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.

ebay find

So we've talked about my obsession with shoes and my eBay problem, right?  It's not exactly a problem, per se, since I manage to score fabulous discounts.  It's just that I may score these fabulous discounts a bit too often. But now let me share what happens when you combine the power of Ebay with the wonders of Etsy.
I was searching for my wedding shoes one day when I stumbled upon these:

What?  Those are Kate Spades? Floor samples? And they are how much?  10 dollars?

Yep, that's right.  10 dollars.  Now clearly, one of the shoes is missing the bow, but this did not worry me.  I knew I would figure something out.  Then I discovered vintage shoe clips on Etsy and found these beauties:

Ooh, hello!  How would you like to be attached to some Kate Spade's?

And that is how I scored/created these beautiful designer shoes with a personal touch

for less than $25!

I think that they will definitely be worn for the rehearsal dinner, and I will just find a dress that works with them!

Have you scored any amazing deals during your wedding planning?

Vintage Hankies

One day, during my wedding blog searching I found these:

Style Me Pretty

Now, like I mentioned, I am DIY challenged, so I knew that I could never make these. However, it did give me the idea of using vintage hankies in place of cocktail napkins. I love this idea because it is eco-friendly and adds just a bit of a vintage vibe. I'm envisioning stacks of colorful vintage hankies on the cocktail tables! Perfect.

Here are the hankies I've already acquired (all through eBay, of course):

I still need a lot more (60 or so!), but I am an ebay-pro, so I'm not worried!

Are you scouring ebay for any vintage finds for your wedding?