When browsing photographs of brides sharing their online wedding dress horror stories, I couldn’t help but repeatedly utter, “Oh, wow.” It seemed as though each bride’s nightmare was worse than the last. In these cases, what the bride saw on the pages of the online bridal shop was a stunning wedding dress at an unbelievably low price. What was delivered to the bride resembled a completely different dress. In some of the worst cases, bride’s received dresses that resembled cheap Halloween costumes with gaudy colors and plastic embellishments.
Several disappointed brides received dresses that were different than what was advertised. In all the cases that I have seen, the online wedding dress store offered wedding dresses that appeared to be high quality, stylish dresses. However, what the women actually received were cheaply made knockoffs of the pictured gown. The websites often offer cheap versions of designers gowns. The actual dresses that are delivered are unusable.
Garish colors are one of the many problems with the gowns. The photograph on the website shows a white dress, but an awful green one is delivered. Another woman ordered a pale dusty pink gown and received a bright bubble gum pink dress. Bright fuchsia has been substituted for peach.
How can brides avoid wedding dress fraud online? News reports of the scams pointed out that most of the companies that are delivering cheaply made dresses while showing gorgeous gowns on their websites are headquartered in China. Some of these websites avoid mentioning their locations, or they post a United States or London phone number.
One way brides can avoid wedding dress scams is to contact the company. If the contact information is missing or misleading, that’s a definite sign that something is wrong. Many of the top, trustworthy online bridal stores also have brick and mortar stores where brides can browse a selection of gowns and get a proper fitting.
If the price is too good to be true, it probably is. This is an old saying that is still relevant today. Quality dresses cost money. If you see a website that is offering gowns at extremely low prices, beware of the possible danger. Many brides order dresses through these bargain wedding dress websites and either don’t receive any dresses or receive a dress that is not what was ordered.
Brides who can’t afford to buy the dress of their dreams may want to consider renting a quality wedding dress. The bride will know that she will have that perfect dress on her wedding day for a fraction of the cost of buying it.
For more ways to make the most of your wedding budget without falling prey to scams, browse the Best for Bride blog. There you’ll find many great tips for planning a wedding on a budget.
