buying wedding dress from china-honest opinions needed

usedandabused

my neice saw a lovely champgane gown, custom made only for £120 including pand p


now i read a horror story earlier, but we can't afford a similar dress in the uk , this dress honestly looks like a million bucks but on the cheap.


first of i'm screwed as i have no bank account, closed everything down, got bad credit so can't get an account, but a friend has agreed to paypal the funds and i give her cash.

is it worth getting a gown from abroad i.e china?
most of our clothes come from there anyway right?

Emma1988

I went to my local bridal shop, and she actually showed me a dress that someone had ordered online which is thought would be the same as the real thing. The girl was in tears, and the shops actually tried to take out the creases for her, even tho they werent getting any money! The fabric was died incorrectly, the material was shockingly poor, there was no structure to the dress at all.
Have you tried a sample sale? Some of the dress have never been tried on and often only need a couple of beads sewing back on etc which can be done at the dress makers simply.

Thats just me, others may have heard of good experiences, but tbh i think it will be a waste of money and your niece would probably look better in a simple dress from BHS

Hope your niece finds her dream dress and some of the other girls can give you more advice

xx

joho

If £100ish is your budget, why not look at Debenhams or Monsoon instead? I know they're not gowns as such, but some of the ones in Debenhams in particular are lovely. I believe John Lewis also have a bridal range too.

ETA: or such preloved, ebay etc for a previously worn (or not) dress. Can you give us details of it or a similar one for people to look for for you?

talulahbeige_2

Wouldn't touch one with a barge pole.

I scond Joho's suggestions

usedandabused

I think i'll advise her to steer clear, she really wants a champagne coloures mermaid style dress, but i've got to be realistic, on our budget £150 max on a dress.

our whole total for the wedding is 1500, it will truely be frugal!!!!

Sammy85_2

You will get a stunning dress on ebay for £150. :-)

Maysie

Which dress is it? Can we have a link?
What is the feedback like?
Is it low or high?
Are the buyers low feedback and gush how wonderful their dress was?
If it takes weeks to be made then you are out of buyer protection if there is a problems. You only have 45 days to open a dispute.

I personally would not risk it.

I found a dress i really loved that was new with tags in the UK. It was 5% of its original price.

If you think the Ebay route is for you then you need to get ebay savy.

First filter out any non uk This is on the left hand side half way down the page somewhere. Watch out for a huge seller on ebay that says its in the uk. They totally spam the uk sales and nothing is ready made you have to wait for it to be made abroad. I can usually spot them as they have a small blur on their pictures.

If you bid on a dress then leave it to the last few seconds. The more bids something gets with longer to go the more desirable it becomes to others and end price is higher.

Some sellers have never sold anything and they start with a wedding dress. Unfortunately for them but lucky for buyers this is what you have to look for. You can usually pick them out by their title something like "wedding dress" no size, no brand, no colour/shade/ no material. If you spend the time reading the details.

Dire pictures don't often do dresses justice see if the brand name and style is on google images.

Look at what type of things the sellers has bought and sold before are they the type to try and shift some really awful copy as an original?

Don't get blinded by the rrp in a listing people lie unfortunately.

Ask questions most decent sellers are happy to talk and explain.

Ask if the stitching is perfect and if there are any marks at all on it even if they don't' show when worn.

Look at the boning carefully on the pictures. Has the previous bride bent it out of shape does it look like its bowing?

blakey2b

I dont think i could ever order one from china. Though i have bought a dress off ebay from a reputable uk seller and loved it, though i sold it on (for a profit!) as it didnt quite fit.

Monsoon do lovely dresses or a friend of mine her sil got hers from some outlet warehouse in sheffield (she's going to let me know the name of the place soon) they have tons of dresses, alot designer all for under 1000 so there's going to be so many gorgeous bargains there. Also look for sample sales. If you sign up to somewhere like hitched they let you know where the sales are and when. hth

magicgirl

the dress in the pic is not the same as what you receive. they use the pics from designers and then make something similar. the only company that does their own and advertises as their own is a bit more expensive and you will not get what you are looking for in that price range. you are better off looking somewhere like coast or monsoon for the style of dress and they often do similar style colours. if you find you have a few more pennies, have it customised with beading etc by a local tailors.

shellsuit

I would never have ordered one from China ~ I'd rather have a 2nd hand proper gown from eBay!

gandy

to be honest i had definitely thought i would order my wedding dress from china but when it came to trying on dresses i'd started to change my mind and started looking for second hand dresses of the maggie sottero dress i fell in love with.

i got really lucky however as one of the bridal shops had my dress, my size and the colour i wanted brand new (not even out of the plastic) for £300 less than it's original price.

i got my dress because the girl that ordered it in had cancelled her wedding and just wanted enough money to be able to pay off what she hadn't paid.

it was more than i'd planned to pay but i've got a brand new dress for much less than it's original price and a very happy bride to be!

if i hadn't found it i would have probably gone second hand or sample sale, i've read some great stories about getting dresses from china but recently the quality seems to have gone down and there's more horror stories about.

you could risk it and get a great dress but honestly do you want to have to possibly pay even more for a second dress if the first one just doesn't turn out right.

the alternative is the high street there are tons of fab dresses out there that certainly don't look like they've come from high street stores.