Step one: Set budget
Buying wedding gown is quite an adventure. These pretty white dresses can price from $99 to $9999. It is very important to have a set budget and then looking for designer in your price range. My budget is around $1000 CAD including tax. Apparently, this is the minimum price of a brand new order gown.
Step two: Research online
I went to websites such as Best Price Bridal and House of Bridal . Best Price bridal allow me to sort with price, style and designer. It didn't take very long to find out what kind of choices I had. Some of the designers I pick do not have an authorized retailer anywhere close to Vancouver. It further limited down my options.
Step three: Pick and try
After picking up some of the dresses I like, it is very important to try on before order it online. Two very similar dresses in picture can give a huge difference when tried it on. Some waist line is too high and make me look short and stubby. Lots of dresses I thought was right for me turned out to be too puffy/ hugging hip too much/ too much pick-up/ not enough pick-up/ too much beading or too plain. I was first set my mind on a strapless smooth A-line with blend in beading. I ended up with a slightly puffy A-line pick-up gown with sweet heart neckline and beading concentrated on the burst.
Step four: Listen to bridal consultant's suggestions
I end up limiting down to two dresses from Mori Lee.
At first I thought I was going to get the left one ( 2604). I was more flatter to the pick-up in this dress. But when I tried it on again and compared with the one on the right(2405), I found 2406 was too puffy. My consultant said, it looked more like a porm dress.
For 2405 (the right size one), It has a more bridal dress like puffiness. The only problem was, it has picks-up only half way. It looked like a duster in the picure. Later my consultant gave me a very good solution. Since I am a petite, I need to shorten the dress anyway. Instead of spend almost $150 to hem the length, I can simple add a few more pick up at the bottom. It will then look perfect. Most importantly, this 2405 dress is $100 cheaper than the 2604 in store. Isnt that nice???
Step Six: Get my size measure professionally
Even the dress is $100 cheaper, it can never compare to the price I found on online store. In order to order online, I need my size meausred. The consultant will not do it for me unless I order the dress with them. So, I found a seamstress, who happened to sew wedding gown, to do the measurement for me. It was very different from doing the measurement myself. Since wedding gown has to be skin tight, wedding gown seamstress would tighten the measurement when they measure. As a result, I am smaller than I thought, haha. Also, the seamstress suggested me to go for the bigger if my measurement was in between sizes. It's always easier to take down then add more fabric.
Step Seven: Coupon and order online
At the end, I order my dress from a place call Jay's Bridal. It is a bridal salon somewhere down the States. They have a physical bridal boutique and offering online purchasing service. They ordered the gown directly from the designer to cut down the middle man fee. They sold my gown for around $600US +$50 shipping. I registered to their email list. They send me a coupon for 12 % off + free US shipping. I end up paying less than $550USD for the dress. yeah!
Other concerns:
Ordering Time
Usually, a wedding dress take half year to order. A dress is only made when an order is places. It take 4 months to make the dress, and two months for quality control and shipping between designer and retailer. Jay's Bridal gives me a very detail timeline of how the gown is made, look very promising.
Beware of dress in unreasonably low price
Although ebay and lots of online bridal website sell super cheap wedding gown, these cheap gown are replica from China. They only use the picture of the designer wedding gown. I've spent lots of time to contact these cheap gown places during my wedding gown research. Some of them agree to send me some picture of their final product. I have to say, it's scary!! It looked not even 20% similar to the original dress. The beading just sold the dress out. Besides, they have very limited choice of fabric, not to mention the fabric quality. I came up to a conclusion: If things are too good to be true, it probably aren't.
Authorize store/website
We should always heck the website review before order. I found that Jay's bridal is one of the Knot's (The Knot is a bridal magazine and online wedding resource website) pick in 2008/09. There are also a lots of discussion on the wedding forum about this place. Also check the wedding dress designer website, see if the store/website is authorized retailer. These are just precaution to make sure the dress is authentic.
For anyone who read this post, I hope it will help you on your wedding gown hunting.
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