Can you really wear a $26 wedding dress?!

According to a survey last year by Wedded Wonderland, Australia’s biggest bridal site, the average Aussie wedding costs a budget-busting $90,128*. And of that amount, brides-to-be are spending $5180 on their dream wedding dress 😱 Talk about the cost of love!

Here at hussh, we’re always trying to help you save big so when we heard about a website selling wedding dresses from just $26 (yep, $26!), we had to find out more. Would the cheap frills look just that or were we about to discover dream-dress discount heaven?

$26 wedding dresses?! Tell me where!

Founded in 2011, Wish is a shopping website that connects customers with stores around the world. When you place an order, it could ship from a variety of locations depending on where the vendor is situated – a lot of the clothing is shipped from China for example. The prices are super low but so’s the consistency of the items.

Reviews for Wish range from happy customers who are totally chuffed with their bargain buys to not-so-happy customers who are disappointed their items don’t match the photos/descriptions on the website, are poorly made, take a long time to arrive and are difficult to return.

What we ordered

We browsed the website and based on a selection of images we choose three dresses:

• A traditional satin gown with lace trim and elegant cut-out back for $35.

• A slinky low-backed evening-style wedding dress for $26, both in a small size.

• And a pretty lace flower girl frock for $19.

All three items, including $24 shipping, came to a total of $104.

What arrived

Wish isn’t a fast-fashion site – our dresses arrived one month after we placed our order.

Dress one:

This dress seems a lot bigger than a small. The skirt was a little see-through and the seams were wonky in the panelling.

The lace at the back was uneven and didn’t meet up.

One side was also a slightly different colour. All that being said, the overall look of the dress wasn’t too bad.

It wasn’t as delicate as the version pictured on the website but if you didn’t mind a few close-up details being off, there was enough extra fabric for a dressmaker to work some magic and create a better fit. Adding a petticoat would be necessary too.

Dress two:

When we unpacked this dress, we were surprised at how flimsy it felt. The lace was stretchy and the straps felt as though they could snap if someone trod on the train.

These, and the uneven fastenings at the back, would need strengthening.

The fit was very snug – this fabric is not forgiving – and the cut would reveal a lot of skin if you didn’t invest in the right underwear, adding an extra expense. All that said, the pattern on the train was pretty and it hung nicely at the back.

Flower girl dress:

The lace is very thin and there’s no petticoat.

But while it’s not exactly what was in the photos, it isn’t too far off. The ribbon bow is pretty and adding a petticoat underneath the lace would make it appropriate for a little girl to wear.

With some lacey flower girl dresses starting at $75, all in all, this would be ok for $19 once you’d made the addition of a slip or lining.

So should you buy a $26 wedding dress?

Verdict: Maybe….

If you prepare yourself for the fact that what you unwrap is probably not going to be what you’ve seen on screen, that it won’t be a ready-to-wear frock and that it won’t have the same high quality finish as a shop-bought dress, it could be worth giving a site like Wish a go. But you’ll also need to make allowances for extra costs – you’ll need to get the right underwear and probably have to hire a dressmaker to sort the fit and fix as many of the visible issues as you want.

Want more discount wedding ideas? Check out our tried and tested budget wedding ideas that don’t look cheap:

Tried and tested budget wedding ideas that don’t look cheap

*mywedding.com Cost of Love survey, April 2018.