The Wedding Dress Payment Fiasco

Ah, a wedding! What an exciting time. All the love, the friends, the family, the smiles, the glimmer of what the future will hold in your eye. With a wedding, comes details. So many details. From every different direction. It is ridiculous to try and grasp. The following is an account of one tiny aspect of the wedding planning process.

Finding the perfect wedding dress.

Not the attire for everyone.

Not the couple.

Not the full wedding party.

Just the brides' dress.

One single, solitary item that will be wore in all likely hood for only part of one day. And yet somehow it is one of the most important and stressful items to pick out.

Sidebar: thank all that is holy and good for my wedding planner Becca! You have got to check her fabulous self out here! She can also be found on Instagram @eventswithbecca I promise you, even if you aren't planning a wedding (or basically any other awesome event) take a look at the beautiful work this gorgeous woman does!

Now to start, this is my second wedding so that means, I have all the hate for everything about my first wedding dress and begin my vows with vowing to look a billion times better and that this dress shall be nothing like the first; aside from the obvious title of "wedding dress."

I am not a fan of any kind of shopping that requires me to leave my home looking presentable. I knew I couldn't go at this alone or there was sure to be disaster of the highest magnitude. Not having family living close by narrowed the options of potential help. I was able to muster up the guts to ask my future sister-in-law to accompany me. Now, you may be thinking the wording is a bit dramatic, which you'd be right but also hear me out. I am well aware I simply do not speak the lingo of wedding dress, to any extent outside of "white" and "dress." To which, even white has variants! Nor was I clear on what I wanted it to look like. I can assure you, it was a bigger job for her than I could possibly put into words.

Thanks to the state of COVID ridden pandemic we are all still up hill trudging through, you can not simply show up to any store unannounced. No, no, now you must make appointments for anything more specialty than a grocery store. *insert eye roll of disdain here* Ridiculous. Thanks to my trusty helper, she informed me of this. See, I knew she was the right choice.

To add to the stress of this little outing you have to consider living conditions. I currently reside in North Pole, Alaska. A small town that has little to offer for a bride when it comes to shopping. To find a wedding dress, I had to travel to Anchorage, Alaska. For those of you who are unfamiliar with how Alaska is geographically laid out, you're looking at a 6 to 9 hour drive from North Pole to Anchorage depending on the time of year. Yes, it actually takes that much longer in the winter compared to the summer.

I end up setting 2 appointments. When we finally were able to get everyone's schedule collaborated we headed to Anchorage.

Thanks to my trusty sidekick the appointments go smoothly and I am able to find the dress that makes me feel absolutely flawless! Best part, it was UNDER budget. Can't argue there. Now time to order and make payment.

Card declined.

Hmmm...

Try again.

Card declined.

Panic creeping in...

No other card available. NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO.

Now what?

The awesome staff agree to place the order and I can pay later, knowing that I had the funds I was simply having a card issue.

Call the bank.

Turns out my debit card had been hit with 10 counts of fraud and the bank shut my card off to protect my hard earned money. It's one of those I'm annoyed but also relived moments. I sit up on the phone that night to ensure my online payment for my wedding dress processes through and all is right in the world of wedding planning once again.

Confirmation! Minor victory. All is taken care of, time to proceed to the next item on list.

-ONE MONTH LATER-

Phone call from bridal shop. "Ma'am the bank has reversed the payment for your dress"

The bank did what now....?! I couldn't believe what I was hearing. I try not to panic. Since the original card had been shut off I had ordered and received a new one and it was working fine and dandy like. Let's get this dress paid for.

Card declined.

Not a chance, try again please.

Card declined.

Talk with the associate, unsure of what the issue is. The error message is simply "error." No help there. They say to maybe talk with my bank because the charge had been reversed prior.

Call the bank. End up getting transferred through 4 different people only to find out, nope it wasn't an issue with the card, the bridal shop was not on a restricted list, maybe it was a glitch, you should be able to make the payment tomorrow no problem. Awesome.

Next day. Call the shop to make the payment over the phone. The link to pay online wasn't working. Red flag number one.

Card declined.

Say again...

Card declined.

I can feel my face getting flush at this point

Me: "When do I need to have this paid for?"

Bridal shop: "In order to get it ordered on time, payment needs to be made in full today"

Hold the dang phone lady! I was told it was already ordered. The mass confusion and panic as I was pacing my house was palpable. Off the phone with them. Back to calling the bank.

Yet again the game of "let me transfer you" ensues. On the one hand, talk about annoying. Keep getting transferred only to have to tell your whole story all over again. However, look at all those jobs out there. Silver lining perhaps...

While talking with agent number 3 we have come to the conclusion that when a new card was issued, the daily spending limits had been reset to almost the minimum. Finally, answers! The dress was slightly over the minimum spending limit of the new card. No wonder is wasn't going through. I get asked if I would like to raise the limit. Considering the last limit was higher, I say yes. Turns out that I have to submit an application and wait 3-5 business days for it to process and they still might deny it. Doesn't matter that I have been with this bank for over 10 years. Doesn't matter that my old limits were higher. The agent can now hear the annoyance in my voice and askes me if I would like to proceed with the application. I do. She takes the rest of the needed information and we end our call.

Bank to calling the bridal shop.

Turns out, I have all the way up to the day of my wedding to pay for the dress. Thanks for that pointless freak out earlier. I can make any amount of payment at any time. I end up paying for half the balance that day and setting a reminder to pay the rest the next week.

Who would have guessed trying to buy a dress would be the process it truly turned out to be. Fingers crossed there's no issues when it arrives.