Dress Shopping Part 6: Sample Sale

So now to our regularly scheduled program of dress shopping.... BF/bridesman was watching Say Yes To The Dress (Countless people kept telling me to watch it) & in the episode they talk about sample dresses, so he asks if I have googled L.A sample sale - nope but I did as soon as he said it. I find out about a sample sale the had started in the beginning of October at Lily's Bridal. Keep in mind, I am writing this now (Nov.) but all this shopping was in October, so I went to the sample sale about 10 days after it started. I called made an appt for Friday & was hoping that they would still have stuff left. The hope did not come through because I did not like any of the dresses and there were only about 20 left. Since I had made the trek to the Valley, I thought I might as well look around. I tried on a few dresses but did not like any of them. I went out of my comfort zone and tried on an organza A line, I actually liked it, not my style but I liked that it felt like I was floating on a cloud. The other dress I kind of liked was a JCH dress (above), I liked the ruching on the top but I wanted the trumpet to flow more instead of just looking like two separate pieces. The sales lady had me start at one side of the store and walk to the mirror so I could see how I would look walking down the aisle, it was pretty cool & it made me more comfortable with the dress. I finally understood I was shopping for a bridal dress and not a dress for a special occasion that just happened to be ivory & that I just happened to be wearing at my own wedding. Coincidentally the organza dress ended up being featured on Say Yes to the Dress a week later (I only watch re runs of it, so I don't know when it was shown originally). After leaving the store I did a search on my iphone map for "bridal", & found Pebbles Bridal, I call them & as luck would have it they don't do appts and they open at 12 score!


Pebbles had ALOT of affordable dresses & many different styles, there were dresses there for $300!!! They had a huge section of sample dresses & bridesmaid dresses. I tried on the Jasmine F157 I can't remember how much it was but for sure under 1K. It had the fit I was looking for, and some bling, but I didn't like the bling it had & it didn't wow me. I then tried on the beautiful Enzoani Dakota & I loved it, it fit perfectly and had more of a dramatic trumpet then I had seen in any other dress...only a few issues - it was lace & I did not think I wanted lace, most lace dresses did some weird thing on my hips, also I wanted more of a sweetheart neckline & some bling. The sales person added a belt to the bust part & it looked very nice. Finally a dress that fit exactly how I wanted it too! But I still was not sure it was "the one" wasn't I suppose to just feel it? perhaps cry? also the ivory was a little darker in color than I had wanted and the white was way too white, oh and over my budget but not that bad. After all my dress shopping, I thought this was the closest I was going to get to what I wanted in a dress & I was so happy to finally find a dress that had the fit I wanted & no ruching. I found out later after I shopped around that Pebbles has the best price for the Dakota by FAR! I still think it is a beautiful dress, if someone bought it for me I would be more than happy to wear it or if it had been 1/2 the price I would have bought it but for the price, it has to be everything I want in a dress. I must say though that it is a great price for the quality of dress. The picture doesn't do it justice since the model is doing some weird thing, seriously what is up with some of these models not showing the beauty of the dress, which in this one would be showing a woman's hour glass figure and the dramatic trumpet.

Stores I went to:

Lily's Bridal 18663 Ventura Blvd Tarzana, CA 91356

Pebbles Bridal 20855 Ventura Blvd #B Woodland Hills, CA