I had a somewhat similar experience to another poster (separate thread) with my bridesmaid/MOH for my wedding over here to DH. First off, the person was really one of DH's friends over here to begin with, but only two of my friends were coming over for the wedding & only at the last moment -- so we thought it would be better to enlist the help of someone here.
It was just a strange experience...I don't remember if I offered to pay for the dress or not (now learning that for the MOH to pay for her own here is a faux pas but I didn't know that at the time & DH wasn't any help at all on what was tradition here). I would have paid, but I think she said she would buy it. Then she offered to actually buy my bridal gown as a wedding gift to us -- but Steve ended up paying her back for that. It was all very confusing anyway!
Thing is -- I could never get her pinned down to go around shopping for a bridesmaid dress -- she kept putting it off & rescheduling. So I was getting aggravated! We finally did go & picked out a simple beige satin formal at Monsoon -- but then she wanted to wait until the sales were on, ok fair enough, but it was getting pretty close to wedding time by then! So she got the dress on sale -- it had a small stain or something so she took it to the cleaners -- this is the week before the wedding, mind.
The week of the wedding she kept going into the cleaners to ask if they had the dress ready (starting when they said they would have it) -- every day, it was no - no - no. Then on Friday afternoon (the day before the wedding!), the cleaners gave it to her & it had bold BLACK stripes running across it, like something had damaged or got on it while they were cleaning it! And they assumed NO responsibility.
So she ran to TK Maxx on the morning of the wedding day & found something for like £15-20 cheap off the rack -- same color, but with beading & a little bit big on her, so she took it in with safety pins. It looked alright & all things considered -- it was perfectly fine!
Even so, I was really really glad when my friends from the US turned up, because until then -- it was really like Steve had two attendants (MOH plus his Best Man) & I had nobody. She was nice enough but she wasn't really there for me the way I would have liked my own friend to be there for me, if you know what I mean?
Later on, after we had married & all, then she was wanting to hang out with me some & I was kind of like 'meh'...one time, we were all supposed to go to a movie -- but it wasn't something I wanted to see really & I wasn't feeling that great, so I told Steve to just go without me (he went with her & her partner). The next day she called & gave me a right bollocking for not turning up when I said I would (although Steve had given my apologies)! I thought that was pretty cheeky, all things considered, and I wasn't keen on hanging out with her at all after that point.
(And another thing - retrospectively, I've often wondered if the dry cleaner story was even true! Because I don't think I ever saw the ruined dress. This person was not exactly the most honest person I've ever met. But if she didn't like the first dress -- she could have just said that. I don't think I'll ever know!)
