story by Rebecca Wagner
When it comes to planning a wedding, no two brides have the same vision of what constitutes the perfect event. The one thing all brides can agree on: weddings can be expensive. There are hundreds of articles and blogs giving advice on how to save money on your big day. In today’s cyber world, the internet is often the first resource brides turn to when planning and shopping for their special day. There are bargains to be had, but unfortunately the internet is full of scammers and counterfeiters. It may seem like you are saving by shopping online, but the truth is that your local vendors are often cheaper in the long run and can save you stress and hassle.
For most girls, the most exciting part of shopping for their wedding is selecting their bridal gown. Your gown sets the theme for your wedding and should make you feel beautiful. For most women, a bridal gown is the most expensive and emotional clothing purchase they will ever make. There is no question that it will take a large chunk out of their wedding budget and many girls are tempted to look to the internet in hope of saving a few dollars. There are literally hundreds of sites promising to sell visitors a beautiful gown for a rock bottom price, but remember: if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is.
Lisa’s story is just one example of what can go wrong when common sense is thrown out the window by the allure of a low price tag. Lisa visited a local bridal salon and fell in love with a dress by a well-known bridal manufacturer. The dress was priced at $700 and was well within her budget. She received top-notch personalized service from her bridal consultant and left walking on air, but wanted to shop around before committing. When Lisa got home, she Googled the manufacturer so she could send a picture of her dream dress to her best friend. Surprisingly, tons of sites popped up offering the same dress for as low as $99. How could the dress be $700 at the bridal shop and less than $100 online? Lisa browsed several of the sites and they seemed legit – after all they had the exact same picture that was on the manufacturer’s site. The site she settled on had several rave reviews from satisfied customers so she went ahead and placed her order for the size 8, as that was the size she fit at the bridal shop.
Several weeks went by but she never heard from the online vendor. She emailed them repeatedly and was finally assured her dress was in production. With less than a month before her wedding and still no dress, Lisa began to get anxious. Again she was assured the dress was on its way and was in fact given a delivery date of the following week. Fast forward to ten days before her wedding, and Lisa gets home from work to find a package sitting on her front step in the rain. It’s a large plastic envelope with weird Chinese stamps all over it. This can’t be her wedding dress. A sweater wouldn’t even fit in the package, let alone a bridal gown with a long train. Lisa hurried inside to see what on earth she had received. She carefully opened the package to find that it is indeed her wedding gown, or at least someone’s version of her gown. The dress is made of the cheapest satin she had ever seen outside of a Halloween costume. There was no lining, boning, or built-in crinoline. Instead of the beautiful beads and crystals she fell in love with, the dress has silver sequins glued to it.
In spite of the fact that it’s nothing at all like the dress she thought she was getting, she decided to go ahead and try it on, after all, maybe it will look better on. Lisa can’t quite get the zipper up all the way so she calls her fiancé in to help, but the dress won’t zip – it’s at least two inches too small. Now in tears and hysterical that she doesn’t have a dress and her wedding is less than two weeks away, she calls her mom. Lisa’s mom rushes over, takes one look at the dress and drags Lisa back to the original bridal shop. Lisa is in luck! The shop still has the dress she fell in love with. As she tries it on and sobs in the dressing room, her mom whips out a credit card and pays for it. Disaster averted, but an expensive lesson for Lisa and her mom.
Lisa’s story is far from unique. Deborah Stebbins, the owner of a local bridal shop has helped at least six brides just this year who have ordered online and either not received their gown or ended up with a poor quality counterfeit. “People think of a street vendor with a load of knock-off purses as a counterfeiter. They don’t realize that overseas manufacturers will make just about anything they can make a buck off of, including wedding and prom gowns,” says Stebbins. These sites look legit and will steal images from the designer’s websites. Unless you read the fine print, or in some cases read between the lines, you have no way of knowing you are buying a knock-off. Stebbins gives some advice on detecting these fake sites: “Manufacturers set prices that their gowns are to be sold for. As a dealer, we are not allowed to sell them below the MSRP. If you see a site offering a dress for considerably less than what it is in a store, you are probably dealing with a counterfeiter. Look on the manufacturer’s website and see if they are a registered dealer. If not, it’s a fake.”
Leah Johnson, a bridal consultant at a local bridal salon, reminds women not to undervalue the service they receive at their local store. “When you buy from a shop there are a lot of perks that you don’t pay extra for. I will steam your dress for free before the wedding, make sure you get alterations done by a professional, and even include a zippered storage bag at no extra charge.”
While many wedding websites are legitimate and indeed do have good prices, there are a hundred more selling sub-standard and counterfeit goods. If you have a problem or complaint, there is no one you can speak to in person and often just get the run around in an endless stream of emails. Dealing with a local business means that you can see someone face to face, someone who has an interest in making sure your wedding is perfect. Before you automatically assume the Internet has the best deals, shop around and talk to your local businesses. You might be pleasantly surprised to find out that the best deals are often in your own town.