Weddingbee boards

Hello, hive!

It's getting close to wedding gown shoppin' time for me and I was wondering if any of you ladies knew of any affordable gown designers.  I know of Alfred Angelo, David's Bridal, Casablanca, Jasmine... and I think that's it.  I am definitely going to spend less thank $1k, so if you could push me into the right direction, I would appreciate it!

Also, does anyone have any first-hand (or second-hand, if you know of a friend or relative) experience ordering internet wedding gowns (Sofia Bridal, RK Bridal, Julius Bridal, etc.)?  I've read good and bad reviews and just wanted to get as much info as possible before seeing if this route would work for me.

TIA!

It sounds like you might want a more traditional dress, but I'm having mine designed by Chrissy Wai-Ching in Seattle for about $600. It's completely custom-made, and she does some pretty fabulous stuff with embroidery, color, and texture. Her website is wai-ching.com, and many of the prices are listed on there. Basically, everything is customizable... if you see a shape you like but want different colors, or straps, or anything, she'll make changes; if you have a vision of what you want and can draw or describe it, I think she'll do that too (as long as it's in a similar vein to what she does - I wouldn't necessarily ask her for crinoline and pickups). There's also a thread on indiebride.com that has links to a lot of "real bride" pics in her dresses, as well as some posts on offbeatbride.com. FYI, she's the gorgeous part-Asian model in a lot of the website pictures.

i love the watters line. they run a little over $1K in bridal shops but you can get them for less than that at netbride and other online shops. i had a great experience with netbride.

Thanks for the recommendations, everyone!  I have checked out Wai-Ching in the past (from the millions of great posts on IB), but this is the one time in my life where I've felt "traditional."  I wonder if she would be open to altering her designs to a more conventional look.  

briannie - just to answer your question, but not try to force you into her dresses :-) - I think Chrissy is pretty open to anything. I knew I wanted color on my dress and something a little untraditional, but actually the shape of it is A-line with a V-neck... very simple, since that looks better on me. The white Yowying and the Pandereta designs are fairly simple - I think you could ask for one of those shapes with less embroidery, and maybe no back ties... or you could get the Pandereta completely in ivory/white with tone-on-tone embroidery, instead of color. If you have a vision, she'll totally work with it!

But I also second the Watters bridal line - love those dresses, and they're really high quality IMO - and I've also had great customer service so far (haven't gotten the dresses yet) from netbride.com.

My dress was a Mon Cheri, it was just under $1000, and they have a more casual line that's even less expensive.

As for places to get gowns, I highly recommend www.netbride.com.

I bought my dream dress from www.1koo.com as well as all my bridesmaid dresses, and my flowergirl dress. They were all custom made to our measurements and fit perfectly, and were much cheaper than anywhere else. I just sent them pictures of the dresses that I wanted, and the colors that I wanted, and they made them and had them at my door in 2 months. It was so inexpensive that I bought a second dress for a TTD session!

You can see some of my pro pics of my dresses at http://www.flickr.com/photos/knudsonwedding/

All pics courtesy of www.rustedribbon.com

I bought my gown (which I absolutely love!) at David's Bridal and it was under $500! Woo hoo! So I bought my dress there, but I ordered my bridesmaids' dresses (Alfred Angelo) from Pearl's Place.. www.pearlsplace.com, and I saved them a ton of money, and they came in 3 weeks early, directly from Alfred Angelo, perfect! I would assume wedding gown experiences with them would be similar. I honestly can't say enough good things about them!

knudsonwedding-- if you don't mind me asking, how much did you spend on your wedding gown through 1koo? how was the quality of the material?

I bought my main dress for $150 and my TTD for $89 custom made. The main dress is made from what I assume is polyester, but it's a gorgeous lightweight silky fabric. It looks like silk and photographs well. The beading on it is gorgeous. My second dress is a heavy satin fabric underneath and a light chiffon fabric on top. I loved them both.

They also sell crinolines for $20....can't beat that price!

When I was looking for dresses, I tried on everything from $5000 Justina McAffrey silk dresses to David's Bridal $700 dresses. I would say that the material is nicer than the dresses at David's Bridal, and it's not silk, but it looks and feels similar....and it's easier to clean ;)

The thing I like the most is that all the dresses were really well made. The bridesmaids dresses were unlike anything I saw at the Bridal stores. Really well lined, nice heavy fabrics, and perfectly fitted to my hard-to-fit girls.

Let me know if you have any more questions.

MissSauce, I agree, we got 5 dresses and the shipping was still $12! I know what you're saying!! I was thrilled with the whole experience!

bestbridalprices.com is really good - I ordered BM dresses through that website & they came early, nicely packaged, required signature. They also have a lot of really good reviews!

Depending on the formality of your wedding - you might also look for white prom dresses (they dont have the word bridal attached so they cost so much less!)