Etsy Wedding Dress Shops... Best and/or Worst!?!

Knottie14295600

Hello ladies!

I am currently looking at wedding dress options for my budget wedding, and have come to the conclusion that my best bet for a beautiful and affordable wedding dress may be online. I have been scouring etsy looking at wedding dresses, but there are just so many store options. I am looking for anyone who has had experience with wedding dress shopping on etsy, and would love to hear your recommendations! Plus, if you did buy a dress that you loved/hated online, please post pictures!!

Thank you for the help,
Autumn

missdelilah

Have you tried looking in stores that sell off the rack?  Often these shops have sample dresses for sale at huge discounts.  The bonus in this is that you can see the exact dress you'll be buying before committing to it.  I'd be incredibly wary of buying anything so important online unless the seller is based in your country and has a great returns policy.  

Otherwise there are budget friendly designers, and entire budget friendly boutiques.  The ladies here are great at recommending these.  If you're comfortable sharing your budget, I'm sure someone will be able to help you find something.  I'm told that http://bestbridalprices.com, http://pearlsplace.com, and http://netbride-wedding.com are all good for competitive pricing on new dresses.

There are also sites such as http://tradesy.com and http://preownedweddingdresses.com that sell second hand and sample dresses at quite affordable prices.  

I hope some of this was helpful.

blabla89

Beware of wedding dresses on Etsy, especially from sellers that aren't in the US. I'm sure there are some legit sellers who make nice wedding dresses, but from what I've seen there are a lot of knockoffs. These may look great in the pictures, but often what you get is very different and poorly made. Bottom line: if it looks to good to be true, it probably is.

cowgirl8238

I have to echo the PP's here.  I think your best bet is to go into a store and either buy off the rack or go amsple/pre-owned.  This way you know excatly what the dress will look like.  I know many people on the boards will tell you that the dress may look great on the model, but looked completely differenet on them. 

In general wedding dresses from most online retails are cheap knock-offs. 

lovesclimbing

I did not buy my dress on Etsy, but I did buy it online.

I ordered my dress from simplybridal.com.  It came in and looked beautiful!  It was a bit too big but I expected this considering I had not tried it on before ordering and didn't have them make it to my exact measurements: I simply bought it in a regular size according to their sizing chart.  However, I had a wonderful seamstress lined up who did an amazing job for a very reasonable price.

 

These are the alterations I had done after I got the dress

-Hemmed

-Bustled

-Took it up in the shoulders because the arm holes were a bit big.

-Took it in at the waist

-Yanked the stitching on the waistband to remove a pucker

-Stitched the lace at the neckline together a tiny bit because the neckline was a tad low for my taste.

 

They are not the most high quality made dresses in the world but my dress looked absolutely beautiful.  The satin was heavy and felt really nice.  It did not feel cheap.  I definitely feel that I got a good quality product for the price I paid, about $225. 

 

I was dissatisfied with the waistband.  The way it was stitched down caused puckers.  However, my seamstress was able to rip the stitching so that it was only stitched down on the top rather than on both the top and the bottom and ironed it flat.  It looked lovely!

 

I have no regrets and definitely recommend Simply Bridal to any bride.

Yes, they do make them in China but they are not one of those Chinese knock off sites.  All the dresses are their own design.  Unlike knock-off sites which only let you return them if they made a mistake, Simply Bridal lets you return the dress within 30 days if you don't like it for some reason and they are US based.  They have offices in the US.

I don't have any pictures of me in the dress that I can post right now, but here is the link to the one I purchased. http://www.simplybridal.com/shop/felicia-gown

[Deleted User]

I tend to echo PPs as well, mostly because the thought of buying a dress without trying it on first makes me panic.  I'm hard to fit, and the dress I ended up with was absolutely not what I thought I would fall in love with.

That said, I think it depends in part on what kind of dress you want.  My sister got married in May, and we had really good luck buying both her dress and the bridesmaid dresses on Etsy.  She found dressmakers whose work she liked, then contacted them to see if they'd do a bulk order for the BMs (there were 7 of us).  We sent in our measurements in January, got the dresses at the end of April, wedding was at the end of May.  They fit just fine and were beautifully made.  Her dress was from Ieie Bridal--she sent them a picture of what she wanted, and they replicated it perfectly. She was in constant communication with both Ieie and whoever it was that did the BM dresses.

Both her dress and the BM dresses for her wedding were fairly simple--no beading, simple shapes, light fabrics.  I would think that the more complicated the look you want, the more panicked to be about buying custom-made online that you won't see until it's done.

jay788

What I and a friend of mine also did was use Etsy to search for local dressmakers. Then we were able to go try on dresses in person and meet the designers before buying.

This turned out to be less expensive than a lot of wedding dresses, but it's probably not as cheap as you are picturing. We both did this mainly because we wanted something a little different  than what is ordinarily seen.