How much was your dream dress?

Mrs_B_to_be

I've just paid a deposit on my £2000 dream handmade, designed for me dress! Got a £250 veil thrown in for free as my wedding is out of 'wedding season'

saintly_2

had every intention of trying a dress on and then getting a copy from china, didnt work out like that and fell in love with a dress designed by the couple who owned the bridal shop. £650 including a tiara however once id tried it on there was no going back, ive trimmed the budget back in other places to get this dress, the good thing is i can pay however much i want weekly / monthly so i get to keep going back into the shop to see it :-)

wxy

White_Sapphire wrote: »

Me too! I'm trying to keep my entire outfit, including all accessories andunderwear, to £250, so will bepayinga visit to the Birmingham rag market in a few weeks for somebargain hunting

wxy, your dress, and your bridesmaid's dress, are stunning! I'm feelinga bit behind now, asI'm still working on the toile for mine, and the bridesmaid's dress is yet to be started (beingmade by lovely Mum, that one!) :eek:

White Sapphire - it's great to see someone else making their dresses also! it's such a big project... do you have a blog that I could follow? which pattern are you using (or are you drafting it yourself :T)?

One place that I found that was good for bridal fabric (and other fabric) was Shepherds bush in london - there are a number of competitively priced fabric shops. I managed to get 10 metres of really good silk dupion, 12 metres of silk organza for about £250 (the pattern that I'm using eats fabric!)

White_Sapphire

wxy wrote: »

White Sapphire - it's great to see someone else making their dresses also! it's such a big project... do you have a blog that I could follow? which pattern are you using (or are you drafting it yourself :T)?

One place that I found that was good for bridal fabric (and other fabric) was Shepherds bush in london - there are a number of competitively priced fabric shops. I managed to get 10 metres of really good silk dupion, 12 metres of silk organza for about £250 (the pattern that I'm using eats fabric!)

Thanks for the info on Shepherd's Bush; I'll take a trip there if I can't find what I need in Birmingham. You got an absolute bargain for 22metres of fabric!! I reckon mine should only take around 10 metres including lining, so hoping to get the fabric for as close to £100 as I can get; it's heartening to see someone else manage to find silk for around £10 a metre :money:

I'm working from a pattern, but altering it quite a lot. The pattern is this one:
http://voguepatterns.mccall.com/filebin/images/product_images/Full/V2965.jpg
I'm changing it to have the cowl at the back (and higher up the back than on the pattern), with a V-neck front. The train will be an integral part of the dress as well, instead of a detachable piece. I'm yet to work out how to hold the train out of the way after the photos; I don't want it hooked over my wrist, and bustling it at the back would spoil the look. I'll find some way of hooking it out of the way in a nice, draping kind of way...
I don't have a blog, but I've uploaded all the progress photos to photobucket if you want to have a look: http://photobucket.com/whitesapphire81
The password is Sep2012
It starts with the most recent photos and goes backwards; as you can see I have epic amounts of work still to do! :eek::eek: Really really enjoying it though, and can't wait to wear the finished result!

x

MsShopper

ashley2812 wrote: »

I have been reading through the thread and the old thread, and this is aimed at anybody who bought their dress from ebay - from a china seller who make the dresses to order - some people say they were really happy with the dress and yet don't ID of the seller they bought their dress from.
Can you help the rest of us out and post the sellers ID and whether you would recommend or not recommend them? Perhaps with a picture of the dress recieved?

Thankyou all!!

Money saving newbie

I ordered my dress from a UK eBay bridal seller after lots of research - contacting their past buyers; getting fabric samples and photos of the beads being used. The seller is MKM Bridal and this is my dress (£250, but I paid a bit more to 'upgrade' some of the beading).

However, later I worked out (more online research) that the dress was most likely from Milly Bridal, a Chinese company. This sent me into a bit of a tizz, having heard the horror stories of knock-off dresses from China!

Then I found the dress being sold elsewhere with real-life reviews (and pics) here, here, and here. So that gave me some reassurance.

Anyway, my dress arrived at my Dad's house last week (two months after ordering) and I have to say it is really gorgeous and very well made. It's fully lined and boned, and the beading detail is exquisite. I didn't take pics, sorry (was paranoid about my OH seeing them on my phone) but will do in a few weeks when I next visit family.

There is a 'but', however. I also asked MKM to have a bolero made out of the same lace. They did, but - unlike the dress - the fit/cut was not great. So I will have to get a seamstress friend of mine to alter it.

Sorry about the length of this post, but I suppose the point I'm making is that the China route can work out - though do lots of research.

That said, there are other low-cost options. During my 'tizz' phase, I did a lot of searching online and found that some bridal shops sell sample dresses on eBay. This one was my bargainous Plan B, and if the one I got wasn't so lovely, I'd have snapped this up instead!

wxy

White_Sapphire wrote: »

Thanks for the info on Shepherd's Bush; I'll take a trip there if I can't find what I need in Birmingham. You got an absolute bargain for 22metres of fabric!! I reckon mine should only take around 10 metres including lining, so hoping to get the fabric for as close to £100 as I can get; it's heartening to see someone else manage to find silk for around £10 a metre :money:

I'm working from a pattern, but altering it quite a lot. The pattern is this one:
http://voguepatterns.mccall.com/filebin/images/product_images/Full/V2965.jpg
I'm changing it to have the cowl at the back (and higher up the back than on the pattern), with a V-neck front. The train will be an integral part of the dress as well, instead of a detachable piece. I'm yet to work out how to hold the train out of the way after the photos; I don't want it hooked over my wrist, and bustling it at the back would spoil the look. I'll find some way of hooking it out of the way in a nice, draping kind of way...
I don't have a blog, but I've uploaded all the progress photos to photobucket if you want to have a look: http://photobucket.com/whitesapphire81
The password is Sep2012
It starts with the most recent photos and goes backwards; as you can see I have epic amounts of work still to do! :eek::eek: Really really enjoying it though, and can't wait to wear the finished result!

x

First of all, I LOVE all the progress photos! your toile is looking great! much better than my first toile (I had to make 2 you see...)

I know what you mean about the train - my dress is princess seamed so there's no obvious horizontal line to bustle it. As I still have about 3 metres of silk (both dupion and organza) left (well.. unless I mess something up...)and IF I have time, I may make a dress for the evening...we'll see！

I think I managed to get cheap fabric partially due to my bulk buying. If you see the Watercolour CDD on my blog http://smoonbeam.blogspot.com/2011/09/watercolour-cdd.html, the fabric I used for that only cost me 50p!!!

White_Sapphire

wxy wrote: »

First of all, I LOVE all the progress photos! your toile is looking great! much better than my first toile (I had to make 2 you see...)

I know what you mean about the train - my dress is princess seamed so there's no obvious horizontal line to bustle it. As I still have about 3 metres of silk (both dupion and organza) left (well.. unless I mess something up...)and IF I have time, I may make a dress for the evening...we'll see！

I think I managed to get cheap fabric partially due to my bulk buying. If you see the Watercolour CDD on my blog http://smoonbeam.blogspot.com/2011/09/watercolour-cdd.html, the fabric I used for that only cost me 50p!!!

Thank you! I will make another toile after I've finished tweaking the first one, to make sure it's right before I cut into proper fabric. I'm really pleased with the overall shape of it, although the finished dress won't hang like that cos the toile is quite a stiff calico which makes the skirt look A-line, and the look I'm going for is draped and slinky.

There's no way I'll have time to make a second dress, and actually I'll probably want to wear my dress for as long as humanly possible on the day, so I was thinking of doing something like pinning it to the side to create a drape from my hip. Lots of experimentation ahead! :T

That Watercolour CDD dress is gorgeous - I can't believe you got the fabric for 50p! That's inspired me to pick up little bits of fabric from bargain bins whenever I can, now! :money:

lisajane8482

ashley2812 wrote: »

I have been reading through the thread and the old thread, and this is aimed at anybody who bought their dress from ebay - from a china seller who make the dresses to order - some people say they were really happy with the dress and yet don't ID of the seller they bought their dress from.

ashley2812 wrote: »

Can you help the rest of us out and post the sellers ID and whether you would recommend or not recommend them? Perhaps with a picture of the dress recieved?

Thankyou all!!

Money saving newbie

I bought mine from the Ebay seller silk_story.

The picture on the listing showed Alfred Angelo style 1136, the dress that I got is well made but different from the picture. It is base on the same style but uses pearls and sequins instead of crystal and sequins.

Although it is not the same as the AA 1136 I absolutely love it and can’t wait to wear it.

I have pictures on this thread:

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/838383

I took some more yesterday as the original photos do not do it justice, unfortunately though I have had it put in a box and didn’t want to unpack it so I just unfolded the top and train to show the detailing.

MentalMinnie

I'm bothered about going to buy my dress. I'm currently a size 20-22, so i just know it's going to be a nightmare. I'm actually dreading it

wanchai_2

Hve you tried any on yet? xxx