If you are thinking of purchasing your wedding dress on-line, please be aware that Absolutely Fabulous Bridal is extremely against anyone using a full service bridal salon to try on or get measurements without letting them know that is what you are doing. These salons (including ours) have to pay for their samples, pay to have employees assist you, pay rent and utilities and lose sales when they turn down another appointment that is a legitimate customer. Most bridal shops will let you try on and take your measurements for a small fee if you let them know. These shop owners provide a wonderful experience for the entire wedding party which you can not get from the internet.

Although on-line shopping is convenient, there are several disadvantages of not going to a full service bridal salon to buy your wedding dress:

Using a discount site - most sites that claim to be able to get your dream dress at a discount rate are not authorized retailers for that designer. They are usually purchasing the gown from another store that will lose the right to sell those gowns if the designer finds out. You take the chance that the actual store will not be found out. If they are, you will not be getting that dress you have been dreaming of.

Getting the right size - taking your measurements can be tricky. Not everyone knows where to take the measurements or if the tape is in the right position (especially if you are trying to take the measurements yourself). Also not all designer´s size charts are correct. Only an experienced bridal shop would know if the designer you have chosen has correct sizing on their charts.

Getting what you paid for - if you pay for a specific dress from a specific designer, you may get a knock off of lesser quality. Be sure any internet company that you purchase from also has a brick and mortar store that is listed on the designer´s website. Be especially cautious if they are discounting all their dresses.

Quality and Color - all designers have some kind of manufacturing problem once in a while. This can not be predicted or prevented. If your dress arrives at a full service bridal shop, it is checked for problems and the designer is contacted to fix any problems. This is not the case with all on-line stores. Also, the colors on the websites are almost never the actual color of the material. If you want your bridesmaid´s dresses to match your flowers and are buying them sight unseen from the internet, you should wait until you have the dresses before ordering the flowers. This isn´t always possible because it is hard to have your favorite florist available on very short notice.

These are just a few of the problems that can happen by buying on-line.