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Risk vs Reward: buying wedding items from sketchy websites

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This post is about my hunt for unique and budget-friendly bridesmaid dresses. I’ll share what happened when I decided to order wedding items from a website that seemed a bit sketchy.

Risk vs Reward: buying wedding items from sketchy websites
Jacqui

Asking my bridesmaids was one of the things I was MOST excited about. I’ve had the same group of girlfriends for almost my entire life– something that most people aren’t able to say. I knew they would be as pumped about my wedding as I am!! The downfall is that we are all at ~that age~ where everyone is engaged and getting married.

To be exact… three of my nine bridesmaids all had their weddings in the month of October this year! Luckily, my wedding isn’t until April because we were all in each other’s weddings! This can get expensive, as I’m sure you’re aware if you’ve ever been a part of a wedding party. This led me to my conscious decision to make this experience as friendly on their wallets as possible, without sacrificing originality and fun.

Spoiler Alert: I’ll tell you about my bachelorette party plans in a future post detailing how I plan to cut costs here!

What happened when I fell for bridesmaids dresses out of my price range

As usual, I raided Pinterest for ideas on bridesmaid dresses. I checked out Etsy, Weddington Way, David’s Bridal, all of the places, to get inspiration. Until I stumbled upon the image of “Watercolor Bridesmaid Dresses” below on Pinterest. *Gasp.* It was everything I was searching for. I loved the idea of doing a printed bridesmaids dress. After literally googling for hours and hours trying to find the exact dresses from the picture and eventually, I was successful. I almost cried when I visited the Plum Pretty Sugar website and saw the price tag of over $300 each.

Plum Pretty Sugar Bridesmaids Dresses
Plum Pretty Sugar Couture Floral Bridesmaids Dresses

I then resolved that it didn’t have to be that exact dress and I pulled up my big girl panties and kept a-googling. After I found several that I really liked, but the majority of them were on clearance. I began this search in August and the dresses are fairly “springy” – thus affecting the variability of sizes available and the number of dresses in each size.

How I ended up ordering my bridesmaids dresses from a sketchy website

After more hours of searching, I thought I had finally found “the one!” Imagine my sorrow when I discovered that this dress is on one of those sketchy overseas clothing websites. You know, the ones that you read those Facebook horror stories about people ordering 24 items for $108.73 and upon delivery finding out that everything is grossly undersized and looks nothing like the picture?! Again– the heartbreak.

I pondered, read reviews (99% of which were written by people employed by the company– it was THAT obvious), and assessed my risk. The dresses were ~25 dollars apiece. I was eight months out from my wedding, and they were not in traditional 2, 4, 6, 8, 10 sizes… just Small, Medium, and Large. After a brief moment of hesitation, I took the plunge and ordered nine dresses of varying sizes based on my educated guess for each gal. The total price was a whopping ~225 dollars. (Aka, less than the cost of ONE of the original dresses I’d had my eye on.)

I’m being 100% truthful when I tell you that I stalked my e-mail, tracking page, mailbox, and mailwoman for the next two weeks. Until…

The results of my risky wedding shopping decision

I get the text that they have been delivered– Mandarin symbols on the packaging and all! Immediately, I rip open the bag and pull out all of the floral bridesmaids dresses (counting to make sure) and they are all there! I immediately try on one of each size, all of which fit, and I am SO HAPPY WITH THE RESULTS! Check out a couple of my friends trying on their watercolor bridesmaids’ dresses below. I have to say, they exceeded my expectations for wedding attire from a website that seemed pretty sketchy.

I ordered my bridesmaids dresses for my wedding from a sketchy website.
*They will kill me for posting this. Shhh… 

The material is not the softest nor made of the highest quality, but they fit and the design looks almost exactly like the picture. Also, there is no variation in color, which is something I was highly concerned about.

Here is the picture that was on the website Rosewe:

Buying wedding items from a sketchy overseas website was a success

Overall results:
It worked out for me and my gals, but it could have easily gone wrong!

Tip: check the return policy
I researched the return policy and was satisfied that I could get my money back if it didn’t work out.

Takeaways:
If you have time to take a chance like this– do it! You just might score a deal!

Have you experienced any success or horror stories ordering wedding items online? Would you shop on a sketchy website for wedding stuff?

 


Jacqui

lives in the great and wonderful city of Nashville, Tennessee. She got married in 2015 - read her wedding planning posts here.