I get a lot of brides asking me how is anyone supposed to justify spending thousands of dollars on a dress that will be worn for just one day. The problem is talking about money in and around the ‘big day’ is embarrassing for most. Every bride wants to have their dream wedding but what they are able to afford what they want don’t always align as well as some might like. Talking about budgets and what should be cut was never part of the wedding fantasy. This can cause a lot of budget pressure for everyone involved in the wedding but most of all the bride and groom! A big part of the fantasy is the perfect wedding gown. Hopefully the following advice will show you there are some alternative options to purchasing the latest and greatest Vera Wang for $7000+. Gulp!

This article will focus on what I consider to be the cheapest mainstream options:

AliExpress

Ebay

Amazon

While there are plenty of other sources for cheap wedding dresses these are the most accessible and I believe to be the best value. These three sites will give most brides more than enough options. However before I go into detail on the sites themselves I want to touch on a few basics before you start hunting for your bargain wedding dress.

Preparation

Buying your dress is a big deal and is still a big purchase even if it doesn’t cost you the Earth. Your experience will be so much more pleasant if you do just a little bit of preparation before hand.

The first thing I encourage brides to do is go kick some tires! Most bridal boutiques will let you, your maid of honour, mother and bridesmaids into the store to try on expensive wedding dresses. Your goal here is to work out what you like and what styles and colours suit you. The more research you have done before you go then more you will be able to guide the consultation. But my advice is to keep your mind open as while their dresses are not cheap these consultant are professional and they want you to look good. Try on their recommendations and listen to your friends and family.

Hopefully by the end of the consultation and debrief with a glass of bubbles you will have a good idea of what you want and what suits you. Mainly thinking about colour and silhouette. This information will stop you from being overwhelmed while searching for your much cheaper wedding dress on the sites below and will start to form the search filters you will use.

Material

The main difference between a $100 wedding dress and a $1000 wedding dress is the quality of the fabric. Remember that this dress only has to look good for one day. You’re not buying a pair of hiking boots that need to withstand a trip to Everest and back! Having said that if you are expecting the most exquisite lace work and the finest silks you are going to be disappointed when your cheap wedding dress arrives. Most brides think that lower quality material are a major problem but the majority would have actually been perfectly happy(and wealthier!) with the lower quality materials.

The best way to determine what will work for you is look at your current wardrobe. If it’s full of expensive designer clothes then you’re going to be disappointed. If you’re sitting here thinking you wish your wardrobe was full of expensive designer clothes I promise you won’t be disappointed with a cheap wedding dress! Even the cheapest wedding dresses are made with a reasonable quality of material. The people that sell them rely on getting a large amount of sales and a quick way to lose sales short is shipping rags.

Style

There are some styles that are less affected by getting a cheaper wedding dress than others. Essentially the more structure you want your dress to have, think big layered trains or rigid bodices, then the more you will pay. These things cost more money due to the amount of material they require. Rigid bodices are also hard to get altered so it’s doubly important that you get the right size right off the bat (see below for why size can make such a difference for the unwary). Undergarments are a great way to add additional structure to a cheap wedding dress. Wearing a good bra can take a lot of the stress out of a rigid bodice and can fix sizing mistakes without alteration!

Embellishments like diamantes, feathers or furs will also drive the cost up and you will notice the low quality nature of these thing, the less you spend. A good rule of thumb for cheap dresses is to avoid these embellishments and add your own jewelry. Should you get a dress that has one of these embellishments that you don’t like you can often replace it with something fairly easily and cheaply. For example a nice family broach makes a great clasp for a belt or ribbon.

Size

First do not panic you don’t need to be a size 2 to get a cheap wedding dress! This is about getting your size correct before you order your wedding gown. Dress alterations range in price but if you have spent $100 on a dress you typically don’t want to spend another $700 on dress alterations. $700 is an extreme example most dressmakers will change you between $500 – $700 to make a dress fit you perfectly. However often you only need the seams re-sewn. This is referred to as letting the dress in or out and costs around $150. Shortening the gown will set you back approximately $200. Luckily for simple alterations there are family member, friends or even the bride herself that is able to do these for little or no cost.

The best thing you can do to keep these costs down are to order a dress that fits you today! Every bride intends to lose a pound or two and while many succeed, many do not and it’s easier to take a dress in or wear a dress that is slightly too large than a dress that is too small.

As stated above under garments can be used to fix dresses that are either slightly too big without paying a cent for alterations. Finally if your looking at a big alterations quote consider the idea of just purchasing another dress! The cheap wedding dresses found on the sites below are cheaper than most alterations.

Cost

Finally before moving onto the the different places to purchase these dresses we need to talk about price! Everyone has a different idea about what is cheap for a wedding dress. Like everything else for your wedding you should have a budget. Every wedding budget should have a bit extra for something that doesn’t quite go to plan. Alterations are something that no one plans for but can really mess up a budget if you only intended to spend $100 on a dress and have no one to do the work for free. Many people if they have the time will actually pay to get a second dress as this can be cheaper than the alterations. Remember is easier to fix a dress that is slightly too big than a dress that is too small!

If you have $800 to spend don’t think you need to spend it all. Often if your searching by price you will find the same dress that is available for $200 also displayed by another company for $700. Remember undergarments can make a massive difference to dresses and can easily be worked into larger budgets. Finally I think most brides can get a cheap wedding dress that they love for under $200.

AliExpress

AliExpress is a Chinese website that functions in a very similar way to Amazon for us here in the US. The difference is a large number of the items you’re purchasing from Amazon or Ebay were actually purchased on Aliexpress or its big brother AliBaba originally but have been marked up by 150% or more for the US market and given a promise of overnight delivery. This same practice happens with wedding dresses! So my advice is cut out the middleman and purchase a cheap wedding dress directly from the source.

All of the wedding dresses are new and usually haven’t been made before they have been ordered. This means you can get a dress tailor made to your measurements or if you’re lucky enough to be a perfect 6 order a default size. Before you start panicking and thinking “tailor made dresses?! I wanted a cheap wedding dress!”, let me reassure you. AliExpress custom made wedding dresses can start as low as $35 and that includes shipping! Obviously this is at the low end and there is a very good chance that the dress you love/want/need won’t be the cheapest wedding dress on site. However with over 175,000 wedding dresses under $150 price point there will be something you love.

Ali express is a lot like Ebay, there are a lot of duplicate items from different sellers. This is because the cheap wedding dresses are actually made using the same patterns as the dresses you would find in high street stores that would charge you top dollar. These high store chains take your measurements and then put an order into their “sewing room”, which just happens to be in China and… well you can connect the dots. All the dresses unless they specifically state they are locally made are being made somewhere with cheaper labor.

An objection I have heard is that it is not ethical to purchase these cheap wedding dresses. However almost all high street clothes were made in worse conditions than these wedding dresses. The ladies that make these dresses are skilled and are making custom dresses for individuals, while not paid the same wage we would expect in the US they are getting paid a reasonable local wage.

However AliExpress isn’t perfect. Before you buy you should realize that shipping from China cheaply takes time. This is time on top of making your wedding dress from scratch, AliExpress has a good tracking system for your order but it will take 20-30 days once it has shipped before it arrives at your door. Typically dresses take 30-45 days to make so allow 3 months from purchase date before it arrives. I have found that it will usually only take 5-6 weeks but this is not something you want to take a risk with, a few weeks out from your big day!

I would also caution from buying from companies that are new to AliExpress. While the site is good at keeping you safe through money back guarantees and harsh punishments for non-diligent sellers a wedding dress is not the type of purchase you want to stress about. Look for feedback ratings, comments and many customers will also post pictures of the dresses upon arrival. It’s always nice to see a dress on a real person rather than all the tiny wasted models in the pictures!

My last point for AliExpress and this sound advice for buying from any of the online vendors below. If you are unsure on your measurements then its better to go bigger than smaller. This is a hard one but trust me selecting a larger size is an easier pill to swallow than waiting 3 months for a dress that doesn’t fit you when it arrives. Getting a dress taken in is a lot easier than having one let out and, depending a bit on the dress, is a relatively cheap procedure.

Ebay

I’m going to assume that all my readers at least know about Ebay if they haven’t actually used it. Ebay is a great source for cheap wedding dresses. Unlike AliExpress, which just has new dresses that are custom made in China, Ebay has three different types of listings:

Custom made in China!

Yep, these are still here and there is a growing number of them that, like AliExpress, offer free shipping. If you are after this type of cheap wedding dress then you typically pay a bit more than you would if the same dress was bought on AliExpress. However many of you already have Ebay accounts and know and understand the security that ebay affords you. If you haven’t used either then I would point you to AliExpress first because the feedback on AliExpress often includes images from other buyers and it is slightly cheaper.

Second hand

Many people feel nervous about having a second hand wedding dress. There is plenty of superstition around it but that is topic for another article. If you have made peace with the idea of a second hand wedding dress you can actually get terrific value for your money. Buying a cheap wedding dress second hand can net you a designer dress for a fraction of the original cost. Better yet it was only worn once and in some cases never worn at all. Just remember if you go down this path be careful with what you fall in love with. Second hand wedding dresses only come in a single size! This will dramatically increase the amount of time you spend looking for a dress. Worse these are often auctions so you will be competing with other brides for a single dress!

US stock

If delivery times make you nervous or you want to call and have a chat to someone about your dress the looking for dress that are either made in the US or are currently in the US is the way forward. Note that many of the cheap wedding dresses here were also made in China but bought in bulk in varying sizes. These companies will often offer alterations, for a fee, and they do facilitate easy returns and additional alterations. The same amount of caution should be taken with new sellers with little feedback.

Amazon

Amazon is the last site im going to mention today and has the smallest number of cheap wedding dresses. However all of the wedding dresses are new and they also have the most organised and curated list. The biggest difference between Amazon and the other two are that none of their dresses are custom made. So while there are some very cheap options be wary of alteration costs. They also have some of the fastest shipping options especially if you are a Amazon Prime subscriber!

This makes Amazon a great site for not only last minute weddings or to get you out of a bind if something went wrong with your plan A, but as a great source for cheap bridesmaid dresses! Typically bridesmaid dresses are purchased closer to the big day after the bride has her dress locked down. This means that the delivery times of the other sites are less desirable. Having a tailored bridesmaid dress is also a lot less important.

Summary

All three of these sites will net you a great cheap wedding dress. They each have their pros and cons but they are similar enough that if you already have a preferred site you may as well stick to it. Always remember to check the seller before you buy and to look closely at delivery times. We wish you the very best of luck searching for your dream dress that will also be a cheap wedding dress!

