My big fat fake wedding dress!!! The world of counterfeit wedding dresses explained.

If anyone follows my social media posts or picked up a 'Brides Beware' leaflet at my shop or at a wedding fayre, they'll have noticed that I feel very strongly about counterfeiting in our industry and I often highlight the dangers with pictures of 'real versus fake' to illustrate the point.  I have been thanked by numerous brides over the years for making them aware of the fact that counterfeiting goes on - many brides have told me that they were on the verge of buying a copy of a designer dress with no idea that they weren't getting the exact same dress as was shown in the picture. But what I haven't done is to explain to people what goes on in the world of counterfeit wedding dresses and why we should stop and think about the industry as a whole and the implications of what 'buying fake' means.

The sad reality is that counterfeiting goes on with many products.  If anyone watches 'Fake Britain' they'll know that there are people out there making everything from fake food products and alcoholic drinks, to fake DVDs, perfumes and electrical items.  It seems that in this day and age there are fake versions of almost anything!! And fake designer wedding dresses are a big thorn in the side of most of the top wedding dress designers and the stores which invest in their labels in bridal boutiques all over the country.


I've blogged and shown pictures on my Facebook page before and shown the scary reality of what many of these dresses look like - I even have a few in my shop that were given to me by disappointed brides who had believed that they were going to get a dress that looked identical to the one in the photograph, but were left bitterly disappointed when they received their gown.  The two below aren't the worst to be fair, but they show dresses that some people would call 'passable' beside the authentic version.

The fake one on the right may not seem so bad - but compare it to the one on the left...

I guess it's like everything in life - some people are more easily pleased than others.  For many brides, they will accept nothing short of the high quality that you get from a designer dress for one of the biggest (and most photographed) events of their lives, but for others, they are pretty clued up on the fact that they are getting a fake dress and will settle for a cheaper version of the dress in the form of a counterfeit dress.  They know what they are getting and are happy to settle for something that isn't up the same standard as the real deal.

 'Sure what harm is there in buying fake goods?' many would say.  But there's a lot to consider when going down this route....

The first issue is related to the factories in which these dresses are made.  Dress designers have a constant fight on their hands trying to target the factories which are illegally using their copyrighted images and designs and who are then supplying fake dresses - and the thing that makes it so hard is that these are 'back-street' set ups which are operating illegally and are hard to track down.  Often the only thing visible is a website which doesn't even supply a phone number or address.  When I buy dresses from my designers, they use legitimate factories which they either own or lease.  These factories follow strict guidelines when it comes to things like health and safety, and there are labour laws in force to make sure that employees are working in good conditions, get a decent wage and get things like holiday pay.   They also have restrictions on their working hours to make sure they are not exploited.  Okay - it means that we pay more for items that come out of these factories, but I for one can sleep better at night knowing that my business isn't selling goods that are made in sweat shops with 10 year old children sewing beads on dresses, or knowing that a person isn't doing a 80 hour week with no overtime in factories with no air-conditioning.  Back street counterfeit factories can produce dresses that we can buy for a cheaper price, but at what cost?  I find it sad enough that the designers of the dress are losing out on getting their cut for having their designs stolen, but when people are getting exploited, that's a whole league of it's own.  The price is cheaper, but at what cost?

Quality control is extremely suspect when it comes to fake designer goods.  Wedding dresses have to pass certain tests so that factories are not forwarding goods that may be extremely flammable for example.  Another one is to make sure that you don't get a dress that has a nest of baby spiders in it (yes - wedding dress parcels from our designers' factories have to treated to make sure that no foreign critters arrive as a nasty surprise!)  One of the realities of fake wedding dresses is that gowns can come apart on the wedding day (followers of my Facbook page may remember one that went viral a few years ago where a bride bought a fake dress and it fell apart on her wedding day... and she had told her guests it was from my shop!)  Whilst I was angry that she fibbed about getting the dress with me, I did feel sorry for her that  her day was ruined due to shoddy workmanship.  You can't undo your wedding day, the pictures or the memories of a dodgy wedding dress that fell apart on the day.

Fake goods being destroyed at customs

When you buy a genuine dress through a wedding shop, you also know that they have went through all the proper channels. When a bride is waiting for her dress to arrive and it has come from a source that is above board, the bridal shop owner is not panicking that the bride's dress will be confiscated by customs. When I track parcels and hear that a dress has arrived at customs, I'm thinking 'great - this dress is almost here!'.  When a bride buys a fake dress either directly online or through a home seller, it's fingers and toes all crossed that customs don't seize it.  A change in European laws last year now means that products entering the EU will be seized and destroyed if intercepted, and they already have destroyed billions of pounds worth of counterfeit goods since this law has come into effect.  Follow this link to a BBC report to find out more. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-26080135 


With an imminent wedding on the cards, is it worth taking the risk when you could have bought a wedding dress elsewhere that would have fitted into the same budget?  (eg. at a wedding dress sample sale)    Counterfeiting has huge implications for the local and wider economy. Avoiding taxes and customs affects every person in our country who uses services that depend on these taxes, whether it is for educating our children or having an illness treated at your local hospital.  Top celebrities have been named and shamed in recent years for tax avoidance - counterfeiting is no different in respect this issue.   It's on a smaller scale for each individual, but a much larger scale when they are all added up!!



At the end of the day, I can't stop brides buying fake wedding dresses (or any fake goods for that matter), but what I can do is highlight the dangers and make them stop and think before they go down that route.  It's very tempting when you are presented with an image stolen from the designer's website and a price tag that seems too good to be true.   I can guarantee that if you put the fake dress and the genuine designer dress side by side, the quality, the fabrics, the beading, the cut and structure of the dress and the workmanship will be of a very different standard.   Buy a designer dress at a sample sale,  or even buying pre-loved, you get what you see, you have it that day, you won't be worrying about it getting seized at customs and there won't be any nasty surprises.  Buy cheap - buy twice.  I've come across that scenario many times.  Brides who have told me that they chanced a fake dress and ended up down in my shop looking for a new dress on the run up to their wedding. Just  be careful and don't set your expectations too high if you do decide to go against the advice posted here.  A wedding is one of the biggest days of your life, and there's no doubt that the bride is the focal point of the big day.  With all eyes on you, is going down the counterfeit road the best way?

Beautiful Day Bridal Cottage - new stockists for Mori Lee by Madeline Gardner

We're so excited to announce that we are the new stockists in the Derry area for Mori Lee by Madeline Garner.  Alongside the main Mori Lee collection, we'll also have dresses from their Blu range and from the Julietta collection, designed especially for the size 18+ bride.

The dresses have started to arrive, and always, we'll be announcing all new arrivals on our Facebook page, so make sure that you have liked our page and are following our newsfeed to be kept up to date.

Last call for Brides Across the Bridge!!

This year I've had the honor of being one of the sponsors  for the Foyle Hospice's 'Brides Across the Bridge' event.  Last year, myself, my staff, members of my family and hundreds of other women (and one man!) took to the streets of Derry in wedding dresses and set a world record of 748 brides making it the largest gathering of brides in history!!

The Foyle Hospice were delighted to not only have raised thousands of pounds, and to get the Guinness Record, but to top this they picked up The Institute of Fundraising - Fundraising Event of the Year Award earlier this month.

The craic was ninety!!

The people of our city and from beyond (they are coming from miles away to take part!!) will be taking to the streets this week again to celebrate in their dresses. The event takes place this Saturday the 5th July 2014 at 3.30pm at the Guildhall Square and once again a stream of brides will parade over the Peace Bridge in their wedding attire.  It costs £10 to register to take part (or £5 for 'mini-me' brides - children are welcome to come along in their little dresses!!) and the hope is that we will raise thousands more this year and re-capture some of the magic we had at last years event.  And for those who couldn't make it last year, it will be a chance to get to be part of this great event and to have a bit of craic in their wedding dresses too.  The atmosphere was electric last year and if it's half as much fun as it was then, then you'd be mad to miss out!!

Get down to Foyleside ladies!!

For those of you who have decided last-minute to take part and need to go searching for a dress, there will  be dresses to hire out at the pop up shop opposite DV8 on level 2 of Foyleside Centre on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday of this week (see the Brides Across the Bridge facebook page for more details.)   The dresses were donated by our own shop, as well as from local shops such as Austin's and The Bridal Showroom.  Lots were kindly donated by the public, and I had boxes of dresses sent over the Irish sea - kindly donated to me by Giselle, Sarah, Cheryl, Linda and Laura who all own Bridal shops and wanted to help out.  There were about 60 dresses in total and about half are hired out already, so get your skates on this week if you want to get your hands on one!

Follow this link for more details and for the pop-up hire shop opening times. 

Brides-Across-the-Bridge facebook page - click here

Best of luck to the Foyle Hospice and I hope that everyone taking part has a fab day.  I'll be wearing my mum's wedding dress (my granny bought it for her this time 40 years ago and my parents will soon be celebrating their Ruby wedding anniversary) 

I'd love to hear about you and your wedding dress!!!  Leave a wee message below and tell us what you will be wearing on Saturday :) 

xx Ciara
Beautiful Day Bridal Cottage

www.beautifudaybrides.co.uk

Sample loan service

I often get phonecalls and emails from brides asking for particular dresses that are designed by the likes of Maggie Sottero, Essense of Australia or Special Day - all labels we carry - but we don't always have the particular dress that they want in store.  I only wish I could carry all the dresses, but I have to carefully select a selection which I feel my brides will like... and more importantly, I have a budget that I need to stick to!! (contrary to what some people might think, we have to buy all our sample dresses at the designer's full price!!!)

If you are looking for a dress that we don't have, we can check with the designer to see if there is any chance we can get it on loan.  Practically all the dresses featured on the designers' websites are available to borrow.  Most, however, are size 8 dresses (with exception of the Beautiful Brides Plus collection and a small range of Maggie Sottero gowns that are kept in plus sizes) so if you are a generous size 12 or more, these dresses might not be suitable for trying on.

There is a fee charged to cover the cost of the courier bringing the dress to us and returning it to the designer.  This fee is mostly set at £50, but can vary.  But the good news is that if you decide to order on the day you come to see the borrowed sample dress in our shop, we will refund the fee paid on that particular dress.

Call us on 02871 813682 if you wish to discuss getting a sample dress on loan, or go to our website www.beautifuldaybrides.co.uk and fill in the form on our contact page with your details and query and we'll get back to you as soon as we can.
Thank you.
Ciara x
Beautiful Day Bridal Cottage, Greysteel, Northern Ireland

Wedding dresses and the 2013 Oscars red carpet look

It's that time again when I get up on the morning after the Oscars and check out what the latest trends on the red carpet are.  The Oscars are the designers' biggest opportunity to show the world what they can do by showing off their dresses draped on the rich and famous in Hollywood, and I have to admit that I always love checking out the latest trends and guessing how certain looks might be taken by the bridal designers that supply our dresses to inspire the latest 'Aisle Style'.

I was pleasantly surprised this year to see how some of the red carpet style has already been reflected on our shops rails and I thought I'd share a few of them.

I loved Jennifer Hudson's midnight blue dress with it's long sleeves and how it draped so elegantly on her - she really pulled it off so well!! It reminded me immediately of our Dalton dress by Maggie Sottero....

 

 

Charlize Theron looked stunning in her peplum dress with a fishtail skirt and when I saw Jennifer Garner's gorgeous purple dress with the ruffles at the back, they both reminded me of our new Essense of Australia dresses - check them out!!

The texture and silhouette of Kristin Stewart's dress immediately brought our Maggie Sottero 'Hope' dress to mind, with it's vertical lines of beading and wispy organza giving it a whimsical flair... although I do confess to preferring the wedding dress much more to the red carpet dress.

One of my favourite dresses was Sandra Bullock's, and whilst the detailing is completely different to anything we have, again, the silhouette can be seen on a few of the dresses which are literally just in the door.  Tia is one of my favourite new dresses by Maggie Sottero and you can see the neckline is almost identical to Sandra's dress - the Afton dress also has this neckline - I think it's going to a popular look for next year. 

It was great to see big skirts back again, and whilst they didn't resemble my dresses, I loved Amy Adams in her textured ballgown (which reminded me of Hayley's dress - our shop manager who got married 18 months ago), and the star of the show, the gorgeous winner of the coveted best actress award, Jennifer Lawrence.

Storing your wedding dress

I remember one of the first things I did when I got engaged.  My mum sent me upstairs to find her wedding dress and she wanted me to try it on.  It was one of those special mother-daughter moments that I’ll always treasure, and  I have a picture of me wearing the dress standing by the door in our living room (with part of my mum’s finger covering the lens of the camera – back in pre-digital days when you couldn’t see what you’d taken!!)

I can’t say I would have worn my mother’s 1970′s high necked and long sleeved dress, but if I’d have wanted to, I’d have been gutted as my mum hadn’t stored her dress properly and the years had taken it’s toll.  Someone had told my mum to store her white wedding dress in a black plastic bag and over the years the dress had turned from a pure white colour to yellow.  My mum was heartbroken when she realised just how much it had discoloured. Perhaps this is the reason that I am always telling brides to look after their dresses.  Even if no-one ever wears it again, it’s lovely to look back at your dress and see it looking like it was when you wore it on your big day.  And maybe one day you’ll be taking a picture of your newly engaged daughter, niece or granddaughter wearing it, even if it’s just playing dress up in the living room.

Giselle from The Empty Box Company has compiled this list of tips for storing your wedding dress. We have a selection of these boxes in our shop in various sizes and colours, and shown at the bottom of this page are examples of some of the beautiful designs you can choose from. Perfect for co-ordinating with your bedroom!!  From funky to traditional and floral, you’ll be spoiled for choice!!  And if you buy the box from us, we can organise dry cleaning and pack your dress away for you at no extra cost to you.

For destination brides, there are also travel sized boxes which fit onto airplanes as hand luggage so you can take your dress away with you and then use the box afterwards to store your dress.

THE DO’S AND DON’TS OF STORING A WEDDING DRESS

Wedding Dresses can pack away beautifully and remain as white and perfect as the day they were worn: but there are some simple essential rules for brides to follow:

DON’TS

1) Plastic dress covers are not suitable for long-term storage:  They do not allow for changes in humidity, or protect from light and can leave particles behind after several years.

2) Normal cardboard or fabric boxes can contain acid that causes the material of the dress to“yellow” or discolour. Avoid flat pack storage boxes that offer limited protection, or ones that let in light.

3) Do not store the dress next to the wood of a wardrobe, drawer, suitcase lining, or other clothes, as these mediums will have an effect on the purer fabrics of the wedding dress if the it lies next to them.

4) Do not wrap a wedding dress in coloured tissue paper.Tissue paper to pack a wedding dress should be white and acid free.

5) Do not hang a dress long term on a clothes hanger (short term is fine), as it places stresses on the seams and shape of the dress.

6) Do not store your dress in the attic. All sorts of disasters here such as a leaking roof, damp, changes in humidity, and insects can affect a dress in the attic; even if it is well protected.

DO’s

1) Do have your dress cleaned after the wedding, by a dry cleaner that specialises in wedding dresses. Marks can show later even if a dress does not appear stained now.

2) Follow simple sensible rules e.g. store away from light, heat, damp, etc

3) Store the dress in a warm dry spare room, that has no history of insects, instead of an attic.

4) Ensure the dress lies in a pH neutral material such as a wedding dress box and is packed withacid free tissue. (Acid free tissue paper will become acidic if kept in a non acid free box.)

5) A storage box should eliminate light, should be breathable (i.e. non plastic), protect from dirt, dust, and spillage, in addition to pH neutral i.e. contain no acid or alkali.

6) Do choose a really strong, sturdy box as it needs to last a lifetime. It might even need to protect from disaster such as fire or flood so a flimsy box might not be up to the mark!

7) Do choose a box that you love: it will be with you for a long time, holding one of the most special items of clothing you will ever own.

 Once packed away, check on the dress every 6 – 12 monthsto ensure nothing untoward has happened, and repack e.g. once a year to help prevent creases becoming too permanent.

This guide is written by The Empty Box Company, who specialise in beautiful Wedding Dress Boxes that preserve the dress to last a lifetime. Their wedding dress boxes are handmade in the UK.

Put on a wedding dress and help break a world record!!!

What are you doing on the afternoon of Saturday April 27th?

How would you feel about dressing up as a bride and heading for the Peace bridge?  

When I first heard about the idea I thought it was a great fun way of attempting a world record, but it made it even more worthwhile doing when I heard that all proceeds were going to the Foyle Hospice.

We're helping to spread the word to see if the Foyle Hospice can gather at least 2013 'brides' together, and the response we've had so far from our customers, friends and family has been unreal!!  Loads of our past brides and brides-to-be have decided to take part (any excuse to get a wedding dress on!!) and we've even had a few who have started fitness regimes to get into their own dresses which are a bit on the tight side!!   (I didn't stand a chance of getting into mine but my mum is currently working on letting the seams out, so fingers crossed!!)

You don't have to be a past bride to take part - as long as you are wearing a traditional wedding dress (from any cultural origin).  And if you haven't got a wedding dress, perhaps you could borrow one?  Or hit the charity shops perhaps?   Our shop has donated 5 big boxes with 20+ wedding dresses and veils to the Foyle Hospice to try and do our bit - they will be available very soon at the Foyle Hospice fundraising centre on the Culmore Road for any of you who are on the look out for a dress, and all proceeds from their sale will go directly to the 'Brides on the Bridge' fund.   I'll be on the lookout to see how many Beautiful Day dresses I can spot on the day!!!

Like many families in the North West, our family has availed of the services of the Foyle Hospice.  My daddy's sister - my aunt Mamie - spent almost 3 months there before passing away.  It was 9 years ago, but our family always feel indebted to the hospice for the kindness shown to her and the dignified way they dealt with her suffering and her passing.  I remember being shocked when I discovered how much the hospice rely on donations from the local people and when I got to see first hand what they do each and every day, it's easy to see why it is so well supported in our area and why it needs to keep being supported to continue making a difference.

So get on that dress, get your £10 and your registration form (and some extra sponsorship if you can) and get down to Ebrington square on Saturday 27th April and help make a difference.

You can register by contacting the Foyle Hospice-  visit their facebook page

click here to go to the page

Or you can call in and pick up a form in our shop.  You can also register on the day if you came along a bit earlier.