Monday, February 11, 2013

I Rented The Runway

A few months ago, my Birch Box included "$25 off" a rental from Rent The Runway.  I had been wanting to try this awesome site for a while and the combination of a formal event coming up and the coupon pushed me over the edge.  The concept of Rent the Runway is brilliant - you can rent dresses for formal events, weddings, girls nights out, etc, wear them once and return them.  Let's be honest, we don't really wear these formal dresses over and over again and the prices are usually ridiculous, so renting at a fraction of the price is really the way to go.  The customer service I received was out of this world, and I will for sure use the service again.  Here is how it went down:

Back in early January I scoped out the website (you do have to "sign up" to see the dresses, but they really don't spam you all the time) and picked out the Badgley Mischka Flora Chiffon Gown.  For me the most helpful part of the website were the past customer reviews.  Girls who had previously rented the dress uploaded their picture along with their: height, weight, bra size, typical dress size and any comments.  This was so helpful because you could see real people in the dress, look for some one that was similar to your height, weight, and build, how smart is that?  It made me feel so much better about the sizing.
The price tag for rental was $125 and for that price you get the dress delivered in 2 sizes (side note for an additional $25 you can get a 3rd size of the same dress, or a completely different dress all together, so cool!).  You get to keep the rental for 4 days, so since my event was on Saturday I scheduled delivery for Friday, and was told to return the dress on Monday in their prepostage-paid envelope.  I used my $25 off coupon, thanks Birch Box, paid my bill and patiently waited for the event.....

Fast forward 5 weeks and on Friday when I got home from work the box was sitting on the porch.
I was so excited, I carefully opened the box
and inside was the $900 dress I had rented for $125, in 2 sizes!  The dresses were freshly dry cleaned and came with a little sample size of moisturizing bronzing lotion and some fabric tape.  After trying on the dresses, complete with hubs wrestling a tough zipper, and realizing I needed to wear the tallest 5 inch heels I own to keep the dress from dragging, I was so satisfied with my purchase rental and began getting super excited for the next day.
Here is the finished product, it was like prom, getting dressed up and taking a photo on the porch...The event was a great success, we had a great time, and I have literally never gotten as many compliments on a dress as I did on Saturday.  Like I said this particular dress was quite long, but I am all of 5"3 so this is a problem I am used to dealing with.  The condition of the dress was great, and you would never know that it was a rental by looking at it.

Yesterday I folded up the dress tucked it into the pre-postage paid envelope that came along with the dresses and dropped it off at the post office - so easy!
I loved Rent the Runway!  The dresses selections are great.  The customer service is amazing, they are so responsive, I love their "live chat with a stylist' to discuss sizing.  The prices make it possible for me to wear couture that I could never normally afford.  And the process is so easy!  I totally recommend it!  Let me know if you have any questions!
Sincerely Loving Food and Fancy Dresses,
Lainey
PS - I was not compensated in any way for this review, I just had an awesome experience I wanted to share!



Wednesday, February 6, 2013

LOVE

LOVE - It's the 3rd word in the title of this blog, a short name I call the hubs, and the reason justification for eating 14 pounds pieces of chocolate on the 14th of this month.  Any kind of love: love of others, love for pets, romantic love, friendly love, supportive love I am excited about celebrating all of them in the next week.  It always surprises me the number of people who hate on Valentine's.  Whenever I hear people say they hate Valentine's I think - wow, how original.  Especially the people who say, "I show my _(insert gf/bf/spouse/whomever here)___ I love her everyday, I don't need to do something special on the 14th."  Well you know what, I love Jesus everyday, but I celebrate Christmas, just like I love hubs everyday and we still celebrate Valentine's.  I just don't get that, maybe because I am a half full kind of person, but I love celebrating, anything really, and this month I am celebrating love.  Here is what I have done or am planning for the next little while 

I put this cute printable up on my hutch
I found it on pinterest, and now I can't find the original, but there are tons of others that are similiar.
 
I'm planning on making these cookies next week for myself hubs
 
 
 And I'm gonna do something cool for my friends, but I can't tell you because you might read it...
 
All of this to say, you can do whatever you want on February 14th, stay home, alone, drinking 3 bottles of wine and watching WWE or you can  take a bath and read trashy magazines, or you can go out to dinner with friends and special people and order more dessert than you need, or you can eat only the fudge filled candies out of the box and leave the lemon ones for others, really whatever you want.  But me, I'm celebrating love and the people I love.  It makes me happy and I hope it makes them happy as well!  I'll be a lover not a hater.  So please don't hate on me for loving on love.
Sincerely Loving,
Lainey