To the left is a picture of my four daughters, from left to right, Tess, KK, Maggie, ( the bride THIS time around), and Julia outside of Kleninfelds, NYC.

Klenifelds was decorated beautifully for Christmas.  You can see a few details behind the girls.  The small room immediately behind the them is the vestibule before opening  into the larger, grand waiting area – where you see the wreath hanging on the wall.

So…back to the dress experience.  It was a little anti-climatic.  After all the emotions surfacing from the sisters, and yes, MOM, we were all exhausted.

“Are you going to say yes, to the dress?” Our consultant queried.  I always counseled the girls: “If you’re hungry or tired, don’t make a decision – especially if it’s a big one.”  And with the Karnes girls, we are hungry all the time.   And this time we were tired too.

Maggie still on the fence. So she asked, “Can you take my measurements please, and I’ll call back this week with my decision?”  We were pretty sure we had a winner.

Our sweet young consultant became a horrified woman.  “Oh no!” she hissed.  “Kleinfelds does NOT operate that way!”

I was hungry too…”Look,” I said more harshly than I intended.  “We really think we have the dress picked out, but we’re exhausted,” (I left out the hungry part), “and it took us 5 hours to get here.” (A little exaggeration, but she didn’t have to know that). “And I’m not making a ten hour round trip just for measurements.”

“Wellllll,” she drew out the word.  “I’d have to ask my manager to make an exception.”
“OK,” I responded.

Long story a little shorter, they made the exception.

Maggie called Kleinfelds a few days later with her choice, and negotiated an 18% discount.  She’s not my daughter for nuttin’…  I know, 18% is an odd number.  When she was negotiating, the initial response was, “Kleinfelds does NOT operate that way.”  Well…apparently they do.  And 18% of the price of a gown is substantial.