It's Friday And I'm In Love... Rent The Runway

My sister-in-law (you can check out her food blog here) and I hatched a scheme to go see the San Francisco Ballet perform The Nutcracker over the holidays. We planned an amazing adult evening; dinner, box seats, fancy cocktails, hotel rooms and babysitters.  I had a baby four months ago, and I really wanted something new that was going to make me feel great, but I didn't want to invest in something that I wouldn't wear again.

Rent The Runway offers designer dresses and accessories that you can borrow for a myriad of different occasions. You can choose between a four and eight day rental period and they will send you your dress in two sizes, just in case. I actually ended up wearing my back-up size so I recommend taking advantage of this feature. 

I rented a ML Monique L’Huillier Madame Damask dress in a 6L. I might have been a little over dressed for the ballet, but I felt great so who cares. I specifically picked a dress with a fit-and-flare silhouette in order to camouflage some after-baby body issues, and it has pockets! The dress was in great condition. It was a little longer than I'd anticipated, so don't get the long version if you are under 5’8’’.

My dresses arrived two days earlier then scheduled, which was great. They were delivered in a heavy navy blue garment bag with gold hardware that zipped into a handy tote. Inside the bag there were lots of mesh pockets, the return packing slip, and a cute little make-up bag and a travel sized mascara.

After the event, all I had to do was place the dresses back in the garment bag, zip it up, put the return slip in the pocket on the front and lock it. The lock that was supposed to be included with my bag was missing, but the FAQ section on the Rent The Runway website addressed the issue. Take it to your closest UPS drop-off by the deadline and your done.  A confirmation email will be sent when they have received your shipment. The whole thing was so easy, and I got to wear a dress that retails for several hundred dollars for a fraction of the price. There is a delivery fee and insurance on top of the rental fee so keep that in mind when your looking for a dress.

Rent the Runway is a wonderful service to keep in mind for all of your  holiday parties or the dreaded wedding season. You can rent several different looks for the price of one really nice dress.