I'd been looking for a wedding dress for a couple of months when my sister-in-law called from Miami to say she had found my dress. She'd been shopping in Saks Fifth Avenue in Dadeland Mall http://www.simon.com/mall/default.aspx?ID=138 and happened to see a dress on sale. Since I was having a small, outdoor garden wedding a formal wedding gown seemed over the top. The dress my sister-in-law saw had beads and sequins sewn all over it much like a wedding gown but it was a 2-piece knee length skirt and top that looked like a dress. The bottom of the skirt and top were deeply scalloped. Even better, it was on sale.
I drove down to Miami and we went to Saks. She was right. It was the perfect dress. The sales staff was extremely helpful, as they almost always are at Saks stores. The dress needed to be altered http://www.saksfifthavenue.com/html/cust_service/alterations.jsp?PRODUCT%3C%3Eprd_id=845524446141114&FOLDER%3C%3Efolder_id=2534374306400443&ASSORTMENT%3C%3East_id=1408474395222441&bmUID=1157890507800 so the saleswoman who was helping me called the seamstress without hesitation. The seamstress arrived within a couple of minutes and quickly pinned the outfit so it would fit better.
Since this was a high quality dress, extra buttons, beads and sequins were included. These came in handy when I was trying the dress on about a month before my wedding. The heel of my shoe caught on one of the threads and several beads and sequins fell off. A local seamstress was able to use these extras to repair my dream dress and no one was able to tell there had been any damage done.
This was not the first time I had shopped at Saks Fifth Avenue. Although I can rarely afford to pay full price, they do have great markdowns on their clearance http://www.saksfifthavenue.com/main/SaleByCategory.jsp?PRODUCT%3C%3Eprd_id=845524446141114&FOLDER%3C%3Efolder_id=2534374306400443&ASSORTMENT%3C%3East_id=1408474395222441&bmUID=1157882613500 and sale items which make their merchandise affordable.
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