Should I Buy My Wedding Gown on eBay?

I often get emails from soon-to-be brides asking me all sorts of wedding questions. One of the most reoccurring questions is whether or not one should buy a wedding dress from eBay. Let me just start right off by saying there is no right or wrong answer to this question. To help you make up your own mind, we will go through some pros and cons on whether buying a wedding dress on eBay is a viable option and let you make up your own mind.

Reasons For Buying a Wedding Gown on eBay
Wedding dresses are one of those things that go down in value as soon as you buy it. For that reason, it makes sense that a second hand gown will cost considerably less

Wedding outlets buy their gowns for significantly cheaper than its retail price via Chinese wholesalers. Some of these wholesalers sell their gowns direct to the public via eBay. So if you play your cards right, you could end up with a designer gown for considerably less than you would find in a bridal store.

Last year bride Hannah Kovacs spent a mere $180 on a wedding gown, that includes postage and insurance from a manufacturer on eBay. The same dress retails for $1500 in Australia. (source: Poll finds ‘average’ wedding costs $49,000

Reasons Against Buying a Wedding Gown on eBay
You will find some eBay sellers are actually based in China selling gowns through the auction website. They custom make dresses to the bride’s measurements. Although many brides have reported successes with using Chinese based eBay sellers, it can be difficult to address problems if complications occur. It’s one of those situations where if everything goes according to plan, you may end up with a good outcome. However, if the dress ends up differently to what you wanted, you may run into problems sorting it out in due time due to shipping times and language barriers.

Fake wedding gowns are rampant on eBay. Be wary if you find someone selling a designer wedding gown and offering to make it for you in any colour and size. Do your research. It’s probably a fake.

Things To Consider
If you do decide to buy a dress on eBay, use the following pointers to ensure you have a smooth transaction.

Ask to see the wedding gown from all angles. It’s no point just seeing the front of the gown if you don’t know the back looks like.

Ask what alterations have already been made to the dress.

Ask if the photograph is a current one of the dress, or if it is merely a display product image. This is an important one. If a wedding gown isn’t looked after, the quality of it may deteriorate. So you want to make sure that the seller is using current photographs to represent the gown.
On the other hand, if the seller is a manufacturer, they may be using a stock product image and could actually be selling an imitation dress. Ask to see photographs of specific detail on the dress.

Read through the sellers feedback rating to learn about other buyers experience with the seller. Through the feedback you can also learn how a seller deals with negative feedback, such as offering exchanges or refunds.

Pay with PayPal as this way you will have better protection if anything goes wrong.

Always contact the seller via the eBay website and never personal emails. If any disputes occur, eBay will have a record of all correspondence.

Rock the Reception Wedding Dance

Ok so regular readers will know how much we love wedding dances. We just love seeing newlyweds having fun at their reception. After all, planning a wedding is hard work, so a wedding reception is a perfect opportunity to throw on those dancing shoes and celebrate!

The following video is a few years old, but it is one of the more polished dance videos, in terms of editing and dancing. It’s also a great follow-up to our previous post Can A Bridesmaid Dress Be Black? The bridesmaids dresses in this video were black and it really worked. I especially like the little splashes of white ribbon and trimming on the gowns.

A new take on wedding invitations

The design of your wedding invitation doesn’t have to stick to the norm.  Online greeting card and wedding stationery website Moonpig have some interesting takes on the typical invitation.   The magazine layout design is a fun way to visually depict the happy couple.  As a bonus it’s also a good way for people who have never met the wedding couple, such as partners, to familiarise themselves with the bride and groom.

Prices range from 5.95 for a standard invitation or you can buy sets of 4 small cards for $12

Happy Boxing Day

Ahh it’s that time of year again – BOXING DAY! For the brave, it can be a time to pick up some significant savings. We’ve mentioned it a couple of days ago, but thought we would drop a reminder. If you are hitting the sales, keep an eye out for things that you may need for your wedding , especially if it is a DIY wedding. Things like tablecloths, general table decorations and centrepieces supplies and wedding favours can be found reduced.

http://www.lasoo.com.au/ is a good catalogue website. However, ensure that you write a list and stick to it and if you are an impulse shopper, bring someone along who can talk sense into you!