Installing OSX after failed HDD

Hi,
My (WD 1TB) replacement HDD on my early 2009 17" MBP stopped working and the apple store confirmed the HDD is broken by trying it in a case.
I've ordered a replacement HDD, screwdrivers and an external case for it so I can use another working mac to format it.
How do I go about getting lion back on it? I don't have my snow leopard disk as I'm across an ocean from where I bought it. My gf has a mac on snow leopard but without the disk and too old to upgrade to lion. Will the mac store do this despite it not being their issue (the failed hard drive wasn't their product)? If not should I try to find someone with lion to make me a boot CD or won't this work? Will the apple store be able to sell me a snow leopard cd so I can get lion back through the app store?