When dithering can disappoint.

I just read this tale of woe in the You and Your Wedding forum.

"Ok, so I have loads of time because am not getting married till Feb but me and h2b (husband to be) don't have huge amounts of time so when I thought I'd found the perfect bridesmaid dresses, me and the girls were all set to buy them, we were just waiting for my pay day (today) and went to order them online from little woods and the sizes 12 and 14 are gone which is the sizes of my maids!!!!!!!! Gutted."

Evidently they were the perfect dresses as the colour was the Cadbury purple shade. Needless to say, the bride-to-be will be disappointed unless she can find something else.

I've seen this happen on many occasions especially with fabric. I sit with a client for hours deciding on various shades to be narrowed down to one. A few weeks pass and the client eventually comes back and places their order for the fabric or shade she had decided on a few weeks earlier. Guess what? The shade is now unavailable, out of stock at the suppliers or discontinued due to a seasonal stock change. Aaggggghhhhh!!!!

A green taffeta prom dress I have just completed had this same incident. Back in May, a client came to me. "Can you make this dress?" She wanted a specific shade of taffeta so I sent out for samples and once they came in, I forwarded them on to her. Even though a decision on the colour had been made, she hadn't passed on her deposit. I asked the customer if she would like me to proceed which she did and after a few more weeks I was able to eventually order the said shade. Regrettably, due to her delay, the fabric was out of stock and not due back in until the end of June, a week AFTER the client's event. So, without panicking the client, I rang several suppliers asking if they had this specific shade of green. Luckily and after two weeks of phone calls and swatch requests one did, but at an extra cost per meter because she had to order it in. (Her contact in Italy had gone bust and was selling off their stock)

Sadly, there isn't always a happy ending and after weeks of sourcing a certain shade of red for a current client, it has proved impossible. The fabric was a winter shade stock and won't be available until..well..the winter. The client marries in December 2009.

So, if there is something specific that will fit in with your vision and make your day complete, don't dither or else you could very well find yourself settling for something else.