Anyone bought dresses online?

Hi Claire,

I have just been to a wedding reception tonight and the bride's dress was from JJ's House. It was she said £103 plus £15 postage and it was gorgeous, I really wouldn't have ever known that it wasn't a mega expensive dress from a shop. She also said it took five weeks to arrive and although she had supplied all measurements, she did have to have the top altered and that was £20. I might be able to post pic at some point.

Although this is a good story, like you say reviews are mixed. Have you got time/funds to get another dress if you weren't happy?

Should add that I got my dress at a local wedding fair, an ex sample for £250 instead of around £700. Might be something that's worth a look at.

All the best with the dress and all your planning,

Caroline

Doh! Just re-read the OP and seen that it's bridesmaids dresses your after... Hope some of that might help anyway.

Ive just ordered some swatches for BM dresses from there and considering my dress from there.

They seem very professional so far. i asked about straps for the BM dresses and they said that they could add straps at no extra cost and seem very prompt and professional.

I would order your swatches, feel the quality of the material (they're a4 size and free postage is free if you can wait 15 days for delivery) i ordered 4 a4 samples and cost me £15 including delivery. you can get a full swatch for £17 and thats a good sign.

could you post a pic of the dress, im considering getting my dress from there

or this one

which are £150 and £155 respectively -theyre SO pretty, but also cheap.

I'm so wary of ordering here after all the horror stories I've heard! I thought I was sure because the testimonials on the site itself are good, but I've been pretty put off by all the negative reviews elsewhere. I've also found peridress.co.uk, which shows photos of all the original gowns (we are looking at Forever Yours styles 73103 or 76214, sorry don't know how to post pictures!) but at majorly cheap prices, then found out it's because they make copies of the originals and that put me off because the website is made to look like it's originals they sell. I'm NOW looking at glamourousgowns.co.uk, who sell 73103 for £15 cheaper than the bridal shop and with free delivery, OR houseofbrides.com which sells them for around £50 cheaper but I'd still have to pay import tax at customs so I'm not sure if that works out any cheaper at all. Decisions decisions!! I'd love to do it online, but while I have plenty of time to organise new dresses if online ones were to turn out no good, I definitely don't have the budget!

As always I'm going to throw www.myweddingdressforless.co.uk out there as my dress is from there and it's amazing (I've just tried it on again and still l❤️ve it)

Very professional, great quality, free delivery no import duty and fantastic customer service.

Pics of me in said dress here https://www.flickr.com/photos/25919016@N08/sets/72157627532646760/ these are the day it arrived fresh out of the bag. I had to have it steamed to get the creases out but that was due to the organza, the creases had all dropped out of the satin.

Bowski, do they do bridesmaid dresses too? I already have my own dress (as of yesterday, woo!)

Yep they do bridesmaid dresses too.

They are very good!

Your dress is gorgeous, by the way

Thanks, I'll have a look!

Thanks ?

I've just tried it on for the last time today before we get married and I'm even more in love with it than I was before!

I've just looked at JJs house and they have the same bridesmaids dress as I'm having for a lot more than I paid so it you're looking at this one

You can get it cheaper on Ebay!

I did see that on ebay but we're going for floor length. I'm thinking about just biting the bullet and paying the full price. I got my own dress + alterations for £150 under budget (and all in saved around £450 off the full price ? ) so maybe I should just stop being a miser and pay full price for something, lol!

Don't spend money if you don't need to.

Keep investigating the cheaper options! I was just saying about that one in case you were looking at that one and I could have saved you some money!

Well thank you for the thought! I thought more people would have had an opinion on this, to be honest. I really do like one of the dresses on JJ's House and it's almost identical to one that the girls liked, but it's hard to make a decision when I don't have a proper review from someone who has used them, you know? We're talking about £300, it's a lot of money to lose out on if something goes wrong!

China dress threads have historically got a bit heated which might be why people have refrained to comment.

It might not be such an issue with a bridesmaid dress but when they copy designer dresses at a fraction of the cost then the money has to be saved somewhere. This is usually in the structure of the dress, the boning, the quality of the materials etc. I have seen one particular wedding dress in a China copy and the real thing and you can see the difference, the real one held its shape all day whilst the boning in the cheaper one started to bend and looked out of shape. And there is also the moral issue that they are ripping off someone else's design.

Don't know anyone who has used JJ's House myself so cannot comment on their work.

There is a lady on Ebay (search Huiyunkitty) who makes dresses to order and is very reasonable, I didn't use her as I struggled with the initial communication and there are mixed reviews on here but it seems that the best reviews come from those who could actually visit the shop in Birmingham. Worth a thought.

Thank you. I guess it's hit or miss. Maybe best if I just give it a miss, stay on the safe side!

can't believe it, so cheap.everyone has bought these wedding dress before?

There are a load of mixed reviews abotu JJ's House

I saw my ideal bridesmaid dresses on here a couple of months ago and because of the bad reviews I decided to order on now , even though my wedding is 10+ months away

I ordered a single dress for one of my bridesmaids , just generic size no special measurements. I did however post in the website that my wedding was in November of this year. The estimated date for delivery was the 16th of October and I received the dress on the 21st of September. ( Much to my surprise! )

The dresses actually come from China by the looks of all the stickers on the packaging and I didn't have to pay anything extra just a little bit on postage.

The dress itself is absolutely stunning really heavy and thick lined , the colour is beautiful as well as the fitting and my bridesmaid is thoroughly happy with it! As am I!

Here are some pics! The dress is in the colour " Grape" and the sash is white.

Gorgeous!

I've looked at this one on ebay.. did it arrive ok? was the fabric/ stiching etc ok? so worried about doing it that way but they are really pretty and I dont really want to spend a fortune on them either so these are ideal.. bit worried please put my mind at rest!!

also did you have to pay some kind of tax on them after they had arrived? someone has told me sometimes a tax is added on even after you have paid final balance etc?

There will be import tax if they are coming from overseas.

I bit the bullet at the bridal shop instead. The ones I've now chosen are £130 and the JJ's House ones would have been around £80, plus delivery and import tax, so probably not enough of a saving to justify the risk, for me.

But, I love the ones we've gone for

I must have got away with import tax as I didn't pay it :\ All I paid was for the dress and the delivery.

I honestly don't have a bad word to say about these dresses they are absolutely wonderful.

Stitching is perfect , hem-lines are perfect ( I'm a dress maker myself but didn't want to sit and make 6 bridesmaids dresses )

Saved myself a fortune, but then again I have heard bad reviews , my advice is if you want to go with JJ's house order one to try and it can always be sent back if you don't like it or it's not what you expected

This is what I had the worries about, apparently it can't. Read a whole lot of reviews where people have tried to get their money back for poorly made dresses or for them being completely unsuitable, and either being ignored or being made to jump through hoops to then be offered partial refunds. That scared me, that would be exactly my luck. It's great that it all worked out for you though!

When I ordered my dress I also ordered a veil that I sent back, I didn't have any problems getting a refund for it either. A lot of the BAD reviews I've read are old ones. Are you having a flower girl ? Maybe do a test run with something that is not as expensive as a bridesmaid dress and then if you have problems with them you won't be so out of pocket. When it comes down to it, it's whatever you feel comfortable with. I'm having 6 bridesmaids so paying £130 per dress just wasn't an option with my budget. I also have been to a million weddings where the bridesmaid dresses were from BHS or Debenhams and I just wanted something different ?