More Adventures In Bargain Hunting

I recently booked my hair and make up people and the best part is that they are coming to us. We don't have to leave the hotel and we can chill in our PJ's all morning. Looking around at some knottie bios I came across one from Mrs.JuliaGoolia (loving the name!) and she bought robes on sale for her ladies so they would match.

Being the bargain hunter that I am, I set out to find some robes on sale. Our colors are black and white but I thought black robes would be depressing and pink is not my thing. After some research I ended up at JC Penny and found some comfy robes in light navy blue.

Not our color but you can see it on a model.

The bottom one is our color.

They are on sale right now for $12.99! I went on retailmenot and got a coupon code for 15% off then I went through ebates to get 4% cash back. After shipping and all discounts they will be $12.69 each. Now I just need to find myself a comfy white robe and I'll be all set.

Adventures in Bridesmaid Dress Shopping Part II

I did end up buying one thing at the store, an Ann Cares Card. We bought the dresses in October which is Breast Cancer Awareness Month. Ann Taylor sells the Ann Cares Card for $25 and $20 goes towards breast cancer research. The benefit of the card is that it gave us free shipping on orders over $125 and an additional 15% everything including sale items -- double score! We drove home and called the one remaining bridesmaid I hadn’t asked yet (she lives far away and I wanted to do it in person but cheap dresses won me over.) After the excitement and tears she told me her dress size and I was off to order. My one last challenge was deciding if I should order 5 dresses or 6. I have one maid of honor, my mother, and 5 bridesmaids. My mother hadn’t decided if she wanted to wear a mother of the bride dress or a dress like the other girls. In the end I ordered a dress for her just in case since it was a cheap insurance policy in my opinion.

The one thing I do before buying anything on-line is check to see if the vendor is listed with Ebates. Ebates is a site the shares the commission they get from directing your business to another businesses site. They give 3% cash back at Ann Taylor, Banana Republic, Bluefly, Brooks Brothers and tons more. Some sites offer more, as much as 25%, but the standard I’ve seen is between 2-6%. When you’re buying $400 worth of bridesmaid dresses it really pays off.

So as a re-cap:

Dress - $198
On Sale - $99.44
25% off Sale - $74.58
15% off Ann Cares Card - $63.39
3% cash back with Ebates - $61.49
Add the cost of the sash - $68
Shipping - Free with Ann Cares Card
Total Cost of Dress with Sash (shipped) = $68


The day the dresses arrived!:

Adventures in Bridesmaid Dress Shopping Part I

I will go out on a limb and say that I had the world’s easiest Bridesmaid dress shopping experience of any bride to come before me. My only requirements for the dress were black with an ivory sash and floor length. While reading Weddingbee one day I came upon a sale notification at Ann Taylor. They were having 25% off their already reduced Celebrations line. Never one to pass up a sale I took a gander and found a strapless floor length black dress on sale from $198 to $99.44. The additional 25% made it $74.58. I took a poll of the ladies and we agreed to meet at an Ann Taylor in the city so the dresses could be tried on. My only worry was that Ann Taylor only offers sizes up to 18 and one of my bridesmaids has a 46 inch bust -- the largest measurement on their size chart is 45.5 inches.

The dress

The dress in brown but with the sash

Three Bridesmaids made the trek to Ann Taylor on Madison Avenue in the pouring rain. The people in the store must have thought they hit a gold mine with all the trying on we were doing but I already decided we would be ordering on-line. 46 inch bust Bridesmaid got the 18 to zip past her waist but not her bust. She decided from past experience that it could be altered and for the price it was worth it. Below are pictures of the other girls.

Future Sister-In-Law

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