A waited a few days after my last post to think about my options and see if I heard from anyone else. The woman from Portugal didn't respond and I didn't want to chase her. If it took her days to respond to an email, I could imagine the whole process would be like pulling teeth.
I asked Lena in England more questions about costs and fabrics. It was possible for her to make me something less expensive than Marina in NY, but if the pound jumped up and then if I added shipping costs on top of labor and materials, it could come out about the same. However, I decided to go with her anyway. I didn't contact the woman in Utah again. I didn't want another conversation of me saying, "I'm sorry, I'm not interested," and then having her send me ten text messages about why I need to have one of her dresses for X amount off..."such a great deal!" No thanks. Lena was open about all costs of the project (labor & materials) and Marina offered me different price options to choose from. Neither of them pressured me into anything...probably because they have some regular work? I'm not sure. I sent Marina an email thanking her, saying I chose a different route this time, but would like to keep her in mind for the future. She was very cheerful: "Thank you! No problem! :)" And that was it. Perfect.
One important lesson I learned while doing this is that just because you have a beginning design, it doesn't mean you will end up with it. Lena and I went back and forth on design. I kept asking questions and changing my mind, while she sent me photos of other work she's done that resembled my ideas. Here's one example: I wanted a fringe dress and when I sent her a photo, she expressed doubts that it would work, because fringe is heavy and it probably wouldn't hold up the way the picture showed. I knew she was right...the old fringe dress I had was heavy. So I searched and searched for other dress ideas. I would send her something else and we would talk about it. She would send me more photos and I would take a few days to think about her ideas. I was so tired of making decisions. I was ready to pay whatever to have her decide and be done with it. Then I finally found something I could be happy with. It was basic, but classy and it had the potential for several different stone designs. I sent it to Lena and she said she could make it.
Mariana from Portugal finally emailed me back and said she would send me sketches. I wrote to her saying, "Thanks for getting back to me, but because I wasn't sure I'd hear from you, I went with someone else." She was disappointed but understood. I guess she had some shipments come in that were keeping her busy. However, if you don't respond to customers and at least let them know you are busy, they *will* move on. Back to my dress...
Lena chatted with Ibrahim and me on Skype yesterday. We had a tape measure and Ibrahim performed all the measurements in front of the computer so she could see. The conversation was mostly between her and Ibrahim, but sometimes me as well...a hodgepodge of English and Russian. It turns out I was almost the exact size as Lena's daughter, so she could use her mannequin and Sasha as a model. Lena asked about stoning and I told her I needed more time; I had no idea. She said I had about four weeks to think about it. Good enough. When we hung up, I was incredibly relieved. The dress was mostly out of my hands now.
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