A Wedding Dress Story by Caroline S
I wore this Maggie Sottero wedding gown for my wedding on May 17, 2014 in Albany, Georgia. It was a short engagement, and I didn’t realize how much time was needed to order a wedding dress. We were engaged in November, but I didn’t begin shopping until December. I quickly realized that I would need to buy a sample dress off the rack, which added to the pressure of finding just the right wedding gown.
I shopped in my home town of Albany, and visited other dress shops in Thomasville, Tifton, Atlanta and Tallahassee, Florida. I knew I wanted sleeves, lace and a train. I wanted to feel beautiful, but keep the style relatively modest for our Catholic wedding. When I put on this Maggie dress, it fit as if it were made for me. It also happened to be the most expensive dress I tried on and was significantly over budget. Even the sample discount did not reduce the price to where I could justify the cost, so I had to leave it and keep looking.
The Wedding Gown Search Continues
A week later, as I pored over the photos of dresses I had tried on, I came to realize that none of them offered everything I wanted the way this one did. It was elegant, flattering, detailed, and felt right for me and for our afternoon church ceremony. I found myself on the Facebook page for the dress shop, and to my surprise I saw a post about a canned food drive. For every can brought in, customers would be given 1% off anything in the store, up to 40% off! I could NOT believe there were not exclusions on designer gowns!
That is when I was finally able to admit that this was my dress. I was out of town at the time, so I called the shop and paid over the phone. I bought the dress without ever trying it on again! I sent my mother-in-law with the canned goods and she brought the dress home, so it was waiting for me when I returned.
I felt so beautiful on my wedding day and I could not have loved my wedding gown more. Every bride should love the way she looks on her wedding day. I definitely did!