MemberHi ladies! I managed to find my perfect dress but it’s a bit more than I would like my mom to pay for it. I have a year and a half before my wedding day. So, I thought that I could get lucky in finding it cheaper. Any suggestions on where I should keep my eyes open for it for a cheaper price?
MemberWhy don’t you just pay for part of it? Also who is the dress by? is it a new dress or one that’s been out for a while? Some stores/ designers have trunk shows and you can usually get around 10-15% off that way.
MemberYou can scout preowned websites like preownedweddingdresses.com, oncewed, tradsy, and stillwhite for new unworn/unaltered dresses. Just buy at your own risk and ask loooots of questions!
MemberOh my goodness! I’m so happy to find
MemberOh my goodness! I’m so happy to find another bargain hunter. My dress was technically in my budget but definitely more than I wanted to pay deep down inside. I love a good bargain and honestly have never purchased anything for myself at full price. When the dress store in town said my dress would be almost $3200 before alterations and tax I was pretty sad. The next day that I had off from work I went online to the designers website and found their “authorized seller” list. I started calling around a 1 hour drives radius from my house and found that, from store to store, the dress went up and down in cost by a couple of hundred dollars or so. Then I decided to start calling the authorized sellers in states where I know that the cost of living (and cost of merchandise) would be lower than here in CA (where I live). Sure enough, the price of my dress fell even lower. Then I decided to get smart and call stores in states with low to no sales tax (Oregon, Montana, Delaware, Alaska, etc). The boutiques there said they take phone orders for brides in other states all of the time and could ship the dress directly to my house for about $25, with insurance and everything. Then I investigated where the trunk show for my gown was headed and called to see which stores were giving the biggest discounts. I found that this ranged from 10-25 percent based on where you call all over the country. Finally, I checked out new bridal shops to carry my dress designer. I found that often if the store is new or newly offering the designer, their “base rate” (at least I think that’s what she called it) is lower, therefore dropping the price.
Basically, if you order a dress in the store, I was told that they measure you, determine your size and order the gown. Any professional seamstress, or heck, even the gals at David’s Bridal will measure you for free. With these measurements and the power of a credit card or check, you can really order from anywhere.
Then came the problem of alterations. I didn’t want to pay the marked up alterations at the expensive bridal boutique in town, and was told that these alterations are sometimes marked way way up if done in store. I decided it is cheapest to go to the source. Fortunately I am short and have a ton of pants that need to be hemmed, etc. Pant hems are only like $5-$10, so with the disguise of needing pants hemmed, I turned to Yelp for local alterations people who also do bridal alterations. One by one I took a a single pair of pants to my top rated choices and cased the place for garment bags marked with the names and logos of the expensive bridal shops in town. Sure enough I found a place with about 10 garment bags marked with the logo of the expensive boutique in town. I made super friendly small talk with the seamstress who was pinning my pants and found that she and her sister are the primary seamstress’ for three well known boutiques in town (one of which quoted me $800 in alterations if I bought my dress for them, which was a “discounted” price). She told me to never go through the boutique for alterations and to go straight to the alterations source, because she feels that the marked up prices that the boutique makes on her own work is ridiculous. She looked at the pictures and quoted me $200! Then get sister came from the back and I recognized her as the lady pinning for alterations when I was shopping at the expensive boutique in town.
Finally, check out stores that price match. I find that many store owners that I talked to willingly offered this as long as I was super nice on the phone or in person (which I try to be at all times, so it’s not manipulation). I found a little dress shop about 4 hours from my house that is having a blow out sale on sample dresses. I am definitely bigger than sample size and must have sounded a little disappointed on the phone, So the consultant said she would talk to the owner about what could be done. I hung up the phone and was so touched by the sweet consultant on the other line who sounded like she shared my excitement about finding my dress, empathized with me for not being a skinny Minnie who could pull off a sample dress and who did her best to help and suggest other dresses that they had in sample in my size on sale. I decided to write a quick thank you to the owner and to offer special praise to the consultant. Come to find out later that the consultant was the owner’s daughter. The owner said she would gladly order me my dream dress in the color and size I want, ship it to my home and give me 25 percent off of HER cost! This brings my dress cost down a whole $1,200! She told me that, as a bridal shop owner she didn’t get into the buisness to make money, she got into the buisness to help brides to feel as beautiful as they are on the inside and to make their wedding dreams come true. Seriously. What an AMAZING woman. I can confidently say that my wedding day will be all the more special because of her. I am definitely doing things in my life to pay it forward and am so Humbled and appreciative of the people in my life who are working to make this such a special day for me.
I hope this helps! What beautiful dress are you looking for? If it is by Pronovias I will happily send you the authorized seller spreadsheet I made when I was geeking out about bargain shopping. Keep us posted about your great deals! I’m so excited for you that you find your gown!
MemberI got my $2000 never-worn, tags-still-attached dress on ebay for $500. I am thrilled!
Member@BWLE Paying for part of it is an option but I dont know if my mom will completley agree to it. She is insisting on paying for all of it. So, im trying to see if there is any way I can get around it. The dress if by Demetrios and its from their 2015 collection.
@pepper15 Have you heard horror stories about it? Thats one of the places I have been keeping an eye out for too.
@happyhappyhappa HOLY SMOKES! You were a woman on a mission! I knew about the alterations but I didnt think about different prices at different salons. I dont know if I can find this gown in a different salon tough. My gown is a Demetrios gown and it is only sold in my town at the Demetrios salon. I know that they use to be sold in smaler boutiques but not anymore here. I wonder if thats the case in other towns. I will have to look into it.
I chose a Demetrios gown from their 2015 collection and I ablsolutely LOVE it. It made me feel like a bride and I actually could see myself with a veil! btw…those are STUPID expensive. I will be making one myself and sewing on the detail by hand. It should save me quite a bit.
Memberatenaksk: It’s actually my own experience, I bought a dress from a seller who didn’t know what she was talking about at all! I posted about it here http://boards.weddingbee.com/topic/i-found-my-dress-and-im-thiiiis-close-to-buying-it-long-pic-heavy/ and http://boards.weddingbee.com/topic/powd-fail-need-help-fixing-this/.
Thankfully she is accepting a return otherwise I would dispute with PayPal and American Express for misrepresenting the listing.
By The Way you look stunning in your dress! I think you may have trouble finding it on preowned sites because it is a newer collection. I got lucky (or so I thought at least) because it was an older style.
MemberI’m currently in the process of selling my Hayley paige gown on preowned wedding dresses.com. So far it’s going really well. The dress is in almost perfect condition, some wear on the underskirt. it was originally $3500 plus tax. I posted it for $1750. The girl I’m selling to sent me this really sweet message about how she had fallen in love with the dress but her dress budget was supposed to be around $1,000. so I’m selling it to her for $1,200 plus tax. We skyped so I could show her the dress and so we could have a bit more confidence it who we are dealing with. She is the nicest girl ever and it warms my heart that my dress is going to a good home and making someone else happy. 🙂
if you use preowned, ask the seller to skype with you. Good luck!
MemberGorgeous dress! I’m currently in the process of selling my Hayley paige dress to a girl on preownedweddingdresses .com. the dress is in good condition. Originally $3500 plus tax, I listed it for $1,750 This girl sent me the sweetest message about how she had fallen in love with the dress but her budget was closer to 1,000. So I’m selling it to her for $1200 plus shipping. We skyped so I could show her the dress and we could “meet” each other. She is the nicest person ever and I am so happy my dress is going to a good home and making someone else happy!!
if you are buying on that website, ask the seller to Skype w u!
MemberIt will be much harder to find a 2015 dress marked down as used so you would have to find it new likely. I think calling around is good. I have also heard of brides just discussing price with the seller and telling them its more than they want to spend.
Good luck and let us know how it turns out!
MemberGorgeous!
bridetobeandphd.
MemberFirst off, talk about gorgeous! You look AMAZING in that dress! Wow! We might need to have a mop on hand to clean up the puddle of drool from your Fiance when he sees you coming down the aisle in the gown!
I have super good news! Before I found my Pronovias gown, I was obsessed with finding a particular Demetrios gown! Girl, I’ve already started a Demetrios spreadsheet! Here is what I found: Many small boutiques stopped carrying Demetrios in store but could order for me without a problem. Some larger bridal stores (Brides by the Bay, in SF, I think) still had some Demetrios dresses. Look to see if these boutiques are having some sort of blow out/promotional/holiday sale where everything will be a certain % off. It sounds crazy but, as I’ve been calling around, it happens.
In all, I talked to four Brides by Demetrios stores: San Diego, CA, Irivine, CA, Texas (I forget which city) and Oregon (again, sorry, I’m not sure which city), and one Demetrios store in Macy’s Bridal. They were all so helpful and were trying to find a way to send the gown to a boutique that sells Demetrios (but didn’t have any in store) so that I could try it on. (Seriously, they were so super nice). Eventually, KiKi, the fantastic manager at the Irvine store, put the dress on one of the consultants and took detailed pictures and sent it to me. Apparently, at both the San Diego and Irvine stores, an ordered 2015 Demetrios gown was 15% off, with a FREE veil at their recent trunk shows! Yay! KiKi at the Irvine store offered to order the gown for me with my measurements and to give me the trunk show sale price, if I wanted. My thoughts are that, if two different Brides by Demetrios stores were offering the same trunk show price, it is probably relatively standard for these stores. I did call a Brides by Demetrios in Macy’s Bridal, but didn’t get much info about their trunk show pricing.
Remember that by ordering from some states, you don’t pay sales tax! I thought that Arizona charged Sales Tax, but a bridal boutique that I talked to in Arizona when looking for my Pronovias gown said that there would be no sales tax on that purchase, so you might want to find out (just asking “what’s your sales tax rate” typically does it). I only mention Arizona because I see it listed here as a place that is having a trunk show in December.
Here is the list of Demetrios upcoming trunk shows! I hope that you find your dress at a fantastic price! 15% off doesn’t sound like a lot, but on a big purchase like this, it could be hundreds of dollars! The dress I was looking at would be a total savings of $462.50.
http://www.demetriosbride.com/trunk-shows/
Here is a list with the Brides by Demetrios stores and their hours (it saves time from having to look up each individually):
http://www.demetriosbride.com/brides-by-demetrios/
Finally, just yesterday I wanted to see ONE last Brides by Demetrios gown (because I saw it online and it was stuck in my head) before I purchase my Pronovias next Saturday. The shop owner was SUPER sweet but, sadly, her boutique is going out of business. All dresses are 50% off, but they are the samples. Actually, her dresses were in GREAT condition (cleaner than any other samples I’ve seen). Most of her samples were between sizes 8 and 12, but she showed me how even a dress a few sizes too small could be altered for my size with little problems, and even told me what to ask the seamstress to do! I think most of her samples were from older Demetrios lines, but, for 50% off it is worth a shot to see if she has yours. She said email is the best way to get a hold of her, and she is closed on Sunday, FYI. Her shop is actually just 40 minutes from my house, so if you find your dress there and want it, I would be happy to go in person and inspect the gown for condition for you. 
We brides have to stick together! Here is her website:
I really hope this is helpful! I’m SO excited that you found your dream dress! Keep us posted! Good luck!
MemberAlot of boutiques do discounts, I know at the store I work at if the bride is serious about purchasing but the dress is a little over the budget the manager will usually let me do 15-20% off. Also many stores do decisive bride discounts, meaning if you buy the same day as your appointment you get a discount. Since you are already past that point where you tried it on maybe see if you can try it on at another boutique and if they offer and incentives. Never hurts to ask your dress consultant.
MemberI don’t think we are allowed to recommend specific websites but if you were to google some key terms… sort of like “best price” (since that’s what you are after) and the word that sums up the whole wedding industry and starts with a B…
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