The dress shop that I got my wedding dress from also wouldn't let me take a picture until I put my down payment on it. It really sounds like you love the 2nd dress. I wasn't prepared to spend 1000.00 on my dress, but when you know it's the prefect dress, somehow you find a way to stretch your budget.. :-) Just look at it like this, if you get the 250.00 dress, are you always going to think "but that other dress was so pretty, I wish I would have spent the extra money on it" If you think this will happen then don't get the less expensive dress, or else a few months down the road you'll end up being a 2 dress bride.. :-)