$300 - $500 Dress Budget Realistic?

Not all the dresses from China are sooo horrible. I bought my bridesmaid dresses from one and they are all beautiful and very good quality. If you go this route do be sure to measure very wel, then measure again, and then choose the size that fits your largest body measurement- if they offer custom sizes (the site i used did) it's worth the extra $$ to do that. You don't want to have to return it, very expensive

Meta, you're right. Some knock off dresses don't turn out to be absolutely horrible however, I have seen many examples of ones that are. Ordering a chinese knock off is a risk, a big one in my opinion, and it's not one that I would advise to someone who is struggling with a dress budget.

As I said before, if you only have a 300-500 dollar dress budget, and then order a knock off that ends up being unwearable (and I have seen some that simple are) than there goes 1/2 of your budget on a piece of crap dress from a knock off site that will very likely give you the run around when trying to get a refund. It's simply not worth it when there are plenty of other options for a bride on a budget, which other people are so helpfully offering.

I would let her know what your budget is. It would be awful for you to try on a dress, fall in love with it then find out its too expensive. But on another note, I also got my dress from David's Bridal. I fell in love with the first dress I put on. FYI...... It just so happened the dress was $399.99 because it was discontinued. So maybe you can ask for discontinued dresses

You've really got a couple of options. One is to tell the consultant your actual budget, and ask to see only dresses within that budget. Another is to look at dresses that are up to two or so times your actual budget, and then look online at places like Recycled Bride and Preowned Wedding Dresses to see if you can find a used version of the dress you like. Just remember that in either event, you probably need to budget $100 or so for alterations--and that's if you get your alterations from an independent seamstress instead of the bridal store.

I took a chance and bought my dress of amazon.com it was $148 and I love it!! I originally went to David's Bridal and spent $800 on a dress that I quickly fell out of love with!

Dresses in that range don't have to be "ugly" or "cheap." I got mine for $300 off the clearance rack -- it was just fate, 'cause it was marked down AND it's beautiful, perfect for me. But if I hadn't gotten that one, the runner-up, at full price, was $500. Places can totally work with a low budget and find you lots of pretty things (I had quite a large pile to try on, and my budget was around $500). It'll help, though, if you call ahead and ask them what price range they carry -- no sense making an appointment at, say, Kleinfeld, if you know you can't afford their stuff.

It's not that the dress is from China that makes it a bad way to go. David's gowns are made in China. The problem is the quality control. As a private buyer, they sell you a dress made of cheaper material, with less quality control and no inspector to approve your dress. Then they are shady if you want to return it. You have to pay a lot to ship it back, pay a restocking fee, and then risk them telling you for whatever reason that the dress does not meet their return criteria, then returning it back to you at your expense. This is after going back and forth with them via email only for weeks or even months. It's just not worth it.

If you can't find exactly what you're looking for, determine what 2 or 3 elements about the dress that make it call to you, and look for those in other dresses. Also, a lace sleeve is easily added to a strapless gown, so don't rule those out.

My dress was a little over $500, but my consultant was very careful about the budget (my mother paid for my dress & wanted to stay at/under $650 budget), and found a lot of options that were around there.

I have also had really had experiences at DB. Nasty consultants who didn't pay attention to me or my bridesmaids, and then the dress we were going to order was discontinued - and they didn't tell me anything when I called the day before to make an appointment to order that dress. I disliked it so much I went to another bridal store a hour away to get my dress.

I didn't get my dress at David's Bridal either and found my dream dress at a small bridal shoppe! It was originally $650 but I got it for $375!! It's a 2 in 1 dress, the long skirt comes off to reveal the cocktail length skirt under it....great for the reception! So it can be done with your budget. Good luck!!

Also, we aren't dealing with Men's Warehouse for the tuxes because they are affiliated with David's Bridal!

YES! it is realalistic. Don't do a David's Bridal until you check out other options in your area. I got my dress at a consignment shop which spealizes in Wedding gowns and formalware. (sorry in CT) They purchase "retired" styles from designer warehouses and get them dirt cheap. I was able to get my Kenneth Winston 2010 $2800 gown for $300 this year. Look around before you fall for Davids or order something online.

Wow, I edited my original post and removed the china wholesale site. I didn't realize people wold debate so heavily over a picture I wanted to share. My intent was to help Mariyln to see examples of similar designs at a cheaper rate so that she would feel encouraged. Ordering online is always a risk especially when foreign. In addition, Im an advocate for consumer patriotism and I'm sure most of us are, but that doesn't stop me from ordering Dior and Louis Vuitton lol.

Also, I am disappointed that some comments present an undertone that embraces stereotyping. Yes, we can't deny a reputation (especially regarding childrens toys) but not all vendors in China are poor quality. Also, sometimes the country China is confused with Chinese people. Ex: Taiwanese are descendants of china who are known to produce quality goods. We still buy our "made in china" iphones lol. My sister gave me my first and only pair of authentic Prada shoes w/ documents of authenticity.

And they came from Japan at a cheaper rate. Also, a Chinese vendor sold me my first homecoming dress and i wore the heck out of it and even danced in it a few dancing performances and its still looks like new. I love that dress.

Overall, I think we should share our opinions, but with a positive tone so that others are not offended (such as my moh who read this forum) and comments are not mistaken for being stereotypical or taking mean shots at people of Chinese origin.

This is supposed to be fun and i was just trying to be nice in posting sites and pics.

I agree with you Christine S ordering anything online is a risk.

I ordered table linens from Texas that were so not the color they appeared on the monitor and when I returned them I had to pay a restocking fee and pay for return postage, by the time i got my refund it actually amounted to less than half of what I orginally paid. If people are committed to only buying American made products, they have to realize that even some of those things, while made in the US, may actually be made from materials manufactured in other countries. An important thing about ordering clothes online is VERY accurate measurements.

I have ordered clothes from catalogs that turned out to not fit well , the material wasn't what I expected, or they didn't look anything lilke the picture in the catalog, the only difference between this and ordering from a foreign on-line site is the cost and hassle of the return process.

@ Marylin - Your dress budget is definitely doable. I would definitely agree with what some of the other ladies said in regards to not limiting yourself to just that one dress though. You never know which dress you could possibly fall in love with once you put it on if you don't ever put it on .

@ Christine S - I'm not sure what you had previously posted on this thread, but I strongly believe that none of the ladies on here were intending to attack anyone of Chinese origin. Reading all of the comments, I'm a tad bit confused as to what you or your MOH took as being an attack against anyone. The ladies simply stated that anyone ordering a dress from Chinese knock off sites should be aware of the risks that come along with it. There are many websites that advertise an image of a gown and "recreate" a lesser quality version of what they're displaying on their site (many of which spam right here on WW) Are most of these dress sites based out of China? Yes, that's a fact. Contin.

Contin. Does that mean that the ladies posting about the risks of ordering from one of these online companies are making some type of insinuations about Chinese vendors as a whole, people of Chinese origin, or even about the country of China itself? Not at all. Again, I’m not really clear as to what exactly it was that was construed as being offensive in this post, but I don’t see how opinions on a few companies can be viewed as an attack on a person who happens to have origins from that country, and I truly doubt that anyone here was attempting to generalize any group of people.

The current rage over Chinese dresses has nothing to do with Chinese people; in fact, you could look at it as support of the people who are working in conditions that are very often inhuman.

The quality control is awful, the designs are often ripped off, and you really have no control until it's too late. And half your budget is gone.

As for DB, again, the problem is quality control; one store is great, one store is terrible.

Be honest with them when you walk in the door. Or even when you schedule the appointment. Tell them your budget. If they can't work within it, they will usually be honest with you and tell you. They don't want to waste either your time or theirs. We have salons here where their starting price is nearly $3K and they were honest with me when I called.

@ TinaBoBina "... piece of crap dress from a Chinese business..."

By Chinese business, I meant the knock off sites that I was previously, which yes, are mostly located in China. I will edit that part of my post.

It isn't the Chinese people that I (or anyone else here) have a problem with, it is the wide-spread knock off business (seriously there are dozens of them). The reason these dresses are usually so low quality is because the designs are not their own. They take a photo, the real designer's photo, and attempt to create that dress from only that. They don't have an actual pattern from the designer. To make the price cheaper, they use fabrics and beading of lower quality. Seams can be crooked. Some of these dresses end up barely looking like the original photo when all is said and done. As others have said, unlike other dresses that just happen to be manufactured in China, these dresses have no quality control so you don't know what you will get. That is the risk from ordering from a knock off site, and yes, most likely a Chinese one.

Also, one of the links I previously posted to show Marilyn examples of similar styles for cheaper price happened to be a site that was based in china (I actually didn't realize that when I found it).

I obviously agree with some of the points you've made EX: my comments "Ordering online is always a risk especially when foreign." and "Yes, we can't deny a reputation

[china has] (especially regarding childrens toys) but not all vendors in China are poor quality. - Some china places like Taiwan have a good reputation for merchandise.

"My point is that the we should consider the way in which we word things so that as I said "...comments are not MISTAKEN for being stereotypical or taking mean shots at people of Chinese origin."