A few months ago, I had my own personal experience of choosing a wardrobe for anniversary photos with my handsome hubby. We were celebrating our 18th Anniversary–whoop, whoop, and I wanted something elegant, classic, long, and flowy.  Jewel tones look best on this girl, so I decided to look for a rich blue. I also helped knew that I was looking for something with an empire waist to compliment my hourglass body type and something sleeveless.  Knowing all of these basic essentials ahead of time definitely helped to narrow down my search and time spent in the dressing room.  While I love, love, love JC Penney, the brand that helped pay my way through college, I couldn’t seem to find what I was looking for.

So I decided to ditch dressing rooms altogether and take my dress hunt online. I was no stranger to Rent the Runway, but I always thought my first rental with them would be for one of my personal, artistic photo projects.

Can I just tell you that looking through their online catalog of designer dresses for something that “I” would wear was exhilarating!  I mean their designer lineup includes a few of my favorites like Jason Wu, Marchesa Notte,  Badgley Mischka, and ML Monique Lhuillier.

With a few quick selections of color, size, formality, length, and sleeve style–I found, the one–the Corundum Sapphire Gown!  A gorgeous cobalt blue gown by Badgley Mischka was exactly what I was looking for.

Placing my order was super simple, and my only worries were sticking to a diet of water and ice cubes for a week to ensure that I would be able to zip that size 10.  I’m not kidding–I drank a lot of water that week, but it was beyond worth it!

Because of a shipping delay with the carrier my dress didn’t arrive on time, but the Rent the Runway customer service department was phenomenal in getting another dressed shipped out to me.

I knew that we were going to have an amazing time being photographed my friend, Abbey Domond Photography, but wearing a gorgeous gown made the experience even more incredible.  My dress arrived in a beautiful garment bag, cleaned, and ready to wear.  I even got to keep the hanger!

Rent the Runway is the perfect place to start when looking for something to wear for your anniversary or engagement pictures.  If you are considering RTR, here are my top 5 tips for a great Rent the Runway experience:

1. Select and order your dress at least a month before you need it. I knew the dress that I wanted to wear as soon as I saw it, but because it was so gorgeous many other ladies had the same dress idea. Take my advice and order early.
2. Have your dress shipped as many days in advance as you possibly can before you need to wear it just in case there is a shipment delay from the carrier.  I can’t stress this one enough.  Thankfully, we were able to schedule another date for our anniversary pictures.  
3. Order a backup size or a back up dress.  If you don’t have the flexibility to change the engagement for which you need the dress, say a wedding, be sure to get an extra size and/or an additional dress.  
4. Read the helpful reviews, and look at the pictures taken by those who’ve worn the dress you’re considering.  This helped tremendously especially when selecting a size.  Some dresses run small and vice versa.
5. Make sure you take a lot of pictures of your fabulous self wearing an amazing dress.

I will never forget this day!  I love this man, and I’m so happy that we have beautiful photos celebrating our love together to hang in our home.  I will be sharing a post soon of how we decided to display our photos.

Have a wonderful day!

-xo, Shawon

 

Disclaimer: This review is 100% from my own personal experience.  I was not paid or asked to say these nice things about Rent the Runway.