My dream dress part III

As we headed to the last bridal salon for our appointment, my MOH said she had "a feeling" this was going to be the one.  You see, out of any new dress I'd seen the dress I was about to try on was the closest thing to my dream dress.  When we arrived, the assistant showed us several lovely dresses, but we let her know that we were really there for one dress.  She did, however, talk me into trying on one of my absolutely-unattainable dream dresses. 

Monique Lhuillier's Scarlet:

While the dress was fabulous (I now understand why so many brides covet the Scarlet), it was not really me.  I guess I am not a lacy girl.  Now it was time to step into the dress we were there for.  At this point, I was so used to being half naked in front of the bridal boutique ladies, that I wasn't even phased.  (Seriously, I had no idea I would be almost naked in front of a complete stranger the whole time.)  The dress definitely did not disappoint.  Here she is, Amy Michelson's Faith:

Source

(Please ignore the ivy they styled her with...)

I was in love. Especially after the seamstress confirmed that the back could easily be altered to look a bit more like my dream dress. I felt like this was the first dress that felt like me, and was exactly what I wanted to wear for our wedding. The problem? The dress came in at $2700, which was about 4 times my budget

We went back to the hotel and starting googling like mad women. What we found on eBay made us both gasp out loud. My dream dress, unaltered, had sold for a mere $400 less than an hour earlier. I know.

After drowning our sorrows in cheesecake, my MOH convinced me to email the seller.  You know, just in case something went wrong with the sale.  I figured this was a long shot, but at this point, I had nothing to lose.  One week later I received an email from the seller, asking if I was still interested.  Was I still interested?  Heck yes!!!!

And that, my friends, is how I scored my dream dress (well, close enough) for a ridiculous deal.