I’m getting ready to go shopping for a wedding dress. I will be trying on all sorts of dresses at various stores but I’ve not seen anything on any of their websites that looks like something I would like for less than $600. Then I found this website. Dozens and dozens of gorgeous dresses for less than $200! But they are only available online. They don’t have a store where I can go try them on and see how they look before buying a dress.
Should I go try on dresses and find a style that works for me and then buy it from this website or should I just eschew buying something so important without trying it on first?
Well, I was going to say that everyone has their wedding dress altered so it’s not that big of a deal to buy one and have it custom fitted…
But then I looked at that site’s return policy and saw that “Clothing & Apparel” are on their non-refundable list so NO FUCKING WAY!!!
ETA: Also, you’re going to be putting your dress on and taking it off a lot between now and the wedding, just for fitting and showing it off. Plus you’ll spend a ton of time in it on the big day. This site is wholesale from China - do you really trust the craftsmanship of a wholesale from China dress to make it through all of that?
Hmm…I hadn’t gotten as far as the no return policy. So this site is right out, but if there is another site with a proper return policy would that possibly be worth it or should I just shell out for a dress that I have physically tried on and can carry the exact same one out of the store with me?
I’ve bought shoes from a direct-from-china webite a couple times and they were actually a resounding ‘ok’. Nothing burning up the courts quality-wise but no worse than an equivalent (though more expensive) pair obtained locally.
However, they did have a return policy.
I stopped using them because on the second purchace I saw they were playing games with the what the package was…claiming it was a low price product. I assume they were doing something to skirt U.S. taxes or something. This bugged me and I stopped.
Personally, I wouldn’t buy a wedding dress without trying it on first. But that’s just me.
I don’t know your location. . .is there a David’s Bridal near you? They’re always advertising cheap dresses. Also, as we get closer to prom season, you might find a prom dress you like. I mean, how important is it to you that your wedding gown be an actual ‘wedding gown’? If it’s important, then it’s worth spending the money on.
For other clothes, though, the further I get from ‘civilization’ (the nearest mall to me is a 35 minute drive), the more sense it makes to order clothes online. I just placed a $75.00 order at Sears.com to get some new fall/winter clothes for the young 'un. I happen to know her taste really well, and know which Sears lines/sizes fit her, and shipping was a mere $6.50. It was worth that to save the hour+ round trip to the mall, not to mention the cost of gas!
Well, I give a big thumbs up to online shopping generally. I’m in Canada and many of the retailers that I like don’t have Canadian store locations (e.g. J Crew, Anthropologie) so if I want items from those stores I either take a trip south or shop online.
HOWEVER, I tend to be a manufacturer’s size meaning that I gain and lose weight in the same way that clothing manufacturers size their clothing so I never really have to worry about fit. I just order the item according to my current size and I know it will fit, regardless of what my current size is - this is important. If you tend to gain weight unevenly you may have issues with things not fitting properly, or fitting but emphasizing a body area that you would prefer to deemphasize.
Also, I got married about 3 weeks ago and I’m not sure I would order a wedding dress online. When I went and tried them on not only were there things that I thought I would like and wound up hating - there were things that I thought I would hate but really liked. Also, two dresses that looked very similar while on the hanger looked totally different when I put them on. You could order something (non-refundable?!?!?) and then hate it when it arrives. All your savings from ordering online are out the window when you have to buy a second dress.
In general, buying clothes online is something I would do and have happily done many times, for stores whose brick-and-mortar locations I have bought from and know that their clothes fit me. I wouldn’t buy a wedding dress online, though, since I’d have to get it from a store I didn’t usually buy from and thus wouldn’t know how it would fit.
I’m in NYC so there are lots of places to buy wedding dresses here, including David’s Bridal (I’m going to a DB location in CT in 2-3 weeks with a friend to try dresses on in fact) but my problem is sizing. I am plus sized so it is going to be more difficult to find a dress that works for me unfortunately. I actually found a store that sells wedding dresses the other day that has a sign on the door that says “We do not carry anything XL or larger” so that was kind of disheartening. I am fine with a wedding dress that was meant to be a prom dress or a bridesmaid dress and I’d actually like something with some color to it. I’d like this to be a cheap dress if at all possible since I will only ever wear it once.
Yeah, that is why I am hesitant about buying one online. I’d rather buy one that I’ve tried on and know fits me but the thought of spending huge amounts of money on the dress makes me want to hurl. Does anyone know when the big Macy’s wedding dress run where everything is like 90% off takes place?
As a fellow plus-sizer, I’d be hesitant to try this. If you even get your hands on a dress at all do you really think it’s going to be plus sized?
If you’re a 10 or under, you can always grab something bigger and have it altered down. I’d imagine that 16 and up will be rare at these events - especially if 16+ is rare to begin with.
Does anyone here live in the NY area and make wedding dresses? Or, failing that, does anyone here know the best way to smuggle a wedding dress out of the store in your purse?
I think you should ask a mod to change the thread title to something about plus-sized wedding dresses. Then you can get more ideas about where to look.
You know how it goes - plus sized WOMEN are not all that uncommon, and neither are plus-sized brides. But for some reason, clothing and wedding dresses are.
I think you should get some opinions on places other people have looked, and what they might have found. Someone might have a brand to recommend or an online store.
It’ll turn out ok, I promise! You just have to have patience, and not jump on the first cheap Chinese plus-sized dresses you find
Hmmm. If you’re not opposed to the idea of a prom dress or some such, look for a Deb in a mall near you. They usually have a pretty good selection of plus-size prom dresses. You’ll want to try on, though. Their idea of a size 20 is really more like a 16/18.
Actually, my wedding gown (I was a size 20 at the time) was a prom gown. I think it came from Fashion Bug Plus. It was white, and it was marked down to $32.50! I asked my MIL if she could “add a little lace” or something to it. She said yes, and before I knew it, she had torn it apart into about 15 pieces, then re-pieced it back together into a wedding gown, complete with train! :eek:
If you found a prom gown cheap enough, you could look for a seamstress/tailor in your area to make it more ‘wedding-gown’ like. Just a thought.
pokes mod
Hey, can you change the thread title please? Thanks!
I think the Chinese plus-sized dress site appeals to me because it is actually dress styles that look good on plus sized women. The other sites I’ve seen have mostly A line stuff which, while pretty, doesn’t really fit women with my body type very well and it isn’t a good look if you are trying to hide or minimize extra weight. Maybe I should just print off some pictures and take them with me while shopping.
My bridesmaids ordered from House of Brides. No issues, but shipping too a while. They have tons of plus size dresses on there for decent prices. I didn’t look at their return policy, however, so check it out. It’s a US company too.
Go look at the mall. They’re starting to get their holiday/special occasion dresses in, and you can find some great deals as they have sales before Christmas and prom season. I bought my dress at J.C. Penney’s, for something like $140 with tax. Granted, this was 7 years ago, so prices are apt to be higher, but it was still a few hundred dollars less expensive than even the cheapest dress any bridal store tried to sell me.
And I hated shopping at the bridal stores as a fat girl, especially the “nice” shops. They had very, very little in a size that I could actually squeeze into to try on, and we’re not talking about “wash myself with a rag on a stick” fat, either–I was a 16W in regular sizes. They did, however, offer to clip/rubberband various dresses around me, or hold them up to me so I could see how they looked before ordering a $500 non-refundable dress. Like you can tell how something is going to look on you and in the proper size by trying on or holding up something that’s 4 sizes too small.
They also didn’t have any dresses without trains, and I didn’t want a train–I was getting married in a park. They kept trying to steer me away from bridesmaid’s dresses and into bridal gowns, with the explanation that I could always have a seamstress take the train off. Why yes, I’m going to buy a dress that costs three times as much so that I can spend a couple hundred more to have someone make it look like the cheaper dress, because I’m a moron.
But at Penney’s, they had the dress close to my size and other similarly-made dresses in my actual size so I could see how it would actually look on me. They were having a 25% off sale on their special-occasion dresses, and the saleslady rang it up as a catalog order so I’d get the sale price, with the explicit explanation that if for some reason it didn’t fit when I got it in, I could exchange it for another size without any extra cost. She even pointed out they could order that dress with the brocading done in silver instead of gold if I preferred. It took 12 days instead of the the 2-6 months you have to allow for ordering from a bridal store.
I agree with Penny’s too, although the “wedding dress” section on their Web site is sort of slim and only goes to 16. I’d hope the stores had a bit more.
But, if I recall correctly, last time I was in a Penny’s Outlet they had a good number of wedding dresses. Unfortunately, you’ll have to roll out to MA or PA to check one out, but that’s not too far from Connecticut if you’re going up there…
Nothing burning up the courts quality-wise but no worse than an equivalent (though more expensive) pair obtained locally.
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