Last week, I had my first Rent the Runway experience for a friend’s wedding in St. Louis. Believe it or not, this was my first EVER adult wedding, and since the venue was much cooler than your normal wedding – Busch Stadium! – I was lost on what to wear.
Thanks to the wonderful world of social media – not to mention we were celebrating our first friend from college to walk down the aisle – I knew the pictures from this wedding would be around forever! I wanted to wear something fancy & fun, but I also wanted to be comfortable for what would be a long night of dancing … after all, I did write, “I promise to dance if you play … Jack & Diane!” on my RSVP card.
Since I am all about discount shopping – and hate the idea of spending a ton of money on a dress that I may only wear once – I figured this was the perfect time to try Rent the Runway.
The first thing I noticed about RTR was how easy it was to navigate their website. They have SO many dresses that I could literally spend my entire day online shopping, and although that sounds like the greatest Sunday afternoon ever, it’s not necessary thanks to the world’s greatest search filters. The filters are much like any other online shop – size, color, brand. But what I LOVED was the body type filter. If you’re not the kind of girl who walks into a store and fits perfectly into the first dress you try-on, then this is for you. You are able to filter by multiple, specific body types. I chose hourglass and full bust. Being a gal with a fuller bust, there is nothing worse than loving a dress from the front, only to see that it is completely backless. Yes, sticky boobs are a thing, but not for me. I’ve tried, and there is no way I could comfortably wear a business in the front, party in the back kind of dress, so I appreciated the fact that the dresses filtered for me would actually looked good on me. What a concept!
I filtered the “Dresses” section by: Wedding {occasions}, Size 10, Full Bust & Hourglass {body type}, and Less than $100. RTR had over 1300 dresses for me to choose from! After only two pages I spotted this blue, lace Slate & Willow dress. It was $40 for a four-day rental, plus the 20% discount I got for being a firs time user – I was sold. I also requested that they send me the dress in a size 12, too, just in case the size 10 didn’t work … and guess what? This extra perk is fo’free! Even though I ended up wearing my original size, it was nice to have the option, because there was no way I was making it to the mall on Friday.
Lastly, I opted to purchase the year-long Rent the Runway PRO membership for $30, which includes one year of free shipping and insurance, plus a free birthday dress!
Rather than having the dress shipped to my house, I decided to pick up in-store because it’s not far from my office. This is an option for shoppers in Chicago, Las Vegas, NYC {two locations}, Topanga, and D.C. Nothing to worry about if you’re not in one of these cities, because you can always have your dress shipped to your house! AKA no one around to judge if you want to try on your dress with a glass of wine and slippers!!!
Lastly, the return. I’m a paranoid freak, who was so worried that I would somehow forget to return the dress or it would be difficult to return for some reason, but NO. Just zip up the bag that your dress shipped in, throw in the return shipping label, and wallah! Since my return date was on a Sunday {I picked up Thursday evening}, I had until Monday at noon to have my dress postmarked at a UPS store or dropped off in a UPS drop box. Just like that, I was good to go. No dry cleaning or laundry necessary … my kind of outfit!
I’m happy to report that the wedding – and my RTR experience – was an absolute success. Hope you were able to check out some of the fun on my Instagram Story!
Cheers to Kara and Steve for planning an amazing day. It pains this Cubs fan to admit, but Busch Stadium was rocking on Saturday night!
Have you ever tried RTR? Tell me about your experience in the comments below!
xAlex
P.S. Spot anything different in the last photo?
Heck yes I changed into comfy heels for the reception!