Simply Bridal's slogan:
Quality, honesty and value: That’s what we offer at Simply Bridal. Experts make our wedding dresses and bridesmaid dresses by hand, using only high-quality materials. We provide ethereal, classic and fashion-forward wedding gowns that will match your body and personality. We keep our prices at a discount, so that every bride can afford the wedding dress of her dreams
Being on a tight budget I ran into a lot of websites claiming to sell designer gowns at sometimes a quarter of the original price! I did some research and most of these companies are based out of China and are selling knock-offs. That might be OK for some people however I did not want to chance supporting a sweat shop in addition to getting a crappy dress. I also found horror story reviews for most of the sites. If you find a dress that is too good to be true that it probably is. Or so I thought, until I found Simply Bridal. The difference in this company is that they design their OWN dresses. They are not trying to sell knock-offs of high end dresses. They also make most (I say most because when I emailed the company they did tell me during "peak season" they sometimes have to out source to company in Shanghai to meet demand) gowns here in the US. They also have show rooms in LA and NYC that anyone can visit. Prices range from $80 to $700. Most bridal gowns in the $200 to $400 range.
I noticed they had a "try and home" program. With this program you get to pick 2 dresses for $19.95 (that included the shipping) and they will mail you the dresses to try on at home. You also receive a mailing label to return the dresses for free within 7 days. Oh yea AND the $19.95 then gets added to your account and you can use it towards the purchase of a gown. I thought how cool is that!?! The catch to this is that not all the dresses are available for the program however they did have quite a few to choose from. Another down side is you do not get to pick the size. You get to pick small (sizes 0- 12) or large (sizes 14-30). I ended up choosing 4 dresses. You are able to get more however the max credit they allow you that goes towards a full purchase of a dress is $39 . I also figured I didn't need more than 4 since I was still trying on dresses at boutiques in my area.
Please be aware their website it pretty glitchy. It reloads a lot on its own and it also is not the most user friendly thing. I also ended up getting charged $19.95 three times instead of two. This was quickly fixed after I called them.
The dresses arrived by Fed Ex in about 6 days. You must be home to sign for them, Fed Ex will not leave them at the door.
They included cute little cards in each box with how the program works and step by step instructions.
The packages also had the return lables and receipts inside.
The dresses came in vacuum sealed bags. Two of the four had dirt and animal hair inside them. It wasn't a huge amount but noticable. I have pets too so I know how it can be almost impossible to leave the house without a cat hair or two on your clothes so this didn't bother me too much. Now if it was my new dress I was buying then I would have been upset.
You will need a vacuum with a hose to re-seal the bags when shipping them back. There is a little nozzle on each bag to help with this.
The dresses were very wrinkled and inside out. This was to be expected since they were vacuum sealed. They also had some marker written on them however the actual sizes were no where to be found. Just "small" or "large" hand written in the marker.
Two of the gowns were so big I was swimming in them. One had to have been a size 00, I couldnt even get one leg in the dress. The fourth was about 2 sizes too small for me so I was able to put it on and gauge the cut and style of the dress I just couldn't zip it up all the way.
So over all I think the program is pretty neat. I really liked being able to try the dresses on in the comfort of my own room. The quality seemed great especially since the dresses are so cheap! The sizes were a major issue for me though. Being able to pick the correct size might increase sales so I believe they should correct this . I know the program is still in beta so its only available in the US. I am still not 100% sure if I am going to purchase my gown from Simply Bridal however I will not let my credit go to waste! They have veils and bridesmaid dresses too.
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