My least favorite episode of "Say Yes to the Dress"

I watch "Say Yes to the Dress" on TLC, which features the Kleinfeld, the salon with the biggest selection of gowns in NYC, even after finding my wedding dress. My dress didn't come from Kleinfeld, although I did have an appointment there. The show makes it seem like the consultants and managers will be your buddy and lower prices if you make a sad face, but when I went, I found out that dress prices start at $2000, and they push you to purchase way before you need. My knot.com calendar was telling me I had until March/April to purchase a dress for a late November wedding. My consultant was pushing me to purchase the first week of January, saying that I was already late.

Perhaps that's the way Kleinfeld works, as so many of the post-purchase brides they show at first fitting talk about how they're not sure if they remember their dress, and worry whether they'll still like it, because it's been A YEAR since they saw their dress. I bought my dress elsewhere for less than $1000, and it has attributes that would sell for over $3000 at Kleinfeld. It's so ridiculous how some brides on the show want a ballgown but want to stick to a $2000 budget. One particular bride was told that if she wanted a ballgown, she'd have to up her budget, but she could've found one at a less ritzy salon easily.

My least favorite episode of "Say Yes to the Dress" is titled "The Art of Negotiation," where one bride, Melanie, bought a dress a year earlier, but cancelled it because she had second thoughts. For once, I took Kleinfeld's side. Melanie wound up choosing the same dress she purchased in the first place! Why didn't she come back to the salon and try the dress on again before cancelling the order and losing the 50% deposit she already paid? It turns out the dress increased in price from $5000 to $6300 since she first purchased it, and Melanie and her mom are outraged. They complain that they should've been told that the price would increase when Melanie called to cancel the order, that Melanie cancelled the order the way they told her she should. How was the store supposed to know that Melanie would come back and want the same dress again (crazy bride, anyone?) and that the price would actually increase? In the end, the store didn't want to lose the sale, so they discounted the dress down to $5000 and gave her a free veil worth a couple hundred bucks. But ha ha, Melanie pretty much paid $7500 for the dress because of the deposit she spent on the first dress.

A wedding in Flushing

Josh and I attended our friends' wedding last night out in Flushing. The traffic was horrendous. A trip that should've taken only half an hour took an hour and a half. Josh kept saying that we were going to miss the ceremony, but we got there just in time to see the bridal party lining up.... from behind. As they departed, I realized that I should take some pics because there was no one else with this perspective of the bride and her father.

It was my first traditional Chinese wedding banquet for someone NOT related to me, and it was a lot of fun. I loved the ways they incorporated modern ideas, and it was so cool that their dog was allowed to walk around the ballroom during the reception. I do think that our waitperson was looking down her nose at us for not eating all the very traditional dishes. Hey, I did my part, eating double portions of jellyfish and shrimp in Japanese mayonnaise, but I draw the line at abalone.

The bride did stop by our table quite often and when she took a picture with us, she said, "You're neeext!!" and also shared the tip not to let the small projects slip by the wayside, or it will bite you in the butt closer to the wedding. I think I'd better get started on knitting Josh's yarmulke.