Designer wedding dresses - I want one!

Alibear

Hi everyone, I just thought I'd try and tap into the wealth of knowledge on these boards - hope no one minds!

I've absolutely fallen in love with a wedding dress. It's by Amanda Wakeley so as you can imaging it's ridiculously expensive. I was just wondering if anyone knew of any ways I could get the price down? I know of the Sell My Wedding Dress website and will keep checking eBay, but do you know of any other websites outlet stores (I don't mind where, am willing to travel!) I could find it?

I'm quite recently engaged and not really the wedding fair type; infact the thought of them scare the living daylights out of me!

Any advice much appreciated!

SkintGypsy

My advice, keep looking. I paid fortunes for mine, it was by Caroline Castigliana, and I regretted it afterwards. I could have bought so many gorgeous dresses for under a thousand and I really didn't feel that the dress was worth the money in the end. No idea how you can get your dress cheaper, but don't close your mind to other options just yet. It is just one day afterall, albeit a special one!

rozmister

My cousin got hers made through ebay somehow by people in China. She found her ideal dress in a shop, took a photo and got it made abroad. It cost like 20% of it's English price and was fitted to her body. But I think it involves sweatshops or at least a very low wage for the dress maker...

Lara44

I went shopping in December and found lots of shops were having sample sales. I got a dress reduced from £1000 to £400 :money: Although these might have been dresses that were being discontinued...

Stephb1986_2

Preloved is another site you could look at,

pop onto the wedding board the ladies there might be able to help you a bit more

Steph xx

NickyBat

I second ebay. there are few in china - some good some not so good but if you join the likes of youandyourwedding.co.uk, loads of girls on there will tell you which are the good copies and which aren't.
I too paid over a £1000 for my dress and although it was lovely its now upstairs in a bag doing nothing!!

hngrymummy

I couldn't get my 'ideal' dress as the waiting time was 8 months and we only had 5 and a half. Turns out that it wasn't my ideal dress after all. I went into a shop in Bristol and got an ex-display dress with 1/3rd off, and they cleaned it for me free of charge. It was gorgeous, and far nicer than my 'ideal' dress.

A friend of mine got herself a designer dress from an Oxfam wedding shop for peanuts, and the sister of another friend has just opened a second-hand wedding dress shop in Ireland. They have new and hardly worn designer dresses in there. So just keep a look out for other options.

RedBern

I'm involved with a social enterprise and we sell vintage clothing. We've got a few wedding dresses - and recently someone came in and tried one on - she looked absolutely fantastic in it - but sadly had spent a 4 figure sum the day before buying her 'dream' dress.......

ellay864

Be careful of the China sites...some of them are cheap for a reason! Not to say they're all bad but just be careful. Take Syeph's advice...come pay us a visit over on the wedding board, we're a friendly bunch and you will get no end of really helpful advice. And if you say whereabouts you are I bet somebody will know of a good samples or sale shop near you
http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/forumdisplay.php?f=142

seafarers_wife

i wouldnt do it, my friend just got married and spent 4.5K on a joyce young (i think) bespoke dress and coat. it was beautiful dont get me wrong, but now a few months later and she is having to borrow money from her grandparents to pay her bills, that makes me think that she could have had something just as nice for half the cost.

barbiedoll

Get as many pictures/photos of the dress that you can and then find a good wedding dress seamstress who will be able to make you a copy that will fit you perfectly, at a fraction of the cost. Very MSE!