Found THE Dress- Find the Price

Being a self-professed "Budget-Diva" Bride made shopping for my dress, after I found The Dress; a little upsetting. I found it in the first store marked at $1250, well within the manufacturer's suggested retail price, when I went to try it on for Mom approval- it was marked $1350. So in order to find it at an amazing deal I first emailed  a known wedding consignment company here in the Valley, while they were pleased to hear from me again, they didn't have The Dress. So I turned to the interwebs- I looked at Once Wed's Used Dresses and the Weddingbee Classifieds. Unfortunately the best deal I could find was $800+ shipping. Not bad, except that it was shipping from Canada. Back to the Bridal Shops...

Source

After a few not-so wonderful experiences at Bridal Shops that shall remain nameless my FSIL and I were skeptical at best. That is, until, I found the most glowing reviews of a shop out in the suburbs... a shop I'd never heard of, but certainly had a lot of fans...

Source

I called to verify that they had my gown in stock to try on, they did! They also informed me that weekend they'd be having a Maggie Sottero trunk show and that if I bought and paid in full any Maggie Sottero gown I'd receive a wonderful 10% off the total price. I explained to the clerk on the phone that although Maggie Sottero is one of the designers The Dress was really a Sottero & Midgely. No problem they said, they'd still honor the discount since Maggie Sottero was one of the designers....

Could it be... was I in my own fairy tale?

Source

I was!! And on a side note the above cartoon does have a shocking resemblance to myself (dark hair+pale) and my fiancé (auburn hair+pale). So to make a long story, somewhat longer...I bought and paid for the dress in full that day, and ended up paying $1,163.27 tax included.

How far did you go for a good deal and good service? Were you put off from buying your dress by sales staff that were less than courteous?