Tuesday, February 14, 2017

Happy Valentine's Day with Dolly and Dotty!


Happy Happy Valentine's Day, my little peanuts!



Whether you're happily single, married, in a committed relationship, #foreveralone, engaged, or somewhere in-between, I hope you have a lovely day full of candy hearts, boxes of chocolate, and punny valentines.


When I started planning my Valentine's Day posts for February, I knew I wanted to feature something special for the actual holiday. Of course, this decision happened JUST as I also decided to scale back and stop spending frivolously.


Then I received an email from Katie at Dolly and Dotty and it was as if she read my mind! Katie introduced me to their Katherine swing dress and I knew I found my Valentine's Day dress! With her quarter-length sleeves, luscious dark fabric, bright and bold floral print, and mock wrap-style neckline, this dress is just gorgeous and lovely all around.

Funny story about this brooch - the gals at my Jazzercise class found out about my retro style and this blog and one gal, Pam, brought me all kinds of gorgeous vintage brooches! Isn't she the sweetest?

I will admit I was a bit nervous opting for the Katherine. You all know me and my struggle with sleeves - these chubby uppers don't just fit into any sleeve! Historically, it has been very hard to find a dress with sleeves and have it fit well - the sleeves are tight or they don't fit properly and limit my arm movement to the point where I can't lift them over my head.


When I received my Katherine dress, I tried her on right away, holding my breath. I may have crossed my fingers and toes. And I was relieved...sort of. For the most part, it was a great fit. The sleeves fit pretty well, a tiny bit snug but I can move my arms in them and they're not super restrictive. That helps tremendously and because of the bit of stretch, it's not a totally uncomfortable snug-ness.


The "sort of" came into play when I saw the dress had a side zipper. What the whaaaat? I hate side zippers. They're usually the devil. They're even more so, though, when the dress has sleeves. Needless to say, it was a bit of a squeeze getting it on because of that (and even more of a squeeze getting it off!) but I could tell it fit wonderfully once I was successful and had it on. It was quite flattering, actually!


Then I had to zip it. Well, I just couldn't. Not because it was too tight - no, it was just that the top of this dress has two layers (mock wrap-style, remember?) and it is just so thick around the zipper, I just couldn't get the zipper to move. If the zipper was better quality, I'd probably have no problem. I had to enlist in the help of Cody, who was able to pull it up for me.


Upon letting Katie know about my troubles, it was discovered that some of the Katherine dresses had a zipper error and weren't correctly done - including mine! Regardless, Dolly and Dotty pulled any dresses that had flaws and made sure only correct ones remained listed on their website. Katie offered to send me a different dress, but since I was able to get the dress zipped with some help and I wouldn't get a new dress in time for this post, we agreed to simply work again when the summer line was completed.


I am not sharing the above to bash Dolly and Dotty or turn you away from them. In fact, I share the above to do the opposite! If I hadn't been honest with Katie and told her my struggle with the dress - who knows when they would have found out about the flawed dresses? I am just glad I was able to assist and now the dresses are on the site and ready to meet their new owners.


I am always pleased with the service Dolly and Dotty provide and this experience was no exception. Katie was so kind and went above and beyond to solve the issue! This speaks volume about a company's reputation and commitment to taking care of their customers.

The Katherine dress was sent to me by Dolly and Dotty in exchange for my honest thoughts and opinions.