UK wedding dress rental - anyone have any recs?

[theadvicist]

I've been talking to some fairly mustachian friends about their wedding. She was talking about buying, wearing, and reselling a wedding dress. I mentioned renting as a way to save the hassle. She was very into it!

Does anyone have any experience or recommendations for companies to use? The only friend I had who has done it (great experience) was an overseas wedding.

Thanks to anyone who might be able to help, though I know it's a long shot.

[cerebus]

We didn't rent ours but it didn't cost much, my wife went to an area of London where there are a lot of Pakistani tailor shops and got something very nice there for a low price. I'll see if she can remember where it was but it was 8 years ago now.

I got my wedding Harrods suit from Oxfam ;)

[climbgirl]

I looked at renting dresses for my wedding in London last year but found the rental prices were actually quite steep - mostly in the £200-£350 range.  I ended up buying one for £450 as it wasn't that much dearer than renting and I've always got the option of selling it on to recoup some of the cost if I want to.

I know these are not rental options, so apologies for not answering the question but if she does decide to buy instead, check out David's Bridal* in Westfield Stratford - they have a huge range of dresses (traditional and quirky!) and most of them are priced from £200-£600.  Monsoon also do a wedding range with dresses in the £200-400 range but they're a bit more ball-gown type dresses rather than proper wedding dresses.  So may not be the right kind of thing.

*(I know David's Bridal is a massive chain in the US but it's very new to us in the UK and the idea of being able to get a wedding dress for under £1000 is a REAL novelty here, there are barely any stores that offer that!)

[theadvicist]

Thanks Climbgirl!

I was googling yesterday and found one place that *rented* dresses from £695!!! What on earth?! I had a big, white, poofy wedding dress, and it cost £700 to buy! I guess maybe they can't get many wears out of it, so it's not as economical as say, hiring a dinner suit.

David's Bridal is a great shout, thank you. I had a flower girl dress bought by an American relative over there because the choice was so vast. I didn't know they had one here so I will definitely mention it.

[eljay]

If she'd consider renting (which is technically used), then buying a used wedding dress from eBay would be a good way to go approx. £100.  Probably easier if she already has a good idea of a style/size/brand she likes. Many sellers allow returns though. Alteration would be an extra cost.

Eljay

[theadvicist]

Hi Eljay, the original idea was to buy used, wear and resell. I just thought renting was an easier way to accomplish the same thing... but it's probably not worth the fact that someone has to take a cut somewhere to make it a viable business. I think used is probably the best idea. Thanks.

[chouchouu]

I bought my wedding dress when I lived in the London. I found a dress I liked from Jcrew and then bought the same model on eBay from the US. It cost about $80 but I was lumped with a whole bunch of fees, tax and a "processing fee" that ended up costing more than the dress. However the dress was beautiful and new. I spent about 25 pounds having it altered to fit correctly. I looked pretty smashing if I say so myself and had a pure silk dress that was gorgeous. There are plenty of Jcrew wedding dresses available on eBay for a moderate sum and of course you can sell onwards. I wil say their sizing is quite off. I was supposed to be a size 6 according to measurements but I'm actually much smaller than their size 6, hence the alteration fees. Anyway just a suggestion on finding a moderately priced dress.