My Replica Dress *pics* :)

tdmaus

Hello ladies…
a few months ago, I went to Demetrios Bridal store and fell in love with a dress there. The original price was about $1400. I was debating with my FI if I should buy it – but in the end, I couldn’t justify spending $1400 on a dress that I’m going to wear for one day – while my FI is only maybe spending $200 on his tuxedo rent… We’re paying for our own wedding, so I don’t want to spend that much money on a single dress. Now that I have my replica dress from bigdaydress.com - I have to say: I loooooooooove my dress!! They used the same satin material like the original dress that I tried on in the store… totally loving it! It’s maybe 1 size bigger though, but that’s easy to fix – better than not fitting in the dress at all, right? My FI measured me that day, so the sizing could also be our mistake.

I know, the majority of the ladies on The Knot are against replica dresses, but I figured, some ladies are in the same situation like I am, so I want to share my dress story and  hopefully it will help some other ladies on the board with their decision and dress hunt: 

1. I tried on the original dress in the store. Therefore, I knew how it would look and fit on my body and how the material felt like, etc…
2. I also checked out discount websites like recycle bride, oncewed, etc…but what are the chances of having them sell the same dress in the same color in my size, right? Before I even tried on the Demetrios dress, i tried on dresses at “cheaper” bridal stores like David’s Bridal or Alfred Angelo, but didn’t like any of their dresses and didn’t want to just settle for a dress. I also called up Pearl’s Place, they had the dress for about $900 – but that’s still a lot of money for one dress.
3. since my wedding is not til May 2012, I had plenty of time to check out vendors…and even if this dress was messed up, I still have plenty of time to order another one… I contacted like 5-6 dress makers that were recommened on another wedding board, e.g. giannar bridal, jasmine bridal (they were more expensive), jeff liu (he quoted me $400), monica’s bridal (slow response, even though cheap), babyonline (fast response, but hasn’t created a similar dress for other customers before), etc
4. since I wanted some changes to my dress (no shoulder strap, add beadings), I actually inserted my dress pic from the store to a word document, then draw lines of where the beading should be, I added comments to it, etc… you have to keep in mind, that these dress makers are from China and english are not their first language… and since they can’t read my mind – I figured, I’ll put a lot of details in my instructions as possible and visuals are more helpful than words alone.
5. I sent them pic of the beading that I would like on the dress.
6. I requested approval pics BEFORE they send out my dress. 

Why did I choose Bigdaydress? Because I read on several wedding forums (The Knot, wedding bee) great reviews about them. I also asked all those dress makers for pictures of similar dresses that they have created for other customers and bigdaydress sent me several pictures from different clients. And as a customer, I really like it, when they respond to me quickly as bigdaydress did. It made me feel confident and even after I paid for the dress, their customer service response was still quick. I ordered the dress in Mid July, received my approval pics a month later (you can look at them in  my profile photo album) and once I gave them my OK, they shipped it out right away. So it took about 1.5 months to get my dress (of course, I also ordered it during a month, where there are no big holidays in China – so not a busy season). Now that I’ve tried on the dress, I don’t feel like it’s cheap at all…I don’t think, anyone can tell if my dress was made in China or if I bought it here. David’s Bridal dresses are made in China anyways… And even though I only paid $369 (original dress was $1400)!! I don’t think, you can get a dress like that for less than $400 at David’s Bridal, do you?  

And now, I’m presenting you my dress… what do you think? Hope you like it as much as I do…  

Original dress:


A little bit wrinkly from the shipping, but otherwise, i'm loving it





Approval pic i received from bigdaydress before shipment: