Tips for buying a "cheap wedding dress online"

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photo courtesy of  Niccolò Caranti

Buying goods over the internet has grown in popularity in recent years. It was only a matter of time before Irish brides began to explore the option of buying their wedding dress or bridal gown, bridesmaid dresses and bridal accessories online.

There are now numerous sites offering "Cheap wedding dresses" online.

In these reccessionary times, the huge savings afforded by buying your wedding dress online have made the proposition even more attractive. However, there are risks involved, you don't want to be scammed, or end up with a badly fitting, poorly made, poor quality wedding dress, that you are unable to return or get a refund for.
Tips for buying your wedding dress online:

1) Take the suppliers own website reviews with a pinch of salt..these can be edited to remove the worst reviews. So,
a) Take the time to check out how safe the website is to buy from on scamadviser
b) Make sure the supplier you're interested in has a phone number prominently displayed on their website, if you have a complaint or problem, the phone is still the best way to contact people, otherwise you may be ignored.
c) Check them out on facebook. If they have a comments section on their business page then read the reviews, going back at least a couple of months. If they don't have a comments section displayed, then it may be hidden in Highlights. Click on "Highlights" arrow at the top of the page to get a drop down list, the last entry will show "posts by others" click on this to see all posts by others on the page.

2) If you're happy with reviews and safety of the site, first order fabric samples, this will give you an idea of how responsive and how good their customer service department is, and give you an idea of the quality you can expect for your wedding dress.

3) If you're interested in ordering a custom made dress, print out their measuring guide and take it along to a dressmaker and get professionally measured. Sizings for wedding gowns differ enormously from normal dress sizings and also differ between wedding manufacturers. So, you'll be wasting money if you get professionally measured before you have identified your supplier, you need to work to the individual manufacturers guidelines.

4) Check out the pricing of the wedding gown, including the add ons like delivery charges, import duty and taxes before you place the final order, so that you have a clear idea of the overall cost of the dress. Some suppliers include the price of all of these elements in the price of the dress advertised on their website, other's do not

5) See if the supplier also sells on amazon or ebay and compare the prices with the website price.

6) Order your dress at least 6 months before your wedding, just in case there is a problem with delivery or quality and you need to return it and get a refund and buy another dress from a different source. You don't need the stress of dealing with this just weeks or days before your wedding.

Goodluck with your search!