Wedding dress meltdown

Personally, i wouldn't get a version made in china, and what i mean is, the cheap ones you see on ebay.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-2909093/Angry-brides-share-bridal-gown-horror-stories.html

i mean if you really wanted to and you found a cheap dress, say £40, try it, then its not a massive loss. But ive never heard good things

Have you looked at parcel forwarding services like shiptoit.com? I use it to get goods from the US to Australia.

I would not pay for a factory in China to make a knock-off.

I'm sorry to say that you'll find so many threads all over the internet advising against dresses from china as they so rarely turn out as hoped.

If you decided to risk it, buy it early so you have time to buy a replacement if it doesn't turn out ok & also buy it knowing it's a risk and you could potentially lose that money as you won't want to or be able to wear the dress. Also, be prepared for the material to be different to the real thing.

I'm sorry that I sound really negative, I've just seen so many threads about dresses from china over the years and seen very few people happy with them.

Have you looked on pre-loved for a second hand one? You might find one that's been unworn even due to a change of mind or cancelled wedding.

I agree with Pugsley,

Try preloved or ebay. It is very rare a dress from China looks like the dress you actually want and the quality will be completely different.

Personally, i wouldn't consider china as an options for reasons discussed above.

I would either find another dress within my budget, look for a secondhand Mori lee or maybe you could contact a local dress-maker who could make something similar (although this can sometimes be just as expensive depending on your budget) or get the dress anyway and sacrifice spending elsewhere.

I bought a Mori Lee 6678 copy from China off ebay, for a little over £40 including shipping. I didn't have high hopes, but I'm confident with a needle and was happy to do the alterations I was expecting, or ask a seamstress for help, as it would still be cheaper than buying the dress new. And I'm not even sure it will be the dress I would wear - it's the 3rd option so far lol - so I didn't want to spend loads on it.

It's a lovely dress for the price, but while the skirt fits lovely (will need shortening), the shoulders & bodice don't. There is too much material in the front for the size of the back pieces, and the shoulders don't sit properly. It will be a hassle to unpick the lace to get to the bodice to be able to reset the pieces to fit, but it's my 2nd marriage, a pretty relaxed affair, and I can't justify the expense of a new dress, so I'm happy to do it.

If it was the first time, or I wanted the quality of an original at copy prices, I probably wouldn't pay someone in China to make it. The quality wouldn't be there, and even if you send all your measurements, I'm not sure it would fit properly when you got it. If you're happy to factor in alterations, then go for it, but if not I'd look for a second hand original ?

When is your wedding? If it's someway off, you could see if the boutique will be putting it in their sample sale and get it then. Samples are usually heavily discounted usually by at least 30%. That might be an option. Another idea is to take the pics to a bridal outlet and see if they have the exact dress or a similar one in.

you could also ring round other UK Mori Lee stockists to see if they have it in as a sample sale now or expect to.

I got my jenny packham dress by putting a wanted ad on preloved. A bridal shop contacted me as they were selling their sample. I got it for just over a third of the cost (did need a lot of work to see beads back on but I was fine doing that). I personally wouldn't risk a china copy.

I wouldn't trust those sites I'm afraid. Why don't you try ebay or pre loved websites? Or you could wait until your dress goes in the sale?