Buying wedding dress and rings in the Philippines

[Kevin- 13]

Howdy,

Bel's gown is being made there. Her mother is good friends with the owners of a local gown shop. She has known for years exactly how her dream wedding gown will look, and put together a complete design for them to follow. The total cost of the gown will be around $500. My rough estimate based on how long they've been working on it, the materials, and the tidbits I know of what it will look like (I don't want to see it before she's walking toward me at the altar), it would probably be several thousand dollars here, maybe even 5 digits. For comparison, for my mother's 2nd wedding 20 years ago, her gown was a pre-made discount bargain sale special (etc) and was over $700. I'd say we're getting an awesome deal, and I'm so glad to be able to provide my dream gal with her dream gown.

Combination of: the gown shop folks knowing me from our engagement (they made the gown, my matching shirt, and the cake), being her mom's close friend, them being really friendly people, this being the grandest gown they've ever made, and being in the middle of Bukidnon; makes this gown a real bargain, and very special.

We'll bring it here in one of our carry-on bags to minimize risk of loss and damage.

As for fitting the gown, I guess they can get really close just by measuring a lot. Not just the typical measurements, but very detailed measurements. Have a tailor there on the wedding day to make sure it gets last minute adjustments, and all is well.

[mikeandjoana 1]

If you want to save some money. It's better to buy a gown and accessories in the Philippines. She will not have problems carrying it too. What I did was I put it on a dress bag and carried it with me on the plane. While on board I put it on the luggage area. No hassles at all! But My grandma was with me the whole flight so we carried the gown alternately (coz it was really heavy). But, even if she will be alone, there will be no problem either. It will be a plus also when she got interviewed at her POE because they will see her gown. The officers got so excited when they saw me carrying my gown. LOL:P But with the wedding ring, we bought it here, we like the diamonds here more. You'll see my gown on my pictures, and everyone was really wow'd when they saw my gown because gowns like that are $$$$$$ here already.

[SuperDuper! 230]

If you want to save some money. It's better to buy a gown and accessories in the Philippines. She will not have problems carrying it too. What I did was I put it on a dress bag and carried it with me on the plane. While on board I put it on the luggage area. No hassles at all! But My grandma was with me the whole flight so we carried the gown alternately (coz it was really heavy). But, even if she will be alone, there will be no problem either. It will be a plus also when she got interviewed at her POE because they will see her gown. The officers got so excited when they saw me carrying my gown. LOL:P But with the wedding ring, we bought it here, we like the diamonds here more. You'll see my gown on my pictures, and everyone was really wow'd when they saw my gown because gowns like that are $$$$$$ here already.

You do have a beautiful gown, dear. Did you buy it "off the shelf" or did you have it custom made with material you picked out? Which way do you think is better or cheaper?

[mikeandjoana 1]

If you want to save some money. It's better to buy a gown and accessories in the Philippines. She will not have problems carrying it too. What I did was I put it on a dress bag and carried it with me on the plane. While on board I put it on the luggage area. No hassles at all! But My grandma was with me the whole flight so we carried the gown alternately (coz it was really heavy). But, even if she will be alone, there will be no problem either. It will be a plus also when she got interviewed at her POE because they will see her gown. The officers got so excited when they saw me carrying my gown. LOL:P But with the wedding ring, we bought it here, we like the diamonds here more. You'll see my gown on my pictures, and everyone was really wow'd when they saw my gown because gowns like that are $$$$$$ here already.

You do have a beautiful gown, dear. Did you buy it "off the shelf" or did you have it custom made with material you picked out? Which way do you think is better or cheaper?

I got it from my tailor's collections. It took me weeks and tried tons of gowns before i ended up with this. I always wanted to buy a made one rather that asking them to make a gown that they haven't did before, it's hard to take the risk esp if u have a limited time. But with my gown they still did some adjustments so it will fit me better and change some beadings. What they custom made for me was my 2 veils (head and ceremony) and I chose a better petticoat. So i think buying an 'off the shelf' will always be the best idea coz right away you will see if you will look good on it or not. I also had my bridesmaids gown made there in the Philippines which is I will not suggest because since most of my girls are from here it was hard to get the exact measurements so i still needed to find a tailor here to alter my girls dresses.

[Scott and Mhay 57]

We just went through this a couple months ago. It was only 10,000 pesos for my wife's dress....and yes she didnt actually wear it before the wedding day. She just tried on the under part of the gown. It was a personally made dress. We also bought wedding bands there too. We looked at all the malls and such...they were just as expensive as in the US. Most sets were around 30-50,000 pesos. We went to the market area in her town. We wanted just simple plain wedding bands. So the place we ended up buying from was 12,000 pesos for 18K philippine gold. they had 10K which was 6,000 and 14K for 10,000pesos....this was for the pair.

[natfaye 0]

I bought my wedding dress at David's Bridal....Its kinda expensive

Edited November 4, 2009 by natfaye

[jeng 0]

My fiancee had her gown custom made in Cebu. She had no problems trying it on as long as I'm not seeing her in it. I bought the rings here. Mine was cheap because I prefer durable metals to precious metals. Her's is platinum, and I don't recall seeing platinum in the Philippines in the malls. It's even rare in my hometown because of the cost.

I brought my wedding dress from the philippines. I put it in the box where they normally put the gown and brought it basically as my "carry-on" luggage so you dont need to mess up the dress by putting it inside a suitcase. A family friend made the dress and it was beautiful with lots of beads, which are all hand-made. And my dress is still cheaper than my husband's suit since we got it from the US. If only I know his size before i came, I would have gotten it from the phils as well. We got our beautiful wedding band from the phils as well and it is cheaper compared to the prices here.

[David-and-Mae 15]

My wedding dress was custom made here in the US by my then fiance's neighbor who's a very, very talented dressmaker. I was still in the Philippines when he asked her to make the gown for me. I sent him a picture of the dress that I had in mind and then the dressmaker got him samples of the materials so he can personally pick it too. When I got here, all we did was try the dress for the final fitting and did some small additional details. It cost us $400 -- materials and labor -- which is way too expensive for a simple dress. But all in all, we were happy with it, the wedding was a bliss and we are still happily married.

[edp333 9]

We bought the material and had the wedding dress, bride maids' dresses, and my Barong Tagalog custom tailored all for less than a wedding dress here in the US.

We purchased Arabian gold wedding bands and the engagement ring at the jewelry store. The only problem was that my wife did not trust the jewelers in Manila so we sized the rings in the US.

[jom 4]

Bought my wedding dress materials in Tutuban for P2,500 and paid P2,000 for my seamstress. All in all, dress, shoes, tiara and veil I paid ( well my Mom paid for everything as a wedding present) P5,000 which is about $100. When my in-laws saw my dress they thought its one of those expensive more than a thousand dollar dress here in US. I hand carried my dress during my trip and when I was interviewed by the lady immigration officer she actually asked about our wedding plans and I showed her my dress!!

I also brought with me our wedding invitations and giveaways.

Goodluck and yes , it is definitely cheaper if she gets her wedding dress in the Philippines.

[Kring 0]

QUOTE (JANETandLYLE @ Oct 29 2009, 07:51 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>

I'd love to hear advice from other VJ members concerning buying Janet's wedding dress and our wedding bands while we are in the Philippines. Would this be a hassle to bring this stuff back to the US? Is it worth the savings, or are we just better off to wait until we are back in the US, and just buy it all here? Any advice is appreciated. We will be marrying in the US within the 90 days. Lyle

Hi lyle & janet...we would highly recommend you to buy (or order) a wedding ring in Suarez at Mall of Asia for only 3-5 day...they makes beautiful and fantastic wedding/engage rings...

Hi! Thank you for the info. Can I ask about the price range of wedding rings there? Thans.

[Hank_ 9,174]

You do realize this posting is heading on 4 years old?

[~happyndinlove~ 540]

Hi! Thank you for the info. Can I ask about the price range of wedding rings there? Thans.

You're welcome! We purchased our set in 2008 so I expect prices have gone up. To answer your question = anywhere from typical jewelry store pricing ranges to higher pricing for custom made. Our set was custom made but we still considered the pricing reasonable.

Here's the link: http://suarezweddingrings.com/?

Edited May 7, 2013 by ~happyndinlove~

[Louis and Aya 17]

Damn, he necro'ed this thread lol

You do realize this posting is heading on 4 years old?

[thepizzadude 26]

We bought Elena's dress in Manila and they made it in 4 days, the rings I got here. Saved quite a bit on the dress.

Check it out in the pics below.