Wedding Dress Disasters...The bad and the ugly from knock-off websites

  You're on a budget, perhaps a super duper tight budget, so saving any amount of money to a Bride with this mindset will appeal to her like a magpie to silver. Don't fall for cheap Wedding dresses, especially the ones from China, or anywhere abroad for that matter as there will be high risks involved. I am all for getting a bargain, but the risks involved for me personally far outweigh the grim reality of receiving any one of the dresses below.

I know that there are a select few that are probably extremely reputable and have sterling reviews, from what I have seen from browsing the Internet for at least two years now on my journey as a bride-to-be, far more Brides are disappointed with their purchase than they are pleased with it. The odds are against you. Don't forget you could also be expected to pay high custom charges for any dresses purchased abroad, this is usually something that is not advertised until the package arrives and you have to pay to release the goods. 

The quality of the garment is usually pretty awful, using cheap material instead of duchess satin or lace, as is used in reputable bridal shops from the real designers. Beware, as how these shops tend to advertise their dresses is by using designers own images and giving the impression that they can recreate and replicate the dress. The truth is that they usually cannot, which results in heartache for the Bride and usually at your own expense too. Not so budget friendly after all! 

Don't believe me, use google to open the unhappy Bride floodgates and check yourself. Here is just one example of a Bride's post on a forum in regard to cheap dress replica's:

My China Wedding Dress Disaster

If you really do decide to go ahead, do your homework and read this blog post first, as a buyer you don't appear to have as many rights as you would buying from a UK seller, it's good to be prepared: Buyer beware 

TIP: If you use google's find similar photo feature which finds similar photos of the one you have uploaded  (go to Google > click 'Images', see on the search bar of google there is a little photo of a camera? click that and it will give you an option to either upload an image from file or upload from a URL (an image's web address) ), it will find all images that are online which are the same as the photo you have just uploaded. Check the URL's/web address' of the images that are found on google, if your dressmaker is stealing a design from a designer you will know as their website url will give the game away. Counterfeiting is illegal, don't forget.

Ok so here are some photo's I have found on my travels which I have saved over time, admittedly, some of these are some of the worst available (possibly) online, but they are SO bad, I had to share. 

I found these ones on a facebook page set up called 'Knock off Nightmares', the page makes me cringe, and you will see why. Full credit to them and the real Brides that have been affected and were kind enough to share their experiences with other Brides.

Be prepared to gasp...