Buying your dress is quite possibly the most important activity you are now looking forward to, you little blushing bride you. Before you go hitting the town with your pocket books in one hand and excitement galore in the other, listen to these few tips to watch out for in the bridal hustle bustle.
The first of seven tactics that bridal shops will try if you let them:
Tag-less Dresses
If you go into a bridal retailer, that sells gowns designed by others in their shops at mark-up prices, beware of the tag less dress. Some retailers (not all, so please don’t sue me) will take off the tags to dresses just to stop you from going down the street to the nearest bridal salon to comparison shop.
This is of course against the law. The Textile Fiber Products Identification Act of 1963 states that all apparel be properly labeled. Unfortunately, there is no bridal gown tag police. Which could be a good thing for all you mattress tag rippers, but definitely not for a bride on a budget.
- Price Gouging
Tag-less dresses are being sold for designer prices. This is a serious problem. Wedding dress designers spend all their advertising dollars to make us recognize a brand and then the retailers rip off the tags and sell a knock off for designer prices.
- Fabric Fraud
If the tag is gone, this also means that the fabric information is also missing. This means that they can pass off a silk price for a polyester blend product.
Some designers care about this travesty and some don’t. They want to protect their brand but after all they are in the business of selling gowns and whatever the retailer thinks will improve sales is where their loyalties lie.
So what is the solution, so you don’t have to fall into this trap? Do your homework. If you see a gown in a magazine that you absolutely love, go to the designer showroom and see the actual gown before you go into a local retailer. You can feel the fabric yourself and know the gown bfore you see it at a discounted price for comparison. Don’t have any designer show rooms in nearby access? Find the dresses you love in your favorite bridal magazine. Walk into the bridal salons listed in the ads. Ask them for those specific dresses for those specific designers. If they say that they don’t know and want to show you something else, leave. It’s very simple. They would not be involved in an ad if they didn’t know who the designer was.
Also, do your research on a few of the reputable bridal salons on the top branding websites: TheKnot.com & TheWeddingChannel.com to name a few. Believe me, doing your homework from the beginning will save you from pocket book burning in the end.
