I’ve recently been acting as one of my engaged friend’s wedding dress fashion consultant. Our first destination was Priscilla of Boston, which I was familiar with from bridesmaids dress shopping last year. They have tons of lovely, expensive gowns. And when you’re a tall size 0, like my friend, everything looks amazing on you. At PoB you get  your own large, nicely appointed fitting room and a personal attendant. We had to wait awhile for our salesperson, but they brought us water and generally treated us very well.

The next day we went to David’s Bridal. What a nightmare! Anything under $800 looks like total crap. I think you’d be much better off spending your money on an off the rack dress at Nordstrom or Macys. The experience was also pretty awful. There was 2 rows of dressing rooms on a raised platform in the middle of the store. The rooms were tiny and anyone with the bride how to mill around in the area between the dressing rooms to see. I will never go back there – but at least you can see the comparative quality of what you get at a cheapo place vs a boutique.

Here are my two favorites. The Solid asymmetrical ruched bandeau tank in Peacock – $88 and the Calais floral twist bandeau tank – $88.

But I made a happy discovery with this dress! It has a fabric belt that ties in the back. I plan on wearing a real belt with this dress so I can simply cut off the belt and sew them on as straps. Problem solved!

So I came across the Kenneth Cole Reaction Know How. They come in silver, cost $70, and look cute. They generally have good reviews that say they are comfortable. So the question is how high is the heel?

Well here is a break down of heel heights…
AZshoe.com – 2″
Shoes.com – 3.25″
Piperlime.com – 3″
Zappos.com – 4″
Shoemall.com – 2″
Lord & Taylor – 3.5″

One review for a site that listed them as over 3″ said that they were lower than that. Then on another site where itw as listed as 3″ someone said they were definitely 4″. The only thing I can figure is that perhaps there are 2 models with different heel heights but that doesn’t explain 6 sites showing 6 different heel heights.

Consistency would be nice. I guess ultimately I need to either order them from somewhere that offers free returns or find them in a B&M store.

We walked in and walked around. I checked out the new Forester. It’s way too big. I want a AWD wagon..not an SUV. So that was out.

I wanted to see an Outback but they didn’t have a showroom. So we asked a salesman and he took us out back to look at them. We took a 2.5 Limited out for a spin. It’s nice inside but lacking on of the things I really want…acceleration.

As I took a right turn up a slight hill I tried accelerating. Well I had the pedal to the metal and didn’t go anywhere. So that’s out. I talked to the salesmen and they do make turbos but he said they didn’t have any and they would be over $30k. If I’m going to spend that much I wouldn’t spend it on a Subaru.

Next stop was Audi of Bernardsville. I had an appointment to test drive an A4 Avant that had the options I wanted. Did a little drive that included a couple of miles on 287 and this the 2.0 Turbo definitely had some pickup. It was also really nice inside – black with beige leather. The electronic parking brake was a little weird. We talked to the salesman a bit and then headed to my aunt/grandmas and had lunch.

Then we headed to Fair Lawn to Jack Daniels Audi. That place was a mess. There were people everywhere and we had to wait over 30 minutes even though we had an appointment. The salesperson we dealt with was ok but overall seems like this dealer was a big hassle to work with. Anyway I’m at least glad to have some numbers from them to use to get better prices at other dealers.

PS This is the car I want. Although I think I may go try some other cars.

I think I’m going to get them in gunmetal.

There were several pieces definitely not made for anyone with a chest.

Here are some examples:

I also checked out the Subversive jewelry line and I liked a couple of things but I think they are overpriced so I’ll wait for them to go on clearance.

So the moral of the story is that if you see shoes on sale on endless.com, go check them on amazon. They might be even less. It’s just more of a risk if they don’t fit…although one of my more evil-minded friends suggested ordering from endless to make sure they fit then returning and ordering from amazon. That seems like a lot of work.

I came across this page which does a bit of a price comparison:

http://mikedelgaudio.com/wordpress/2006/12/28/pricing-showdown-for-self-publishing-photobooks/

I also came across this blog post which recommends certain service for certain type of jobs. Turns out iphoto and blurb use the same printers.

http://kk.org/cooltools/archives/001520.php

I had already pretty much decided to try blurb, but that sealed it. I might want to try Lulu someday since you create your own layouts and that’s really desirable sometimes. It would be great for people who want hard copies of their digital scrapbooks.