Wedding Dress - Hire or buy?? BM Dresses - Highstreet or not??

Hi

I'm getting married next June too. I bought an ex sample dress which was immaculate...don't even think it had been tried on. It cost a fraction of the retail price. I will have to have lots of alterations as I'm petite with mahoosive boobs so I would never have got a dress to fit off the rail.....Bravissimo need to make wedding dresses! i don't know about wedding dress hire, it used to be popular years ago but if you shop around you have no need to pay full price for a dress. Lots of websites specialise in the sale of wedding gowns. eg www.sellmyweddingdress.co.uk

Congratulations! Are you having a theme or colour?

Completely agree with this! My dress in total will cost about £120 with the petticoat and sash I am adding to it, but then I am not having a 'Wedding' dress. Im not sure where you can hire Wedding dresses from but I have heard people doing it, so it is possible. Plus look at 2nd hand dresses. Also places like Monsoon etc have a Wedding dress section.

Nothing wrong with highstreet dresses for your bridesmaids, lots of people on here have done this! I am not paying for my bridesmaids dresses, so they can get whatever they want (and pay whatever they want!)

I would start looking for a dress now though, I am also a June bride and have a lot sorted! And it has taken a longtime to sort it all too.Are you having a photographer? Have you chosen the venue?

If you need anymore help, feel free to ask and I will try to help ?

Bx

I have been told that when you hire a dress that they also do all the alterations that are needed too.

Sounds like the perfect way to do it if you ask me. I definitly don't think I will have room for my dress after the big day.

sooooooo true!

Bx

There are lots of ways to get cheaper wedding dresses but you do need to allow a decent amount of time for it to be made and altered, so I would suggest you do start looking now.

If you can find nice BM dresses on the high street then nobody will look down on you for that. Mine were from Debenhams and were lovely.

Hi there!

Im actually getting married in December, and I am contemplating selling my dress because I actually really want a red one- I only got a white one because evryone wanted me too and now I have concluded that I really want a red one after all. I'm not sure what size you are, but I'm a UK 20-22 in dress size and its made to measure. Its Ivory with red and black beading and can e-mail pics if you like. I'm reachable at *.*********@***************.**.** and I would sell it for 150£, bought for 350£ It's never been worn, and has a corset back should you decide to loose weight so you can easily drop a stone to a stone and a half and it would still fit. Let me know

All of my bridesmaids dresses are high street, plus the 2 adult ones can be worn by the girls again, , ,

I would start by asking some of your friends, colleagues, neighbors to see where they take their items to be altered. I would also do a search on Google Maps in your area for alterations, seamstress, tailor, etc. Check out the reviews there. Another option which I have found helpful in the past was to go to a local fabric store and ask for referrals - they usually know local seamstresses that are talented and may charge you less. Or they may have an in-house alterations team if it's a specialty fabric store.

I agree do NOT go to David's, especially with the vintage dress! Plus, I'm told that they can't alter the "design" of their dresses (in regards, to the BM ones) so if you have anything besides minor adjustments you want, they can't do it.

I hired my wedding dress but it was 20 years ago so I don't know how easy it is to do now. I just walked into a bridal shop in Leeds and said I wanted to hire one. I was able to have the perfect designer dress costing mega amounts for a very small cost. The dress was adjusted to fit me perfectly including the length of the sleeves and there was no way to tell, don't know how they did it. No one needed to know, and I got loads of compliments. I had no desire to store a massive dress afterwards the pictures were enough

If you're looking for a bargain wedding dress, another alternative is OUtlet stores, I know there is definitely one in Northallerton as I bought my dress from there, but I remember from "googling" there's a few dotted round the country.

They essential bulk buy dresses from designers/manufacturers in different sizes which enables them to sell the dresses "discounted" vs. their RRP. I say discounted although I imagine they are just closer to cost price than in normal bridal shops.

My dress for example retails at £1200, and I paid £450, but they had dresses starting from £99. They also had a huge selection of BM dresses, if you want to go down that route.

For BM I see nothing wrong with Highstreet dresses personally, you could also hit the sales in Jan and get bargain dresses from MOnsoon, Coast etc etc I had a friend who did for her BM and saved herself a small fortune. It definitely pays to shop around.

This is a great idea for a bargain, there is one in Liverpool called copplestones- you need to make an appointment but all the dresses are roughly £200.

I think high street dresses are a good idea for BM dresses to save a few pennies.

Not only a bargain, but also a lot lot quicker as you take it away that day, no need to wait 26 weeks or longer in some cases. This is the main reason I went as I will ahve organised my whole wedding in 12 weeks.

I ordered my dress from here

Thank you so much everyone!! This has given me lots to think about and more options to consider!

I have also been looking at websites such as www.inweddingdress.com

for bridesmaids dresses, does anyone have any experience of this?

Whilst I was looking at BM dresses I also noticed that you can order made to measure dresses in the style of designer dresses for much less money e.g. Vera Wang Diana for £350.

Does anyone think this is something to consider or should it be avoided?

Thank again for all of your help. I'm extremely grateful ?

xx

I've got two wedding dresses - one was a sample dress being sold in a closing down sale for £99. The other (for a family only registry office) is a dessy bridesmaid dress ordered in ivory that cost £160. I think there are some lovely BM dresses out there - some very formal - and getting them in ivory (or whatever colour) can be a nice way to keep the price down. Also, whenever you are buying any dress for yourself factor in the potential to sell it on for half the price you paid.

I don't see any problem with high street BM dresses and don't think it would look cheap or naff. How are guests going to tell? I wore a high street dress as a BM last month and got loads of lovely comments. The only thing you have to be careful about is guests turning up in the same outfit, so you might be best to buy them soon so that guests shopping nearer the time won't be able to accidentally buy the same dress!

Online clothes are also good - try Asos and Awear for good quality dresses. These websites often have promo codes available to get money off, which you can find through google.

Not sure about hiring a wedding dress but find a dress you like in a shop and check prevloved, ebay, gumtree etc to see if you can get it second hand. Good luck!

Our daughter was quite happy to hire as she wasn't really sentimental about 'the dress' very much. We really couldn't find anywhere that hired them anymore! Most shops said that for the price you pay to hire one, you could buy a fairly simple gown brand new. She wanted to sell her dress after the wedding but unfortunately, someone trod on the trail during dancing and ripped the tulle quite badly and it's not really mendable so decided to keep it instead.