Don’t buy a wedding dress that’s too small

When choosing a wedding dress, avoid buying a dress that’s a size or two smaller than what you would generally wear, as if you fail to loose the extra weight, it will cost you a lot more to add extra material to your gown than to have it removed. Don’t get into the mindset that if you a buy a smaller sized gown, you will become motivated and you will loose the desired weight, as it is just a gamble and an added stress that you don’t need.

Trash The Dress

Wedding dresses once worn are preserved and carefully looked after by the bride, right? Well that’s not always the case; many brides are now trashing their dresses. They are going to the beach rolling around in sand, waiting for a rainy day and lying in the mud or splattering themselves in paint. I’d love to hear your thoughts on this!

(photo source: http://www.bluenaluphotography.com)

Who pays for the bridesmaids gown?

After the initial excitement of being asked to be bridesmaid is over, then comes the inevitable question, do I need to pay for my own bridesmaid gown? The general answer is yes; when you accept to be bridesmaid you are expected to pay for your own gown. Once upon a time, the bride used to pay, but that is no longer the norm. However, bear in mind that this differs depending on what part of the world you are from. For example, in the USA and Australia the bride doesn’t pay, but in the UK most brides provide and pay for all the gowns.

When you start shopping around for gowns, it is a good idea to have a casual discussion about how much you can afford to spend on a dress. It’s not fair for the bride to pick out a lavish dress that will cost three weeks worth of pay if you cannot afford it. On the other hand, you should be realistic in your budget and set aside enough money for a nice dress that the bride would like.

You will find that if a bride has her heart set on bridesmaid gown that is over your limit, she will likely offer to pay the difference.

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.

“The Edible Bride”

Just had to share this photo I stumbled across on the internet. It’s a wedding dress made out of 1500 cream puffs! It was created by pastry cheff Valentyn Shtefano for his bride Viktoriya to wear to their wedding reception. Looks pretty stunning!

Source: source: http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/nationworld/2003302229_weddingcake13.html

Pick up cheap bridesmaid gowns

You can find discounted gowns for the bridesmaids to wear after the formal season has ended (usually around late November/December) Don’t think that these dresses are just for high school seniors, as they are not. The styles and sizes are accommodating .

Heirloom wedding veils

One way of cutting the cost of your wedding attire is to receive or borrow a veil or tiarra from a family member.

Have a look at old family wedding photographs and see if any of the veils worn by the women in your family would compliment your gown.

Politely and tactfully ask them if you could wear it. Chances are they will feel honoured that they have helped you on your day.

Save Money by Hiring Your Wedding Gown

One option to get a wedding dress for significantly cheaper is to hire your gown rather than buying one. The first thing you need to do, is to truthly consider whether this is the right option for you. If you have any strong notions of preserving your wedding gown for an heirloom, then obviously hiring a gown is not for you.

Another major consideration when hiring a gown is allowing yourself enough time to source and book a dress in advance. Obviously there are far less gowns available for rent than for sale, so you need to ensure that you have adequate time to find your ‘dream’ gown and more importantly that it is available on your wedding day

Many rental places can also provide you with packages that include all your wedding gown accessories, such as shoes, veils and jewellery. If you are renting the gown anyway, it is ideal to hire out the entire ensemble and the store would have matching accessories on hire.

As with any aspect of your wedding planning, ensure that you have thoroughly read the contract (and fine print) before signing. Make sure that you are familiar with the renting terms, such as when the dress will be available to you and any associated fees. Find out whether the gown cleaning fee is included in the price of the gown or whether you are expected to pay an additional fee for this. Make sure that you get a copy of the signed contract. If you and the rental outlet make any verbal amendments to the renting terms such as picking up the gown a day earlier than the usually store policy, make sure that this amendments is added to the contract. This is extremely important, as from the time that you make the verbal agreement, to the date of the gown pick-up, months could have passed and words can easily be forgotten and staff and management could have changed.

There are some cases when hiring a gown is not always the most financially beneficial option. You need to do all the sums. If you are comfortable wearing a used gown, you may even find that buying a second-hand dress could end up being value for money, as the gown would have had less usage out of it than a rental one and consequently would be in better shape.

At the end of the day, what’s important to remember, is that as a bride, there are plenty of choices available to you. Whether you decide to buy or hire your gown is a purely personal choice that only you can make.

Practice doing up your wedding bustle

Adding a wedding bustle to a dress can be tricky. At the dress fitting, if you can, take a picture of how it is supposed to look, as this can be very helpful for you to refer to on the day of your wedding. You may also like to get your mother or maid of honour to practice doing it up before the actual day of your wedding. Ideally, this person should attend the dress fittings with you. That way by the time your wedding day arrive, they should be experts at doing up a bustle.

“How much are you willing to spend?”

When you walk into a bridal store one of the questions the sales staff will ask you is how much you are willing to spend. It’s a good idea to never be entirely truthful about this. Give them a price that is roughly 10-20% lower than what you have budgeted to spend. Chances are they will naturally try to up sell to you anyway, so that by quoting a lower price, you will get suggestions for gowns that are in your actual price range anyway.

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