Online Wedding Dress Shopping!

I bought a dress from Lulus. I fell in love, ordered it, and tried it on. I still need it altered because I’m tiny but it is totally worth it. The main thing to check for if it’s a reputable site and not a knockoff site and the return policy!

View Quoted Comment Thank you so much!!!!!

I bought from Asos. Very different n unique bridal line but it it's got all clothes for any occasion.

I ordered my dream dress online from BHLDN! Wedding isn’t until March 2021 but I couldn’t pass it up. I was definitely nervous to order blindly without trying, especially since I won’t even order everyday clothes this way lol. But they don’t have any stores in Florida so I had no choice. I took my measurements and they have a return policy just in case so that made me feel better! It fits except needing to be hemmed. I would just ensure wherever you’re ordering from has a return policy, and that it’s a dress you can’t live without!

I ordered my reception dress from Cocomelody. I was leary at first so I did my due diligence to check out reviews and drove to L.A. to try on the same style in the store. I was pleasantly surprised by the entire experience. They personally responded via email and made the ordering process easy. It arrived at my house 6 weeks after ordering and it was beautiful.

View Quoted Comment That is actually the company I’m looking at right now! Thanks for your input!

Lulus, ASOS, and BHLDN all have really beautiful, affordable dresses that are well made. Those sites are very reputable and have great return policies, so I would feel really safe buying from any of those three. However, you should definitely be aware of the many fraudulent websites selling wedding dresses and other clothing (sites like DHgate, TBdress, and Hebeos offer really inexpensive dresses that are advertised with beautiful photos but they have overall horrible customer feedback). You can find reviews of any company online and I definitely recommend checking out a company's reputation before buying your dress from an online retailer you aren't familiar with.

Etsy can also be a great place to get an inexpensive dress made, and many of the sellers on Etsy will make a dress custom to your measurements which can save extra money on fitting costs. Again, look at customer feedback, but there are definitely some really beautiful dresses on there that are very reasonably priced from well reviewed sellers.

I was determined not to spend a fortune on my dress so searched those sites as well as sites for pre-owned wedding dresses (StillWhite, Poshmark, PreownedWeddingDresses.com, and OnceWed are some examples). I ended up getting my dress off of StillWhite and could not be happier. I paid a fraction of what the dress cost new (its a designer dress way outside of my budget) and it's incredibly well made and fits me without any alterations needed.

View Quoted Comment Thank you so much for this feedback! I have also been looking at preowned wedding dresses bc I’m really trying to stay under $1k with alterations. Thank you so much ♥️♥️♥️

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You’re welcome! Good luck!

I tried Cocomelody- I actually went to their LA store, but wasn't impressed with their selection for my size (16). A lot of brides have had great experiences ordering from them, but I do frequently hear it can take longer than their 45-60 day timeframe.


My favorite experience was Azazie.com. Their dresses had very reasonable prices and were beautiful quality. I used their 'try before you buy' option to try on 4 dresses via mail delivery. I highly recommend this option for only $15/dress. Also, their dresses only take 4 weeks to ship- the fastest I have seen.
The dress I fell in love with was from Etsy. I'm a little hesitant to recommend Etsy for a wedding dress, because there is no way to see the dress on you beforehand, and most shops don't have much of a return policy. I got really lucky with my dress, but knew I was taking a risk (when you're in love, you're in love lol).

I got mine off forever 21 haha. I bought a regular evening gown that worked as a wedding dress

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I highly recommend StillWhite. You can search by nearly any dress feature (from silhouette to neckline to material) and the dresses are organized by street size, not just designer label size. Many brides also share their measurements, so you can be more confident that whatever dress you buy will actually fit you. I was able to find a dress from a bride with measurements really close to mine and didn't need to take it to a seamstress for extra alterations, which was an added bonus. Definitely ask a lot of questions, but if you shop carefully, I think you can find really good deals on stunning dresses.

If you end up shopping on StillWhite one thing I will recommend is to limit your searches to USA only or North America only (or whatever geographic region you are from). StillWhite has a lot of brides from Australia and Europe and shipping a dress overseas is expensive and if anything is wrong with it settling a dispute or returning the dress would be a lot harder. I found one dress I liked in Australia that was priced at around $200 but shipping was nearly $300! Once I limited dresses to USA only I was able to narrow down my search to more realistic dresses. The dress I ended up buying cost me just $30 to ship.