Order Online? - Yeah, I did that.

Just a bit of advice on buying a dress! I bought my dresses online. I say dresses because I actually bought 2 wedding dresses. It was hard to decide which dress I wanted and I was a little nervous about not being able to try the dress on before buying it. I had a few concerns about the way my more favorite dress would fit, so I also got my second favorite dress. No worries though because both dresses together were still cheaper than any one of the lowest priced dresses I would have bought in a store. It was good that I did buy two because as it turns out, I didn't even like the dress I originally wanted once I tried it on. It didn't fit me quite right, and had a lot more beading than I thought, which made the top of the dress too stiff for my liking. So now I will just sell that dress and wear the other one (and then probably sell that one too).

There are lots of places online that you can buy wedding dresses for super cheap. Most of them are from China, and quite a few of them don't make the dress until you order it. You can get a really good deal, but you have to be careful and on top of things. You should probably follow these simple rules when ordering online.

1. Before you just go ordering a dress, you will want to research the site you are going through. Make sure they have a good, safe policy, and definitely check for reviews on the site, the manufacturer, and the product. Also, make sure you read each different manufacturer's policies. From returning, shipping, methods of payment, and so forth. Make sure it sounds legitimate. It also helps to know someone who has ordered online successfully and possibly use the same site (that's what I did).
2. If you are having the dress custom made, make sure that you do the measurements right! Each manufacturer has a different way of measuring, and they should have directions on how to measure somewhere on the page you order from. 
3. Make sure they are following through with the shipment! Your package will be assigned a tracking number, and you want to keep checking it, just to make sure it's going where it needs to. However, don't just check the tracking number on the site you bought your dress/whatever from. Check it on an actual tracking site. I found that one of my dresses had made it to the USA by tracking it on an actual EMS tracking site. It wasn't being updated on the site I bought the dress from and it had been a while and I was sort of freaking out. So I plugged the tracking number into a different tracking site and found out everything was fine and my dress was going to arrive in a couple of days. 
4. Make note of what form of shipment they are using and research how long it should take to ship. I didn't do this at first. One dress was shipped a few days before the second, but the second arrived only 3-5 days after shipping. Then another week went by and I started freaking out thinking my dress was lost. Until I realized that the first dress to arrive was express mail and the other might not be. So I looked it up. Turns out, the form of shipment for this dress took about two weeks to arrive in the USA from China. So I stopped worrying so much. It had only been a little over a week. 
5. Don't be afraid to send a message to your manufacturer. If you have a worry, let them know about it. If you like the dress you ordered, let them know about it. Write a review for them even. They could be very helpful if you're package accidentally got lost. Or they could be a little more lenient if they know your concerns and what might have gone wrong with your package. Communication is key. Just as in any relationship you could ever be in. 
6. This last one isn't so much a tip as it is a heads up. Both of the dresses I ordered were custom made, so they didn't even start making them until I had ordered and the payment went through. For one dress, it took about 3 and a half weeks from the time I ordered to when it arrived. That was express mail. The second dress took probably about 5 weeks. So plan ahead! Be prepared to have a back up plan if your dress doesn't fit right, or you absolutely hate it, or it gets lost. 

It's a little more risky to order online, but I would say that it is definitely worth it. I am very happy with my dress and can't wait to wear it!