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By Georgina Clatworthy

The internet has given many budding brides the resources they need to carry out their wedding planning. In recent years this has even extended to wedding dresses. Perhaps unthinkable just a few years ago when the purists would have said it is just not possible to buy your wedding dress from an online retailer & have it fit.

But despite this, websites selling a wealth of wedding dresses - old & new, keep springing up. So should you consider buying your wedding dress from an online retailer? Here are some of the pros & cons.

How it Works

Basically if you buy a dress from an online retailer they will order it directly from the manufacturer in the size which you have specified when you checked out. Usually you will have to pay the entire price of the wedding dress up front although some sites may be able to offer payment terms so you can make regular installments.

If you are able to order a sample dress to try on first expect to pay a deposit & shipping fees on top. The deposit will be refunded once the dress is returned & some may refund your shipping fees when you place an order.



Ebay & other Auction Sites

Ebay gives many of us access to items which may otherwise be out of reach, designer wedding dresses for one. It is possible to find & purchase a stunning designer wedding dress on Ebay at a fraction of the cost. It may have been worn once, it may never have been worn at all, but never the less, it is there & you could grab it at a bargain price.

Ebay is really a modern version of the newspaper classifieds, only with more bells & whistles; & what it has done is given people the chance to run their own business by setting up an Ebay shop. A quick search through the wedding gowns on Ebay will bring up a wealth of sellers who have shops & who are selling beautiful wedding dresses at bargain prices. But beware. Many of these bargain gowns will have no name attached to them, many are unlikely to have come from the design sheets of a well known designer & as a result the quality maybe poor. They are likely made in some far eastern factory with low quality fabrics & very little handwork applied. There is a saying 'you get what you pay for' & this is very true when it comes to mass produced dresses of any kind.

My advice - stick to what you know, if you spot a designer name that you have heard of go with it. Always check out the seller for positive feedback scores & pay through paypal as they offer buyer protection should something go wrong.

What You Don't Get Online

The obvious one here is fittings. You are unlikely to get a dress fitting & alterations thrown in, unless the store owner lives locally to you & offers this service to customers in the local area. So you will need to find yourself a good seamstress to make any alterations.

You won't get to try it on beforehand either. Although this said, some sites will send out a sample gown to you for a small deposit.



Bricks & Mortar vs. Online Store

Having an online store brings many advantages to the owner. They do not have the same overheads as a physical high street store so they can pass the savings on to their customers (or so they say!). They can also showcase a bigger range of wedding dresses than a high street store. Online stores have no need to carry a range of sample dresses so they can offer a lot more dresses including past & present seasons.

However, a bricks & mortar store does offer you the opportunity to try dresses on before making a decision. They also offer alterations & fitting services - which brings me on to my next point....

What's in the Price?

So are the online stores really cheaper? Take a look at these price comparisons:

Online Store High Street Store

Wedding Dress $350 $550

Fitting & Alterations $250 (by third party) included in price

Shipping $ 50 free - collection in person

Total Cost $650 $550

Now not all high street bridal shops will include fittings & alterations in the price, but many do. So as you can see buying from the high street is actually $100 cheaper than from the online store.



Try Before You Buy

Now this may seem cheeky. If you think the price you have seen on the internet for a well known designer dress can't be beaten on the high street, but you would like to try it on first, then why not visit a bridal store first. Check out your local bridal boutiques for one that stocks the wedding dress you have seen. Arrange to go & try it on, but make sure you take a print out of the online dress & the price with you.

If you like the dress enough to buy it, ask the sales assistant if there is room to negotiate on the price. Show them the price of the same dress online & see if they will match it. But remember, as I have shown above you can get other benefits in the price from a high street store that you won't get online, so any discount that they offer is worth considering as you could still be saving a lot of money.

So it really is a personal choice as to whether or not you buy online. Look for reputable sites which carry industry logos &/or safe shopping logos showing that they offer a secure & reliable service. Always look for a bricks & mortar address & at least two different methods of contact. Most retailers online are trustworthy but there are those that will take your money & run - so beware.

I personally think that a trip to a local bridal store with a friend or relative is an integral part of the whole wedding experience & one which you should look forward to & enjoy. Surf the net for ideas & inspiration but then go to your nearest store & have some fun trying on different dresses before you make your final choice. You can't touch & feel dresses on a computer screen or gain a feel for the workmanship involved. In my view buying your wedding dress online is a risk, what you have to decide is if it is one worth taking?