Saks opened a Saks account for me so I got an extra 10% off.

That's right ladies. My dream gown at 80% off. I only wish I could show you photos, but since my fiance follows this blog, I can't risk it.

My next mission - a beautiful and classic pair of wedges (I'm getting married on the beach and my fiance is tall). I'll let you know once I score those too!

Happy shopping!