online wedding dresses - recommendations

Emerald Lass

Hi all,
I'm thinking of buying my dress online. I'm going to visit a few shops first and try things on to be sure that what Ihave in my head will suit. but after that I am seriously considering the online route due to the savings to be had.

I've seen a few sites mentioned on here, but what I really need to know is are they any good?

If anyone who has actually used any of these sites could give the site name, and a quick outline of the service and how the dress turned out that would be great. also if you had a photo of the dress a bonus - obviously some dresses are easier to make than others, so I'm sure that factors into how some people were happy with the dress and others not.

So to all you past brides out there, can you help?

The wedding will be this April or May (short notice I know) and this is also my reason for wanting to know if the online sites are any good and what the service and delivery are like.

MILLIONS of thanks in advance!

E

sillysocks

Hey.... congrats on the wedding!
From the sounds of what you're saying you're talking about online copies of dresses? Well I've gone down both the copy and 'real' dress route online.

First I ordered a dress on eBay - cost I think 80 eur inc postage so reckoned it was worth a try..... the dress was too short though but detailling etc was quite good on it - esp for the money. Obviously material etc isn't as good as the dresses you try on in bridal shops. If you are really on a budget and going for a relatively plain dress then might be worth a chance. Dress did take 3-4 months to get though.

Then after trying on dresses in shops here, I ordered one from www.jaysbridal.com - couldn't recommend it enough. I had tried the dress here so knew exactly what I wanted and they were an authorised retailler by the designer so went with it. Dress is _identical_ to the one in the shop here and definitely authentic. They have a handy online chat thing too that saves you ringing america with any questions you have.
When I asked about my dress they said the designer had one in stock in her warehouse so it was shipped to me within about 2 weeks of ordering and I had it about another week or two later. That probably depends on whether the dress you want is in stock or not at the time though. Total saving was 1,100 eur compared to the price here - amazing.

Emerald Lass

thanks for the reply sillysocks. I'm not really sure whether to go the 'copy' route or alternative supplier route. That is why I am asking of peoples experiences. Like you said, at €80 its worth a try and even if, like yours, it didn't fit, I'm sure someone would buy it for what you paid.

I have found a dress I like - not sure if it'll suit me though, so once I get to Dublin next month I will find a stockist and try it on. I have seen it on ebay for £250 - just one, not through a shop, and a genuine dress, not a copy. I know this dress is over €1000 in the shops - so if its still available and suits me then I'll go for it. But if that doesn't work out I am considering the copy/alternative stockist route.

I'll be honest - its not cos I'm being scabby that I don't want to pay retail, or that I have a tight budget, but more that when you see the mark up some places charge i just can;t justify paying thousands more than I need to - would much rather spend that money on my honeymoon or something! lol

do you mind me asking, how long did the second dress take to arrive and if its not too cheeky (I know you might not want to give out the price of the dress online) but when you say you saved over €1000 does that mean that the dress was in the hundreds online or was it still an expensive dress even with the €1000 off (if you know what I mean?)

In addition to the dress on ebay, there are 4 others that I like, and none of them is coming in at over €500. now that I have that figure in my head, when I see something for €1,500 (my original budget) I think its too dear!

sillysocks

Yeah i would def recommend trying on the dresses you like before you think of ordering - firstly because you'd be surprised at what you think might suit wont, and vice versa, and secondly because in the majority of dresses I've seen the dresses are totaly different in 'real life'. If you are going to bridal shops make sure and ask the person serving if they think any would be nice and keep an open mind - I had passed mine by on the rail but the woman in shopped picked it after me trying on loads and I loved it. In most shops they're very experienced and will have a good eye!

Now back to copy vs original ...... well to be honest if I was in your shoes (and could fit it into budget) I'd prob go down the real route. Main reasoning is that you know what you're getting, whereas with a copy you aren't sure until you get it and with such a short timeframe it'd probably be too late to change/get another dress before the wedding. I chanced it because I was ordering a year before the wedding so had plenty of time if something wasn't right.

My dress was Sophia Tolli - she has some fab dresses by the way if you're lookin for somewhere to start - and it was 1700 here and I paid 600 in the states. Massive savings and I love it ! Another difference I didnt mention before is that the copies dont have as much boning or support as the real dresses - if you've any lumps and bumps you want the dress to hide the boning is great!

Yeah I hear what you're saying about 1700 eur and dearer dresses but try on lots of things and the majority of dresses can be got in the States, I think the two main ones that can't are Maggie Sottero (they wont ship outside america) and Pronovias so probaly no point in looking at those and falling for a dress that will be too dear! The way I looked at it was I'm sure our guests woudl appreciate an extra drink or nicer food than me flogging a load of extra money at a dress - esp when I could get the exact same one cheaper elsewhere.

If you were open to second hand you'd prob get a brill deal as well - a lot of them are in excellent condition and if you look at the buy and sell section of somewhere like weddingsonline.ie there are always loads of people trying to sell.

Emerald Lass

sillysocks wrote: »

If you were open to second hand you'd prob get a brill deal as well - a lot of them are in excellent condition and if you look at the buy and sell section of somewhere like weddingsonline.ie there are always loads of people trying to sell.

TBH I am open to anywhere I can get the dress I love - I am not snobbish about where it comes from, I'm more concerned about loving my dress and feeling fantastic in it on the day. Where it comes from is incidental (and if I can save over a grand inthe process, well then, need I say more???? )

sillysocks

Well best thing is probably to go try on dresses in a few shops and pick out a few you like, shapes etc, and you can decide between online or 2nd hand then!
You will def get them way cheaper than in bridal shps either way - just make sure not to fall too much in love with one in a bridal shop

BroomBurner

HI Emeraldlass,

Congrats on your engagement!

I bought my dress online from shopofbrides.com. They have a picture database of literally hundreds (maybe thousands) of dresses. You just pick the one you want and send them your details. They have a good form for filling out all your measurements, but I would get your measurements taken by a dress maker. I didn't, and added a couple of inches here and there in case the dress would be too small but ended up having to get it altered here (my fault).

The dress I chose was on sale in Ireland for €1800, got a quote to have it hand-made for €2300 and bought it on the above website for a little over €200. The materials used were really good quality aswell. The dress was satin and the lovely woman (in Ireland) that did my alterations said that the satin was extremely high quality.

In terms of delivery, they were really excellent aswell. They answered all of my email queries quickly and they delivered within the time they said they would (about 3 months). They gvie you a package number too so you can track where your dress is as it makes it's way to Ireland.

As for original versus name-brand, noone will ever know the difference, noone will care, and you will only wear it for one day, so what's the point in wasting a lot of money when you can get the same thing cheaper?! That's my POV anyway!

Emerald Lass

broomburner wrote:

As for original versus name-brand, noone will ever know the difference, noone will care, and you will only wear it for one day,

I'm feelin ya and agree totally - but that was part of my worry - if the 'copy' dress is a crap copy or poor quality or fit then it will be quite obvious and people will know! myself being the worst critic. That is why I have no problem with a copy as long as it is well made.

And the lucky thing is I actùally will get to wear mine more than once - there will be another 'wedding' in Turkey at a later stage! yipee!

sillysocks

Emerald Lass another thing I thought of was I remember seeing on weddingsonline.ie that they were planning a day in January where they'd hire out somewhere and all past brides would go with anythign they had to sell from their wedding , dresses etc - might be worth posting there to see if they decided on that - you'd get to try on all the dresses and might pick up other stuff too.