My Ebay China Wedding Gown Experience
Below are my rambling thoughts on why I risked going the Ebay route and what you can do to try to make your experience the best you can. If you want to get right to the review, scroll down past all of this.
My thoughts on Ebay dresses
From time to time, people post on the forums asking if ordering a dress from China is a good idea. I would recommend doing your own research because reading people's experiences will help you decide whether it's right for you.
My main thought was... why not give it a try? It's only $180 (with free shipping), and if you're considering dropping $1000 on a dress plus another $400-500 in alterations, $180 is kind of pocket change. Why not take the chance, especially when it could save you $1000 or more?
Most of them make the dress to your exact measurements, so you may not need additional alterations, and if you ask for the lace-up back (which mine offered for free), that gives you more wiggle room in sizing. You can also order them in any color you want, usually for no extra charge. My dress was originally an ivory, but I ordered it in white. You can get it in blue or purple if you want, I think my seller had like 42 colors.
I have read many good things about the Ebay China dresses... Of course there are some bad as well, but if you understand what you are getting into and do your homework, you can probably save yourself some heartache.
1. Look for a seller that has a high percentage positive rating, and has sold a lot of gowns. Some sellers have over 1000 ratings and a positive percentage rating in the high 90%'s. Compare this with someone who has maybe 15 ratings? Kinda makes you wonder if they had a bad rap so they started selling under a new name.
2. Read all/alot of the reviews, good and bad ones. I have seen negative reviews that say the dress took too long (they tell you right on the site that it takes a month to make it and 9 days to ship)... or that the dress came wrinkled (umm, huh? It came all the way from China!). I have also seen positive reviews that say the dress was not exactly as pictured, but it was still beautiful. This way, you can be prepared if the dress you receive does not look exactly as pictured.
3. Email the seller with questions to see how they respond to you. Even if you don't have any questions, make something up. If they don't respond to you, move on to another seller.
4. Read and understand what is and is not included in the price. I read a negative review once where the lady said that after she won the auction, the seller tried to charge her extra for a "necessary" crinoline. If you read the listing carefully, it very clearly states that the crinoline is not included... and if you know anything at all about wedding gowns, you know that a crinoline is indeed necessary (for many). I have to admit, the sellers may not go about it the right way. What they should do is make a listing for a crinoline and then you can just buy it. What mine did was send me a bill via PayPal for one without even asking if I wanted it. I simply emailed them and said I didn't need it, and canceled the payment request.
5. Realize that you're not really getting the same gown that's pictured. In some cases, they do have photos of the actual dress. But most of the time they "borrow" the photos off the designer's website. They will probably use cheaper materials, and it might not look exactly the same. I have read many reviews that say it looked exactly like the photo, and some of those were pretty complicated gowns. My dress did not arrive exactly as pictured, and in the end, it would have needed too many alterations, so I went with a back-up dress that I purchased at Dillards.
6. Realize that you get what you pay for. Do not expect a perfect gown for that cheap... mine has some lace that needs to be tacked down, some strings that need to be clipped, and some very small stains (that aren't really noticeable.)
7. Give yourself enough time to go the "bridal shop route" if it doesn't work out. This is probably the most important thing... because if it doesn't work out, you have lost very little -- you've only lost some money. You still have time to get another dress. A couple hundred dollars may seem like a lot, but if you put it in perspective with how much money you're spending on your wedding, how much money you've wasted on trial and error DIY projects, and how much money you spend/waste all year (eating out at restaurants, etc), it's really not that much.
Finding a Dress
There's no way to find a particular dress... if you have your heart set on a certain dress that you saw at a shop or in a magazine, you will spend hours and hours poring through listings. My advice is to do a search for wedding dresses and look at the sellers first. Find a good seller and then look at the dresses they have available.
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I don't have any data on this, but I would imagine that buying a dress from a listing is less risky than sending a photo to a designer and asking them to make that dress. If it's a dress that they have listed, it's likely that they have made it before and know the ins and outs. Also, they may have even purchased a "real" dress from the designer so they could have a close-up look at it to see how it's constructed.
However, I did read one post from a bride who had her dress custom made, and they emailed her photos all throughout the process, and if she didn't like something, she let them know, and they changed it.
-----------------------------------------
Many people would recommend going to a bridal shop to try on the actual dress or dresses similar to it, to make sure that it looks good on you. While this is a great recommendation, I personally could not bring myself to go into a bridal shop and waste their time, knowing that I had no intentions of buying anything from them. I bought my dress without trying ANY wedding dresses on... I never set foot in a bridal shop, LOL. Not recommended I guess, but I knew what silhouette would look good on me based on other dresses I've tried on and owned over the years. Unfortunately, my dress was not constructed correctly, so it did not look good on me when I received it.
From time to time, people post on the forums asking if ordering a dress from China is a good idea. I would recommend doing your own research because reading people's experiences will help you decide whether it's right for you.
My main thought was... why not give it a try? It's only $180 (with free shipping), and if you're considering dropping $1000 on a dress plus another $400-500 in alterations, $180 is kind of pocket change. Why not take the chance, especially when it could save you $1000 or more?
Most of them make the dress to your exact measurements, so you may not need additional alterations, and if you ask for the lace-up back (which mine offered for free), that gives you more wiggle room in sizing. You can also order them in any color you want, usually for no extra charge. My dress was originally an ivory, but I ordered it in white. You can get it in blue or purple if you want, I think my seller had like 42 colors.
I have read many good things about the Ebay China dresses... Of course there are some bad as well, but if you understand what you are getting into and do your homework, you can probably save yourself some heartache.
1. Look for a seller that has a high percentage positive rating, and has sold a lot of gowns. Some sellers have over 1000 ratings and a positive percentage rating in the high 90%'s. Compare this with someone who has maybe 15 ratings? Kinda makes you wonder if they had a bad rap so they started selling under a new name.
2. Read all/alot of the reviews, good and bad ones. I have seen negative reviews that say the dress took too long (they tell you right on the site that it takes a month to make it and 9 days to ship)... or that the dress came wrinkled (umm, huh? It came all the way from China!). I have also seen positive reviews that say the dress was not exactly as pictured, but it was still beautiful. This way, you can be prepared if the dress you receive does not look exactly as pictured.
3. Email the seller with questions to see how they respond to you. Even if you don't have any questions, make something up. If they don't respond to you, move on to another seller.
4. Read and understand what is and is not included in the price. I read a negative review once where the lady said that after she won the auction, the seller tried to charge her extra for a "necessary" crinoline. If you read the listing carefully, it very clearly states that the crinoline is not included... and if you know anything at all about wedding gowns, you know that a crinoline is indeed necessary (for many). I have to admit, the sellers may not go about it the right way. What they should do is make a listing for a crinoline and then you can just buy it. What mine did was send me a bill via PayPal for one without even asking if I wanted it. I simply emailed them and said I didn't need it, and canceled the payment request.
5. Realize that you're not really getting the same gown that's pictured. In some cases, they do have photos of the actual dress. But most of the time they "borrow" the photos off the designer's website. They will probably use cheaper materials, and it might not look exactly the same. I have read many reviews that say it looked exactly like the photo, and some of those were pretty complicated gowns. My dress did not arrive exactly as pictured, and in the end, it would have needed too many alterations, so I went with a back-up dress that I purchased at Dillards.
6. Realize that you get what you pay for. Do not expect a perfect gown for that cheap... mine has some lace that needs to be tacked down, some strings that need to be clipped, and some very small stains (that aren't really noticeable.)
7. Give yourself enough time to go the "bridal shop route" if it doesn't work out. This is probably the most important thing... because if it doesn't work out, you have lost very little -- you've only lost some money. You still have time to get another dress. A couple hundred dollars may seem like a lot, but if you put it in perspective with how much money you're spending on your wedding, how much money you've wasted on trial and error DIY projects, and how much money you spend/waste all year (eating out at restaurants, etc), it's really not that much.
Finding a Dress
There's no way to find a particular dress... if you have your heart set on a certain dress that you saw at a shop or in a magazine, you will spend hours and hours poring through listings. My advice is to do a search for wedding dresses and look at the sellers first. Find a good seller and then look at the dresses they have available.
-----------------------------------------
I don't have any data on this, but I would imagine that buying a dress from a listing is less risky than sending a photo to a designer and asking them to make that dress. If it's a dress that they have listed, it's likely that they have made it before and know the ins and outs. Also, they may have even purchased a "real" dress from the designer so they could have a close-up look at it to see how it's constructed.
However, I did read one post from a bride who had her dress custom made, and they emailed her photos all throughout the process, and if she didn't like something, she let them know, and they changed it.
-----------------------------------------
Many people would recommend going to a bridal shop to try on the actual dress or dresses similar to it, to make sure that it looks good on you. While this is a great recommendation, I personally could not bring myself to go into a bridal shop and waste their time, knowing that I had no intentions of buying anything from them. I bought my dress without trying ANY wedding dresses on... I never set foot in a bridal shop, LOL. Not recommended I guess, but I knew what silhouette would look good on me based on other dresses I've tried on and owned over the years. Unfortunately, my dress was not constructed correctly, so it did not look good on me when I received it.
Ebay China Dress Review
I was happy with the actual "service" from my seller. Their communication was very good, they answered all of my emails/questions in a timely manner. The instructions for taking measurements were very thorough.
I ordered this dress, only in white, not ivory. They do use the pictures off the designer's website, not pictures of their own dresses that they made.
I ordered this dress, only in white, not ivory. They do use the pictures off the designer's website, not pictures of their own dresses that they made.
Above is a comparison of the "real" dress and my dress. In the first picture, you can see what the dress looked like when I first put it on. The top is not correct and needed some alterations to get right, but that part was only going to cost $40 to fix. The main problem was that the skirt did not stand out as far as "real" dress.
Here is a picture from the second fitting of the dress with a fuller crinoline from David's Bridal. The top of the dress is pulled down for the off-the-shoulder look it's supposed to have, and the seamstress was going to create the sweetheart neckline and do the necessary nips and tucks to get the top looking right. I think that would have turned out okay, but the bigger problem was the bottom of the dress not standing out far enough. I tried on the fullest crinoline they had, but the skirt was not made wide enough, so it just crushed the crinoline down. The seamstress said she could try to let the sides out as much as she could, but I had just tried on a back-up dress that I got from Dillards earlier that day, and it looked REALLY good on me, so I decided just to give up on this one and wear the Dillards dress instead.
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This is what the back of the dress looked like... it looked pretty nice, actually. Not the same as the other dress, but I thought it was perfectly nice.
This is what the bustle would have looked like.
Below are some photos of the dress packaging and close-ups showing the lace and fabric, and some of the flaws.
There are some small stains, some strings that need to be clipped, and one place where the lace needs to be tacked down. Also, the lace itself is a little sloppily trimmed... there's a very sheer back on the lace and it's not trimmed as close to the lace as it should be in some spots, but will never be noticeable to anyone who's not looking for it. Finally, there's a spot on an open area (where there is no lace) that looks like something was sewn there and then removed, there are some needle marks, but again, not noticeable unless it's right under your nose.
There are some small stains, some strings that need to be clipped, and one place where the lace needs to be tacked down. Also, the lace itself is a little sloppily trimmed... there's a very sheer back on the lace and it's not trimmed as close to the lace as it should be in some spots, but will never be noticeable to anyone who's not looking for it. Finally, there's a spot on an open area (where there is no lace) that looks like something was sewn there and then removed, there are some needle marks, but again, not noticeable unless it's right under your nose.
The Back-Up Dress
This is the dress I bought from Dillards.com just in case the Ebay dress didn't work out. I bought both a size 8 and a size 10 since they have a 30-day return policy. The 8 fits me perfectly and looks amazing on me, so I'll be taking the 10 back to the Dillards store for a return. I probably saw this dress at some point before I bought the Ebay dress, but at the time, I was looking for a real "wedding dress" with all the trimmings, and since this is more of a special ocassion dress that happens to be ivory, I passed it up. But now that I have it, I think it's going to be so much better... it's so much lighter and cooler than the huge dress, and I won't be dragging a train down the trail at the park. |