Cheap wedding dress - impossible?

TBagpuss

Depending on where you live, Oxfam have dedicated wedding shops - if you are willing to consider a pre-worn dress. http://www.oxfam.org.uk/shop/local-shops/oxfam-bridal-departments

We looked when my sister was planning her wedding. She ended up not buying one there as she found a dress she loved at a different shop (it was an 'ex display' one from a bridal shop, so again, much cheaper than most.

If you find something which fits on top you can then find someone who does alternations to make it fit the rest of you

RachRubyD

As others mentioned ASOS is really good for wedding type dresses. H&M also especially when they have their more expensive lines in and also debenhams like phase 8 and so on. I really love Adrianna Papell dresses they around £100-£300 mark and really nice think john lewis and house of fraser do them.

How about something like this look gorgeous on the beach. Not exactly extreme pale pastels. I imagine the lilac or blush be nice on olive skin tones. http://www.johnlewis.com/adrianna-papell-wedding-front-ruffle-gown/p1875411?colour=Light%20Heather

Can I also say ignore the john lewis models they make the dresses look awful, seen them in real life and Laura Whitmore wore one for the bafta's that was just stunning. They have an offical website that shows the dresses better.

Also suggest Shopstyle can put designers, colours etc and finds all the prices from different stores. If you sign up you can do a sale alert and get an email when the item you like goes on sale.

I'd just get a normal seamstress to alter it, if it's not a full on wedding dress I imagine wouldn't take as long. I know wedding seamstresses have said it can take 6 weeks to alter a wedding dress.

UnlikelyButTrue

I bought mine (brand-new, unworn, with tags) for £50 from a specialist bridal department of my local hospice's charity shop.
hey had been given a load of donations from a bridal shop closing down and had at least 100 dresses if not more.
Some were very wedding-y, others just special occasion-type. Mine was £1,570 so I was pretty pleased as that is the budget for the whole wedding!
With my £12.50 tiara (another charity shop find that turned out to be the Downton-Abbey-tiara-maker) which should have been around £400 I'm pretty happy in my £62.50's worth!

ibizafan_2

I bought mine from Debenhams in one of their sales a few months ago. I wanted a certain lace style with no train and the dress was perfect. I spent £50 on having it taken in at the waist, which brought the price back up to the pre sale price which was still under £200. I also loved some of the Monsoon dresses, but Debenhams offered more choice and were generally better value. The quality is excellent, and I feel that I have got a real bargain!

lika_86

Have you tried sites for women with boobs? This dress is pretty http://www.saintbustier.com/blush-dress.html

hamsterfan1

where are you? I went wedding dress dhopping with DD in weston-super-mare & there is a charity shop with some lovely wedding dresses, In ht ened though she bought one from a shop selling discounted dresses so it may be worth checking local stores for one of these

SaLoGo

I'm having the opposite problem, I have a brand new wedding dress that I can't get rid of! Tried all the sites mentioned with no luck

smart_cookie

Thank you to everyone for your help and sorry for disappearing - I was busy implementing your suggestions!

I think based on your advice, the wedding shop route is not for me. I did try a couple last weekend and I got snooty looks as well as comments about leaving things too late to buy a dress so I thanked them for their time and walked out! :mad:

Unfortunately, I refuse to buy from Amazon due to some issues with my account which I won't bore you with, so they're off the list.

Tried BHS and Monson but their sizing was very off for my body shape. In Coast and Monsoon, I needed a 16 on top (even that was snug!), which swamped the rest of me! A friend whose mum is a dressmaker said it would be very tricky to alter such a huge size difference and not ruin the dress as a lot of them had detailing at the waist. Unfortunately said mum does not have capacity to take on a custom dress for me at the moment.

I couldn't find any wedding outlet stores near me (South Yorkshire) sadly. If anyone knows of any please let me know?

Tried Asos - bought loads and ended up returning everything as nothing fit well on arrival! I love online shopping but it is a pain when you can't see what you're buying. Still keeping a look out and changed my internal search criteria to 'nice dress' rather than 'nice white dress' as I'm not fussed about white but then I'm having the same issue again where I see things I like but they seem 'too casual', probably because casual is my standard style! I know, I'm getting a bit loopy now

Tried Oxfam too but there wasn't much choice and not to sound horrible but I really wanted a new dress for the occasion. I don't often dress up or spend a huge amount on one item so I kind of wanted to splash out. No disrespect at all to those who have gone down the second hand route.

Tried Adrianna Papell on in store but decided after trying many dresses that the long and beaded look is not for me.

The 50s style short dress idea really appealed to me so I have found an online shop who is sending out swatches as we speak. I think it might be The One! It's also not ivory, which I think is more 'me'! -:j

Thank you to all for your help! I am hoping it will all be sorted soon!

smart_cookie

SaLoGo wrote: »

I'm having the opposite problem, I have a brand new wedding dress that I can't get rid of! Tried all the sites mentioned with no luck

Have you tried preloved? There were lots on there when I looked!

cashewnut

Have you tried charity shops in your area? Was in Clacton today (miles from you unfortunately) and their Sense shop had about eight new with tags wedding dresses...one or two seasons ago Monsoon by the looks of it, in a variety of sizes.