Saturday, October 1, 2011

The time that Dress Barn saved my life.

Last Saturday was the wedding of one of Ben's oldest friends. By oldest, I mean they've been friends since they were babies.... not like the friend is an old man or something. Anyway...

Ben was in the wedding party, so he didn't have to worry about what to wear (not that he would fret over it anyway), but I started thinking about what to wear at least a month before the wedding. I wanted something new for the wedding, which meant that it was time to start shopping.

I started at Kohls, as they often have really cute dresses for good prices. No dice. I found a lot of cute dresses, but they were all about 2-3 inches too short. Baaaah. I went to Target, but nothing really jumped out at me. 

I continued at Soel and Apricot Lane (two boutiques at the River Woods) and was again facing the same issue- lots of cute things, all too short. Not to be discouraged, I continued on to the mall.

Nordstrom was too expensive, Express was too trampy, Forever 21 was too short, Blend was too short... my oh my, I was starting to lose my steam. I found a promising dress at Macys, but it was a little more than I wanted to spend. I put it on hold in case all else failed. 

At this point, I was ready to give up. After a million stores and 5 hours of shopping, my hair looked like a rat's next and I was ready to buy a potato sack and wear it to the wedding. 

And this is where Dress Barn comes in. Also known as the store with the most unattractive name ever.  Honestly, the president of Dress Barn should have named the store Potato Sacks or Ugly Stick, because anything sounds better than Dress Barn. I think that I went to the store once in my life, because my mom dragged me there. You see how enthusiastic I was about this store?

Lemme tell you, this store has redeemed itself. Tons of modest, non- potato sack dresses for cheap! Not the highest quality fabric, but I wasn't looking for something that would last forever- I just wanted it to work for the wedding. I found a great dress and it was cheaper than anything I had tried anywhere. I was so excited that I may have scared the sales girls just a little bit. 

Here's a picture of me and the hubs at the wedding. I got my dress, necklace and earrings from Dress Barn, all for under $50. Wahoo!
I know this isn't the best picture of my dress, but you get the idea.

Bottom Line: Don't always judge a store by the extremely unattractive name. You may miss out on a great dress.

4 comments:

Amber said...

Okay, went shopping last night for a few new dresses and had the exact same problem! Too short or too expensive....I'm going to find a Dress Barn now. I've never shopped there for the exact Dane reason, but I'm excited to shop there now!

Ashley said...

Same problem...so, I just looked up a Dress Barn and there's one close by. I'm excited to go check it out.

Kaley said...

I bought a few of my skirts for my mission from Dress Barn! Your hair looks fabulous in this picture!

Unknown said...

I totally follow you with the 5 hours of shopping for something and running out of steam, and your hair turning into a rats nest!!!!!! but you look fabulous in your dress! I've been to DB a couple times and have always been pleasantly suprised too... despite the horrific name!!!!!!!