Post all "Knock Off Wedding Dress" questions/comments here

Hi girls,

I got my dress yesterday from gianinarbridal and I tried to take it on myself but it didnt really work :-)

my mother in law will come over tomorrow and help me, so I will post pictures tomorrow or on friday then.

but here is my opinion about the first impression:

First of all: it didnt WOW me. I dont know why but when I looked at it I didnt feel like I get a new dress which has been treated carefully.

I found some staints which are maybe not visible at first sight but when you look at it more detailed it really made me upset.

Second: I am not so impressed about the fabric. Like I mentioned before: I ordered thin satin and its not thin at all, not shiny and it feels a little weird. Not soft or pleasant. And indeed it is kinda stiff. But in my case it is nothing too bad because I didnt pick a dress that has to be so flowy although I really wanted it to be a little more mellow.

But what annoys me the most are the little runs (one directly over the bust) and needle stitches that are visible all over my corset. they make my dress look used.

I didnt look at it again since I unwrapped it yesterday. I hope when I look at it later, my first bad impression will be gone...

I am even a little scared to show it to my mother in law. She was the one who asked me a few times if I really want to get a knock-off and if its the money issue I have and I said no, that I want to have a custom dress because I didnt find the perfect dress I want in a store...

Oh no Christina- I sure hope it looks better to you once you put it on. Excited to see pics...

Yea, i hope you like it, i was thinking of having my dress made by them, but i'm scared.

Christina, I will keep my fingers cross that when you put your dress on you will get the feeling of "It's the one!"

Christina I'm so sorry about your first impression. Hopefully when you look at it again it won't resonate in the same way.

Ok so I got a response from gianinar today and they said the Jorge Manuel has to be made fom silk satin which is why it is $350 where as the Tornai can be made from poly-satin and is $120 (mind you the e-mail before the told me $150 now they are saying $120). I am not a dress expert but can anyone show me what poly-satin looks like. I know luciel and a few others already have their dresses. KJT I think yours was chiffon? right? Christina? Luciel? Any other ladies who already got your dress with gianinar what does the poly-satin look like...because if it shines I'm getting it!

JennandMike: Where were you ordering yours from? And it's a beautiful dress. Having bead work done really isn't that hard of a process it's just very time consuming and tedious. I found a great help guide for putting your own rhinestones on a dress if you need it, it may help you out with the belt if you wanted to add some sparkle to it. How to add little Swarovski crystals to wedding/reception dress or tiara Weddingbee Boards, I ddo think the turquoise would be beautiful and add a nice little "pop" to the dress...I love turquoise though so I'm biased.

roxmysockz: The dress looks great, I didn't even notice the pockets until you mentioned it, I think that's a unique idea. And the middle where the beading is done does look a little taller than in the original but that's personal preference I guess, it's not far off from the original though.

Janine: Well...I don't know really that Tornai dress is very simple, and those roses aren't that hard to make. The Manuel one seems to have more little areas that would call for an attention to detail and Gianinar has been working with similar designs as the Tornai, they may not be as familiar with a unique design like the Manuel one. Either way I love both dresses (I love Tornai's dresses, there's few of them I would personally wear but they're still beautiful), the Manuel one is so unique but still classy which I love. Ultimately it's what your heart says is the perfect one. But I honestly wouldn't see why the price would be off by so much for the two different dresses. It honestly really hard to say, ruching really isn't hard to replicate either, but I do think it also has to do with the dressmaker's experience and personal preferences as to what's easier and harder. KJT, I was trying to figure out how to explain how the Tornai is simpler in some terms and you put it so well. And I'm no dressmaker but I have sewn items myself so it's a little from experience, too. I would honestly say the hardest thing about the Manuel is that it's more time consuming, that may be part of the cost difference. You know how silk feels? Silk satin is silk that's shiny, so it's silk just shiny silk. I was under the impression they couldn't get silk satin for dresses there, I'll send them an email and ask about it then because silk satin is what Tornai uses for all of her dresses...well, most of her dresses...I'm confused by them saying the Manuel would be out of silk satin, it looks to be made out of polyester satin. Polyester satin is what most wedding dresses in stores like David's Bridal are from, it's somewhat shiny (not nearly as silk is...you can go back and look at the pictures of the dress I want, that's what silk satin is like in comparison to polyester satin), it's also heavy, but it also doesn't have the same soft flow of silk satin. Unless they also have their fabrics mixed up, that was what I thought the differences were from talking to different shops to recreate my dress and seamstresses that work with fabrics a lot. But I could also be wrong about that.

christinak: I hope it may just be a first bad impression, they happen at times. And that's the biggest downfall a lot of people ordering from Gianinar are they looking for small details like those that would show to you and possibly other people that it's not an amazing dress? Definately looking forward to pictures of your dress.

KJT: What's taffeta like? I know it's shiny but is it soft or stiff?