Wedding dress bargains - Top wedding dress picks from Still White from $501 to $1000

Featured today are my top wedding dress picks for the bride on a budget from Still White for the $501 - $1000 price range.

As you can see, you can find some incredible stunning dresses locally even when you're on a tight budget. You do not have to go online and risk ending up with a sub standard poor quality imitation from China to get your fairytale dream dress.

Here are some of the gems I uncovered on Still White:

New Vera Wang White sheath - $550. (originally $800). This label is only available in the US.

Collette Dinnigan Chantelle A- Line. $600 (originally $2,290)

Baccini and Hill Laticia Vintage sample. $700 (originally $4,300)

Collette Dinnigan Snow Fishtail gown. $700 (originally $2,500)

Pronovias La Sposa ballgown. $700 (Originally $1,800)

Rosa Clara Silk Sheath. $750. (originally $4,200)

Alex Perry Minerva A-line. $950 (originally $2,500)

Evermore ballgown.$1,000. (originally $2,500)

Stay tuned for more gems tomorrow from other websites.

Wedding dress bargains - Top Wedding dress picks from idogowns from $501 - $1,000

Looking for bargains on quality wedding dresses when you are on a budget is a minefield. There are so many beautiful dresses - but how do you pick the best ones that represent true value?

Well, I have done the research for you and hand picked my suggestions for the top picks between $501 to $1000 from the various locally based websites available.

My top picks in this post are from website www.idogowns.com.au.

New Maria Chiodo Trumpet gown . $550 (originally $3,200)

Linda Gorringe A-line. $599 (originally $2,800)

Mary Ionnadis A-line. $600. (Originally $6,000)

New La Sposa mermaid. $850. (originally $2,300)

Baccini and Hill A-line. $900 (originally $4,500)

Ivy and Aster tea length. $950 (originally $2,200)

Vera Wang. A line. $980 (originally $6,000).

Wedding dresses priced at $500 and under

For those brides on a REALLY tight budget, I have scoured the internet for you and found some fabulous, quality wedding dresses, available locally, that are priced at $500 and under.

My top picks are:

From www.idogowns.com.au

Bella Donna by Wendy Makin. $500 (originally $2,000).

New David's Bridal mermaid. These dresses are only available in the US. $350.

From www.stillwhite.com.au

Rhonda Hemmingway slip dress. $500. (originally $5,500!!!)

Maggie Sottero "Victoriana" light gold ballgown. $500 (originally $2,600)

New Carla Zampatti strapless with peplum. $500 (originally $949)

St Pucchi (US designer) ballgown $499. (originally $1,300)

From www.abridetobe.com.au

Henri Josef A-line. $350 (originally $1,200)

New Mari Gourlay. $250. (originally $499)

New Lisa Ho. $500.

An example of a questionable listing for a wedding dress

I recently saw a sold listing on a second hand wedding gown website which raised red flags that I wanted to warn my dear readers about.

I do not place any blame whatsoever on the people who run this website but rather the individual bride who has listed and sold this dress. 

In this listing, when you read the first paragraph, it appears that the bride has already worn the dress and the buyer is buying a wedding dress that has only been worn once. It seems like such a bargain - only worn for 5 hours. It's in very very good condition! It's a very sought after label, so any poor bride reading this would think it was the bargain of the decade. 

However read the listing carefully and it becomes clear that the bride has listed her gown before her wedding. In later paragraphs, she states that the gown will be dry cleaned after the wedding and the dress will be available after mid November 2013. There are absolutely no wedding photos at all - just photos of this girl in the studio in her dress. 

Buying a wedding gown from a bride before she has worn it for her own wedding, is fraught with problems. If anything happens to the dress at the original owner's wedding and the dress gets stained or torn and these cannot be cleaned or repaired, then the buyer has absolutely no recourse and their money is lost. 

What could damage the dress permanently:

(i)   Salty water which can cause discolouration; 

(ii)   Wet grass:

(iii)  Red wine;

(iv)  Coffee or tea;

(v)   Fake tan;

(vi)  Heavy Perspiration;

(vii)  Rips from guests stepping on the dress;

The only winner here is the bride who has onsold her dress and has recovered part of the price of her wedding dress from a buyer who has effectively subsidised the original bride's choice of dress.

If you are considering buying a dress with an arrangement like this, I have one piece of advice for you - Don't!

Choosing your wedding dress from a listing online - pitfalls to look out for

A viable way to save money on your wedding dress is to buy one from a wedding dress website with listings online.

The two most popular websites in Australia in this arena seem to be www.idogowns.com.au and www.stillwhite.com.au. Wedding gowns can also be found on ebay and gumtree. The listings here are often from recent brides or sometimes from businesses that sell preloved and/or designer sample gowns.

My observations are that the specialist sites are easier to find and use for the purpose of finding wedding dresses.

The key to buying a dress online from a recent bride is to read the listing VERY carefully. If the dress is advertised as worn once, see if there are any wedding photos. If there are not, ask the seller for some. 

If everything seems OK, ask to try the dress on. Go with your mum, female relative or a trusted friend. Try the dress on. Inspect the dress carefully especially around the hem. Check the fastenings - buttons, zippers, hook and eyes. Hold the dress up in different light to check for marks. Check tulle especially carefully as it is prone to tear.

Ask if the dress has been worn on gravel because nothing will shred the hemline of a tulle or lace dress faster than gravel. If it has, check extra carefully around the hemline.

If the gown has been worn at the beach, check for discolouration around the hemline. This cannot be cleaned out through dry cleaning or specialist bridal cleaning - it needs to be cut from the hemline. This is a workable solution if you are shorter than the seller or the seller wore very high heels, but if you are the same height as the seller or taller, then your dress will be too short when the discoloured portion of the dress around the hemline is removed. 

Wedding dresses should ideally be cleaned as soon as possible after the wedding for the best chance of getting any marks/stains out of the dress particularly any marks under the arm which can oxidise if left untreated for too long. 

Be wary of any listing where the brides claim that they did not get their gown cleaned after their wedding because of the details on it or because no dry cleaners wanted to clean it because of the delicate beadwork. This is incorrect as specialist bridal cleaners such as Carson's Bridal Valet at St Ives or Vivian's Specialist Bridal Cleaners at West Hoxton Park clean these exact dresses on a daily basis. It is generally code for the seller did not want to spend any extra money getting their wedding dress cleaned after the wedding. This expense will now become your expense and your risk and adds to the purchase price for you of that particular wedding dress. 

A consideration to keep in mind however is, that if you find a dress on one of these sites that you want to try on from a recent bride, you are making a special trip to try on this one gown. This is then multiplied if you want to try on several individual gowns from several recent brides. 

Bargain bomboniere or wedding favours - Nightingale Wines

For those brides having a wedding in the Hunter Valley and/or wanting to observe the custom of having bomboniere for their guests, I came across an absolute bargain that I wanted to share with you. 

How about a small bottle of wine per couple? Nightingale wines, through their cellar door at 1239 Milbrodale Road, Broke in the Hunter Valley, has cases of 24 x 187 ml bottles of 2010 Verdelho Chardonnay for $40 a case. That's less than $2 per bottle! 

Their website is www.nightingalewines.com.au.

Bargain wedding dress shopping - Consignment Shop - A Bride to Be in Hornsby (previously Normanhurst)

I posted in my blog sometime back about a consignment bridal shop called A Bride to Be in Normanhurst.

Well A Bride to Be are now based in Hornsby. The focus is now less on preloved/worn once wedding dresses and is more on Designer Sample and new wedding dresses.

The prices, discounts and quality of their dresses are truly incredible.  

In their Designer Sample range, they stock designer couture bridal gowns from Maria Chiodo Bridal Couture whose ballgowns are legendary for their detail; Louise Alvarez from Roseville whose designs have a vintage vibe about them; Leah Da Gloria, the runner up in Project Runway Australia 2012, whose gowns have graced the red carpet as worn by Delta Goodrem and Miss Universe Australia 2010, Jesinta Campbell to name a few and renowned Melbourne Bridal Couturier Connie Simonetti.

Examples of some of the discounts on offer in the designer samples include:

$2,400 for a Maria Chiodo Bridal Couture Thai silk ballgown with detailed bodice that was originally $4,000;

$999 for a Louise Alvarez embroidered tulle slip dress that was originally $3,645;

$3,125 for a one off exclusive Leah Da Gloria gown that was originally retailing for $6,000;

$2,999 for a Connie Simonetti mermaid gown that was originally $9,000;

$3,750 for a Connie Simonetti ballgown that was originally retailing at $15,000!

Even those on a tiny budget are catered for with their gowns starting at $250 for a new silk wedding dress and over 30 wedding dresses priced at $999 and under.

All of their gowns are designer labels and include Vera Wang, Johanna Johnson, Collette Dinnigan, Rhonda Hemmingway, Amanda Garrett and Emoda Couture.

Their dresses are discounted by up to 75% off the original price.

Most of their gowns are priced at under $4,000 and with over 90 wedding dresses in stock, in sizes ranging from 6 to 14, in all different styles, there is sure to be something there for everyone.  

Their web address is www.abridetobe.com.au.  Telephone: 0413 549 367.

Cheap wedding dresses bought online from China - a cautionary tale

When a cheap wedding dress is cheap for a reason.....

Having a fairytale wedding on a budget generally means going for the cheapest option with everything, right? 

Absolutely not. 

I keep reading on forums, brides advising other brides to buy their wedding dress online from China.  The problem with that suggestion is, you get what you pay for. 

When you are only paying a few hundred dollars or less for a wedding dress from China, you cannot expect to get the same silks, satins, organza, tulle or lace used by the original designer of that dress. You are going to get polyester and other man made fabrics that will not sit or flow the same way as the original design. 

I have seen photos of wedding dresses that were meant to have long lace sleeves (think Kate Middleton - the Duchess of Cambridge's wedding dress) that arrive with elbow length sleeves and so small they look like the dress has been shrunk in a clothes dryer.

The dress when it arrives, invariably needs to be altered, generally adding a minimum of several hundred dollars to the price of the dress. (Our local tailor informed us that it's an average of $500 to alter and at times, remake the entire dress). 

You may have to pay customs duty on the dress as well, adding extra cost on top of that.

So the initial savings on the dress are quickly whittled away by all the extras needed.  

The other issue that I have read on a different forum from a wedding photographer, is that these dresses tend not to photograph well. As the material tends to be cheap polyester, in photos these dresses look like they're made from glad wrap or shrink wrap.  

The ABC had an interesting expose on this issue some time back:  http://tinyurl.com/m9a5uow

Check out this article from the Sydney Morning Herald on 3 February 2013: http://tinyurl.com/bolly7m

Check out this facebook page for more: https://www.facebook.com/KnockOffWD

And this blog post from The Pink Bride - http://tinyurl.com/kxhyh58

On the www.mamamia.com.au forums, one poster related how her friend got scabies from buying a dress from China! 

It's honestly not worth the risk, especially when you can find so many quality alternatives available.

Caveat Emptor as they say - Let the buyer beware

Remember budget means value for your dollar - not cheap. 

Wedding Boutiques that have closed

Since I wrote posts for my blog two years ago, two of the businesses I mentioned have unfortunately ceased trading.  

These are:

Honey Bee Bridal, Glasshouse Shopping Centre, Sydney

Be Enchanted Bridal, Hornsby

A few other wedding boutiques have also closed in the last year or so including:

Bridal Collections, Brookvale 

Paradise Brides, Ballina

Amore Bridal Shoes, Carramar 

Sadly, I think this is a sign of the times....  

Wedding dress disasters - don't let it happen to you

This is a hot topic at the moment with at least two bridal boutiques going into liquidation recently, namely Bridal Vision at Wetherill Park and Park Avenue Bridal in Parramatta. 

Park Avenue Bridal closing was such a shock as they had been in business for decades. It was a real institution.  I still remember shopping for my debut dress there when they were located in Westfields at Parramatta.   

The most heartbreaking aspect of this for me, was the news reports of poor brides in those situations, where the brides had no forewarning, sobbing because they just wanted to collect their dream dress. 

Hello again.......Remember me?

Hello Dear Readers....I have not blogged in a very long time (life gets in the way sometimes) but decided it was about time to refresh the information in my blog and bring you more crucial money saving tips for your big day.

A lot has changed in 2 years but that's for another post......