To ask where I can get a wedding dress that doesn’t cost the earth?

[winkingdemon]

I’m getting married in October. We’re having a small wedding and not spending a lot on it but i’d still like a nice wedding dress for the day. Happy to spend £200 ish, don’t want to be spending hundreds and hundreds when the actual wedding isn’t going to cost much!
I want something pretty plain and tulle. That’s about my criteria lol. I’m from Manchester so I need recommendations for shops or maybe even somebody that could make a simple dress for me. Also open to the idea of getting something online and having it adjusted etc if need be so it fits well. I’ll attach a couple of pictures of the sort of thing I was thinking of.

The last one is lovey but Preferably with thin straps like the first two as I don’t do strapless!!

Second hand off ebay £25!!
Absolutely loved it. Hangs on my wardrobe 3 years on!!

Yes to eBay. Lots of lovely dresses, worn once.

Try eBay or Wed2b (it’s upstairs in Next in the arndale). I’d recommend going to a few ‘fancy’ shops to get an idea of what suits, then you can scour eBay once you know that.

Keep an eye out for sample sales as well! I just bought mine from a shop called dress the bride in Stockport and that was well priced, and they had good sample stock available.

My wedding dress was actually from the bridesmaid range, but in white (also available in ivory or cream) It was £295 with alterations. Worth looking at if your wanting a new dress, but ebay/gumtree are also worth a look. January sales may also be worth a look! Congratulations and hope you find what your looking for.

I bought mine from a local charity shop. It cost £150, and I had some alterations done which took it up to £300. I had a similar budget to you and a similar budget. Wanted something plain and simple.

I looked at Debenhams and H of F too, they do a decent range of simple wedding dresses. Dorothy Perkins do a range now as well.

Mine ended up being pretty blingy in the end. Totally not what I thought I would buy but I fell in love with it. My advice is go somewhere like Wed2be or a charity shop selling a wide range of dresses and try some on.

I got mine at wed2be.

www.oxfam.org.uk/shop/local-shops/oxfam-bridal-departments?intcmp=bridal-intro-boutiques

Oxfam collate their wedding dresses into a few stores. I got mine (fairly simple style) for £40, then spent £50 on alterations. Cambridge was easiest for me, but not super close, so made a day of it.

Coco melody is fab for reasonably priced dresses

www.swoonweddinggowns.co.uk

Swoon used to be good but website has been updated so they may have upped their prices.

Monsoon and phase eight do wedding dresses in some stores.
Some prom dresses look pretty weddingy

I got my wedding dress off eBay. It was brand new and only cost me £65. The seller had closed down her shop and was selling her stock off. I just had it altered to fit.

I got mine from Monsoon.

Monsoon might be worth a look too. They do some wedding style dresses.

Monsoon, wed2be in the Arndale centre, also some bridal shops have off the rack dresses that start at £100. Usually ex-display or excess stock or end of line dresses. Definitely worth having a look around.
Also try preloved online. Whatever you do don’t be tempted to go down the cheap china websites no matter what the reviews say. It can only end in disaster.

I got my wedding dress from Monsoon too. I was £400 though. I sold it on eBay almost straight after the wedding for £150. So I'd try eBay if I were you!

Asos have a few around the £200 mark.

Phase Eight have some of the nicest wedding dresses I've seen.

EBay, a used dress. The new fancy ones on Ebay from China stay clear of.
ASOS has some lovely ones too.

How tall are you And what size? I have one very similar I could pass on

If you can hold on keep a look out in TK Maxx, they do a wedding dress event in the spring.

There is this place in Stockport

bridalfactoryoutlets.co.uk/stockport-outlet/?gclid=EAIaIQobChMIgNf7i8nF3wIV6L3tCh0WgQ9nEAAYASAAEgK6C_D_BwE

The old Berkertex Brides shop on the upper mall in the Arndale Centre next to Boots, is now Pastiche Occasion Wear, and they might have something that would suit.

Finally, there is a stall in the Arndale Centre Market which sells prom wear and simple wedding dresses, so they might have something that suits.

My DSD bought a cheap dress off the internet which needs a lot of alterations, and no dressmakers will touch it for some reason.

Has anyone ever bought a dress from lightinthebox or similar? They're really good prices on there but I've no idea of the quality

I bought mine from a sample sale in Manchester when a store was closing for refurb.

Your last pic is very similar to mine. I'd consider selling. What size are you? I'm short and petite so prob not going to work if you're tall and/or curvy but im happy to share pics. Im also local to you.

My friend bought her BM dresses from lightinthebox and when they arrived had to do an emergency dash round the shops to get something that didn't look like it had been stitched by a yr8 home economics student at the bottom of the class.

Some people have great success with them but they are hit and (more often) miss and extremely difficult to get money back from.