The Discovery - How to save money in London if you're under-26
This was motivated by yet another trip to Wimbledon, with great expectations of buying The One, whatever it might be. I had done my research on the TFL website, and realised that the young person's railcard can be used to get 1/3 off the overland train (which i would have to take from Waterloo to Wimbledon). Feel quite stupid because I've had this railcard for 5 months and I just found out about this, so obviously I go to the ticket office to get my Oyster card linked!
Turns out, that when I tapped out of the underground at Waterloo, a tube journey that would normally cost £1.90 only cost £1.25!!! I was so thrilled :)
The Buy
Today I finally concluded the long and arduous search for a dress. It's been rather tough going. 5 or 6 wedding dress shop appointments, 1 national wedding show, 10s of dresses tried on both in London and Singapore, countless hours spent on www.preloved.co.uk and various other 2nd hand dress websites, I finally bought something today.
Stumbled upon Teokath actually, and boy I'm glad I did. Was actually just randomly calling up stockists in London for Pronovias, because I was convinced (and bought over by their amazing website) that I wanted a Pronovias dress. The flagship store at New Bond Street was fully booked, and the next appointment was in April, which I booked in January. Actually, it was also Teokath's website that actually made me interested in going all the way to SW19 to visit the shop. Researched like mad for reviews online and couldn't find any. Was really worried that the prices would be overpriced and the alterations would cost a fortune. But the lady on the phone sounded friendly and she assured me that "we will find your something". Obviously, anyone who had been through what I did would find that difficult to believe.
When I finally got to the shop on Wed night, I was actually very impressed with the layout of the shop, it was classy and spacious. The other bridal shops I visited had amazing websites but a pathetic store layout - almost disappointing. The service was excellent. I was offered a drink while I browsed through the dresses. There must have been about 100 dresses there, but I already knew the styles I wanted, which made things much easier. Maria was amazing, she actually listened to what I wanted and then helped me pick out some dresses to try according to the criteria. At other places I just had to go around and pick 4 or 5 myself. Throughout the fittings she sounded very genuine in pointing out the characteristics of each dress, and telling me what was nice and not. I finally narrowed it down to 2, and she didn't even mention anything about buying the dress, just a simple invitation to return during the weekend for a 2nd try. I was convinced that I would get something from this shop. It offered the best services out of all the shops I went (which did not include the high-end designer boutiques which I would think have good service to justify the prices!)
I'm glad I went to the other boutique inside Elys the departmental store for the 2nd fitting. There were other different dresses there, and I was sipping my orange juice while picking out a few others, including a dress that was quite similar to the one I was actually going to buy (spent Thurs and Fri doing a survey among some colleagues and friends and was decided.) Before I put on that dress, the ladies at the store seemed to have their doubts, though they encouraged me to try it on anyway. I did, and when it was on, I could see the amazed look on their face. There was a WOW factor, and they really looked impressed. I guess that was what confirmed it for me, since no one came with me to the appointment. To be sure, we tried on the 2 dresses a few times, and the last thing that sealed it was the price. This dress looked a lot more elegant, was in the material I wanted, looked more expensive, but was actually cheaper. So I said I would buy it. Maria took some pictures of me in it (I must say that the background was actually even more amazing because the boutique is really really pretty), while Daniella got the champagne out.
Then, measurements had to be taken, and to my surprise, my measurements were actually smaller than the smallest size! Plus I have a waist size that surprised me and made my sisters jealous :p Actually one amazing thing about trying to get a wedding dress in London is how everyone thinks I'm tiny. It's so funny, because the sample dresses are always in size 12 or 14 and I always look like I'm drowning in them and they have to be pinned in to fit. In Singapore, the dresses were all either fitting or slightly too tight, which made me feel extremely fat. Maybe thats why I didn't fancy any of the dresses I tried on in SG.
So, I guess I'm (almost) done getting into fitting rooms with complete strangers and having to strip down to the bare minimum.
Congrats me!!! and thank God for bringing this to a conclusion - I was seriously about to give up! My only regret is that I had to do most of this alone. It would have been a lot nicer if mummy were here, and not just on skype looking at the Pronovias website with me. Or if the sistas could stop me from picking ridiculous dresses tell me what suited me instead of me having to go back and then showing them via email how the dress looks like on a supermodel on the website (but generally my taste was not bad, right? :p). I guess I learnt (the very hard way) to stand on my own 2 feet and make a big decision. Now I just have to hope that I don't change my mind about this decision in the next 7 months or so because there is no turning back.
Now I can move on to other things, like the bridesmaid dresses, evening dress, shoes and the gazillion other things that never end.....
Had such a horrible, long and tiring week but I'm glad it ended on a good note, despite being quite a lot poorer :)