Once Upon A Time (Dress)....

Where better a place to wear a dress that calls for a Halloween themed setting?! 

A short time ago I received a message on Instagram from a follower by  the handle @lovelyinlilacofficial , she had a proposition for me, in exchange for being seen, posting to Instagram and tagging her I would receive an incentive to make a purchase. Now this is not the norm, usually sponsors send me their products to try out, shoot with, review and promote, but I took a look at what Lovely in Lilac has to offer and I decided that I would agree to move forward...especially after chatting with the woman behind the company. All it took was a few exchanges back and forth and I knew that I wanted to be a part of what turns out to be the very begging of a new venture within the retro clothing world. 

Within the back and forth conversation I decided that I wanted to do more than just share a photo on Instagram and a tag, but I wanted to tell a story with the chosen dress and more so I wanted to tell the story of how Lovely In Lilac came to be, where it is now and where it is going to be headed in the very near future. Lovely in Lilac's social media presence is run by @lovelyinlavender on Instagram. She runs all the day to day operations and social media promotions. The company/shop was formed with two of her dear friends that she has had since high school, both being social media shy but of important talents to a clothing company, or any small business of any type; one is an arts major in collage and the other is attending business school and are involved with website design and graphics, and they have helped develop the business plan model for the business now known as Lovely in Lilac. 

I asked "Lavender" as I shall call her for the rest of this post, to tell me a little more back ground about Lovely in Lilac.... " I came up with the idea one night while we were all together (I have always had an obsession with quirky dresses) , and asked them for their help... I also agreed to take care of the social media needs since they are social media shy, it has been such a fun experience so far.  This northern California based company, founded earlier this year is still in the soft launch phase, and they are currently featuring "unique statement" printed dresses from companies such as Folter ( which the dress I am wearing is from), Retroliscious ( which has their own website, and social media presence as well as supplying smaller companies through wholesale) , and Voodoo Vixen. LIL has started out with a small stock of designs and offerings and has for now been seasonal, mainly Halloween for obvious reasons, but they are phasing out those prints, again for obvious reasons. They try to keep all sizes and styles in stock and ready for shipment within 48 hours of an order, but some sadly do sell out and are on back order which is out of their control, but they do their best to keep the website up to date. There is exciting things on the horizon for this small business, " in January we will expand to unique accessories and statement purses.... we are also working on the launch of our own house brand dress line, which is almost done with the design phase with the production phase starting this month!" I asked Lavender to expand on what is in the future for LIL, " We are also currently looking for more dress companies that carry the type and style of dresses similar to the style of dress we are going for, with a main focus of trying to stay with 'made in the U.S.A. " I then asked her to tell me about their customer service practices as that is a major thing with me, if customer service is lacking I often will stop shopping with a company no matter how good a product is, and expressing that "Lavender" did her best to fill me in on their policies and goals.... "We want the customer's experience to be an enjoyable one, that is one reason we try to work with them on every level through out the whole process....one way we add to the experience is that we gift wrap all our outgoing orders.  " In reading through their policies and in chatting with "Lavender", they offer exchanges if something is not as the customer expected or if the fit is not quite right, but if that is not what the customer desires then they will happily offer a refund upon the return of the full order in original shipped condition; pretty standard, and you can read the fine details on their web site or email them with any further questions. So what about shipping ? That is always a decision maker when considering online shopping.... " Shipping is free for any order over 100.00 or a flat rate of 7.50 within the United States; we also offer international shipping and it is 20.00." 

This my friends is the "Once Upon A Time Dress" ....

Now let me fill you in, before I share the mini photo shoot I did for a small Halloween slide show that I shared that day, on my thoughts on the process and the dress. First off, "Lavender" really helped me with size, fit and even to directing me to a style that would suit me, alleviating any fears I had from trying a new to me brand. My choice did indeed ship within 48 hours and I received it very quickly, mainly because I only live a 2 hour drive from their home base, but also because of the speedy rate of my dress being sent out. The dress was indeed wrapped up like a present to myself, always a nice and appreciated touch. I tried it on immediately in case an exchange was needed and it fit like a glove, and was even more stunning in person than it had appeared on the website. I could hardly wait to wear it out and about, but wait I did as I had an event that was coming up the weekend before Halloween and I knew it would be perfect for it. So with no further wait, here are the photos from the day that I got to wear it. A little disclaimer first tho, it was windy, chilly and my husband and myself were nearly in a car wreck on the freeway, not once, but twice due to a motor home looking to change lanes and not caring or seeing that we were there and in bumper to bumper traffic, so the stress from a panic attack shows all over my face, so bad timing, but LOOK at the dress, that is the real star of the photos...and be sure you check out Lovely in Lilac, follow them on Instagram AND at the bottom of this post look for a discount code !! 

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