Southern Belle in Training

Fashion, Travel & Lifestyle Blog || Est. 2012 || Virginia Beach, VA

August 7, 2015

My Dress Dilemma + $5 for YOU!

     I hope the title of this post caught your attention! This post definitely makes me happy because it's the perfect definition of a win-win situation (goodness do I love that word!). I'm sharing the story about how another blogger helped me out with a huge favor, AND I'm helping y'all out by sharing about a great new app (that came in handy for said favor) and this app can give all of you $5!! Who doesn't love $5 and a good story?! Let's get started then!





     So sorority recruitment for my chapter of Alpha Delta Pi is quickly approaching for next month. For the different nights of recruitment, the girls in my chapter wear different colored or color-themed outfits. This year, the sisters who are in charge of recruitment decided to switch things up a bit from what we did last year, and one of the nights we are doing sundresses in a few different bright pastel shades. I was assigned to buy a dress in the shade of blue pictured below:




    Easy peasy I thought. I actually started dress shopping during a few nights of down time during my study abroad trip to France so that I could get a head start on things! One night while abroad, I found the absolute perfect dress for recruitment in a spot-on shade of blue that matched the swatch above! And the best part- it was on clearance! I'm not going to disclose the name of the retailer that I found this dress on, but it was a favorite online retailer of mine. Of course I ordered the dress right away, I couldn't wait to see it when I got home from France!

     But sadly- upon arriving home and opening the package, I didn't even get a chance to try on the dress because the first thing that I noticed is that the retailer had sent me a defective dress! The dress had kind of criss crossing straps in the front, and there was a very noticeable and prominent stain that it arrived with right smack on the front of the criss cross. Despite it being on sale- NO THANK-YOU! So back in the mail it quickly went. But the bad news was that during the time that I'd been traveling, the retailer had sold out of that dress (and all other dresses in this color blue).


    I didn't think that it would be too hard to find another dress somewhere online in this color.... but good grief I was wrong! I must have searched just about every online clothing retailer that I could think of (and more!), and I couldn't find anything! The dress I needed had to be that shade of blue in the swatch above, pin attire appropriate for my sorority (meaning nothing strapless and not too much cleavage showing), a PLAIN dress with no other colors or patterns on it, and hopefully nothing too expensive. The websites below are all great places to find dresses at- but I was just striking out for the qualifications of what I needed! Here are some places that I tried though:

*Nordstrom (during the NSale)
*Macy's
*Dillard's
*Lord & Taylor
*Forever 21
*Zappos

     ..... and many, many other smaller online boutiques and retailers! And still I kept coming up blank. I started to regret returning the stained dress!

     Then I decided to reach out to the members of the Millennial Blogger Network (the amazing blogging group that I helped co-found a few months ago!). Amazingly, one of the bloggers in the network, Brittany from Southern Soul, had a dress in my size and the correct shade of blue that she was willing to sell to me! And it met pin attire standards! I couldn't believe my luck.

     The only problem was that Brittany lives across the country from me! I needed a way to pay her ASAP for shipping so that I could get the dress quickly. I wanted to be able to try it on as soon as possible in the even that it didn't fit, so that I could resume my difficult search! I knew that Paypal was an option for sending money, but sometimes transactions (even on the Friends and Family choice) can take a few days to process.


     Enter a brand new app, Square Cash, to the rescue of my dress dilemma! Square Cash is a totally free app that links to your bank account through your debit card, and allows you to send money to friends and family instantly, and for no fees! So free to download, and free to make transactions- what what! And everything happens instantly- not more waiting around for things to process like what can happen with Paypal sometimes! (Square Cash does have a business transaction option that they do take commission from if you need to use it for those reasons, but all friends and family transactions are always free, all the time!). And here's the best part- anytime after you've downloaded the app and you get a friend or family member to sign up for Square Cash with your referral code, you both get $5 sent to your bank account! A totally free $5! How amazing is this sounding?!


     I told Brittany that I would like to pay for my dress's shipping through Square Cash, and I texted her my referral code so she could download the app. Literally in less than 10 minutes, our whole transaction was done! From East Coast to West Coast, the money had already been sent and delivered, and each of our $5 were getting ready to be on our way to our bank accounts within the next few business days (my $5 arrived two days ago!).

    Here's a screenshot of Brittany and I's texts during the whole thing which shows you how easy Square Cash made the whole process:





     I know that after this experience I'm sure of two things: a.) I'm even more thankful for the Millennial Blogger Network than I was before- because not only are there awesome blogging benefits to being apart of such a great group of ladies, but now a fellow MBN blogger has totally helped me out with sorority recruitment as well! And b.) I'm a huge fan of Square Cash! An app that pays me to pay people back instantly?! Love it. Be sure to check out Square Cash for their latest updates on Facebook and on Twitter!


     xoxo Miss ALK


     This post was sponsored by Square Cash and Her Campus Media. Thank-you for supporting the brands that support Southern Belle in Training! 
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20 comments

  1. Such a cute dress!
    Also, I love apps like this -- so easy to use.

    xoxo, Jenny || Breakfast at Lillys

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  2. Ahh, that's so unfortunate about the defective dress- i love deals, but they're so iffy sometimes! ): I understand how difficult finding the perfect shade of dress is- a friend of mine is in our college branch of Alpha Phi and I had to help her find an exact lavender dress, it was way more difficult than I thought!

    Courtney // As We Stumble Along

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  3. SO good to know! Sorority events can be so stressful to dress for sometimes, and posting in the Millennial Bloggers group was a great idea!

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  4. I just discovered Venmo last weekend during a girls trip and am amazed that apps like this even exist! I must be stuck in the stone age haha I'm so glad that you got your dress and I'm sure it will look gorgeous on you!

    Great post!

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  5. Oh my gosh it's so great it worked out and you were able to buy Brittany's dress. I've had issues finding recruitment dresses in the past too...it's hard to find the colors you need sometimes!

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  6. Recruitment shopping is crazy! Glad your dress situation worked out! I'm a huge fan of Venmo personally.

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  7. Seriously what a cool app! And SO glad to hear you found a dress in that shade - I'm sure recruitment this year will be a blast!!

    Pick Your Beau

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  8. Fun app and great dress!! Also FRANCE! I love love love France! I am fluent in French and now I really want to go back!

    Nicole // Chronicles of Home

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  9. So glad it all worked out! Also, SquareCash sounds great - even better than PayPal because of "No fees"!
    xx, Mikkaela
    The Southwestern Prepster

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  10. I've heard so many similar problems from my friends trying to find the proper color dresses. That's so amazing though that such a wonderful community could help you out! :)

    Cassie
    My Pop of Color

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  11. It's so disappointing when you find a dress that you think is THE ONE and something goes wrong! Thank goodness for Brittany though. I love how technology makes it so easy to do this kind of stuff now and I'm sure the dress will look lovely on you :)

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  12. They sent you a stained dress?!?! What the heck! That is so not cool! Cheers to finally ending up with a perfect one, though. (: You're gonna kill it!

    Coming Up Roses

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  13. I remember you posting about this dilemma in the group! I'm so glad that you were able to find one -- I can't imagine the stress you were under (I would've been in tears) I hope yall have a great recruitment and get lots of great new girls!

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  14. So glad Brittany was able to find you the perfect dress! I would have freaked out after opening that defective dress. That's so horrible! One of my best friends is an ADPi too - just a random tidbit :)

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  15. I loveee Square Cash! My boyfriend and I use it so much since we share expenses. It definitely makes life easier :)

    XX, SS || A Little Seersucker Sass

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  16. Aww so happy your dilemma was resolved. Brittany definitely deserves an award for saving the day :)

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  17. Oh man! I remember the days of trying to find the perfect shades for recruitment dresses. I'm glad you found one!

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  18. Never heard of SquareCash but this seems like a much quicker and easier way to send cash than through Paypal (which can get annoying, especially with their monthly limits to send to your bank account ugh!).. thanks for sharing, Annaliese!

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    Replies
    1. ALSO, go MBN for being so awesome! We have such a great group of girls :)

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  19. I need to try Square Cash! I hate how long PayPal can take sometimes (it's taken me sometimes a week to deposit funds into my bank account!) and this looks like a way better option. So happy you were able to get a new dress, I'm surprised it was that difficult to track that shade of blue down!

    xo, Alicia | Alicia Tenise

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