christinak82

Quote: Originally Posted by barbiegirl_27 Thanks Ladies for all your words of encouragement! It is a beautiful dress....but I just don't feel it...but if I go out and try on some more dresses I may actually change my mind! I hope you will find what you are looking for... It´s soo hard to get that feeling for this one special dress... I tried on at least 20 and I never had that feeling... I always felt like I would change so many things. Even those dresses (maybe 2-3) that actually looked good on me and I was so close to buy one of them, it just didnt feel right to make the final decision... and then there is the other sort of girls who just step into that one dress and fall in love... good luck for you, let us know what you decide..

hi mekanabr, its so stupid that they have that restriction for downloading attachments... I need 150 posts to do that... crazy... anyway... it should be the same document we got from beverly... I just wanted to compare it, in case they updated something... oh well... I guess, I need to spam some threads here to reach the posting amount... :-)

ok girls, good news on my dress... gianinarbridal wrote me back and told me that they didnt add any beading details yet because they werent sure if I wanted further alterations on the dress itself... thats such a relief... I cant wait to see the finished dress now... @ barbiegirl: I love your dress... its very cute... cant wait to see it on you

I combined 3 dresses and I wanted this one shoulder strap soo bad... so far it looks like a stupid spaghetti strap!!!

Hi girls, I got an email from gianinarbridal today and I couldnt believe what pictures they sent me... my dress was totally unfinished and all the details (beading, etc.) I requested are missing... I wrote back and asked them to change so many things... but now I am really scared that I have to go to a bridal store to buy my dress... its gonna be my main dress, not my TTD and I dont want it to look crappy... what do you girls think of that:

Quote: Originally Posted by luciel2820 barbiegirl im so excited for you, and so anxious for mine to be shipped! ugh its been 54 days! :/ Hi Luciel, did you get your dress yet? we ordered almost at the same time and I didnt even get any proof pics yet. maybe because I told them that my wedding date is in december.

Hi Kerrij, does that separate room also hold more than 50 people? We expect about 60-70 people. Did you have to pay those $2500 for that room?

Quote: Originally Posted by Mischaka I really think they should start giving discounts for the ladies that purchase their dress from here. There are quite a few of us getting dresses from gianinarbridal and landybridal. hahaha... I agree :-D we make very good promotion here.... they definitely wont run out of orders... @ sam: your dress is pretty even though the pics are not the best quality... I love the beading... looks very professional... are you excited to receive it?

hi kerrij, thank you so much for sharing your experience with us... it´s great to hear that you loved the resort and your wedding... the spa experience doesn´t sound that great though... I have something very specific in mind with my hair, so I think I am gonna flip out if she won´t listen to what I want, hihi... you said they have beach parties at the resort, is it a special day or do those parties take place randomly? how did it work with the dolce vita? did they block the whole restaurant for you? or did you have a separate area? how was it decorated? did you choose certain colors/flowers, etc.? I think I will have some more questions later if you dont mind :-) ? Congratulations on your wedding :-) youre married now!!!! yeeeiiih....

Herefishie, I love your dress, its absolutely gorgeous... hope you can get it tailored easily.... otherwise its perfect... @ Margret: I actually love how the dress looks like, of course its hard to tell how it will look when you wear it, but from the pictures it looks like the original... really pretty...

Quote: Originally Posted by luciel2820 I agree with christina. I never went tried on dresses and just ordered. I'm afraid if I try on the real thing I will be disappointed with my knock off. So if for some reason I don't like the knock off on me, I will just try to sell it! I'm excited though and can't wait to get my dress! yes, I agree... if its not what I expected then oh well, I lost $150... wouldnt be the end of the world... but from what I saw here from all you girls, I am pretty confident..

Quote: Originally Posted by Margret Hello ladies, I have found someone's blog you might be interesting to read about experience of ordering dresses from overseas. Knock Off Wedding Dress Reviews interesting post.... not sure though if that girl is really happy with it... I think its always difficult to get a knock-off after you tried on the original... I just created my own dress... this way I cant be disappointed...

Quote: Originally Posted by christinak82 wow, herefishie... I am very very amazed... you made such a good choice... I love the blue flowers... I think I stared at those pictures for almost 10 minutes... :-D my dress should be ready soon too... cant wait... :-) a small addition to my post: I just looked at the original from sophia tolli and I have to admit: your knock off looks so much nicer, herefishie... I love how gianinarbridal made the "floating" connection between the flowers under the bust and down to the side.... in the original everything looks just straight...

wow, herefishie... I am very very amazed... you made such a good choice... I love the blue flowers... I think I stared at those pictures for almost 10 minutes... :-D my dress should be ready soon too... cant wait... :-)

wow...great pictures... thanks for sharing, futuremsmoulton

Quote: Originally Posted by HereFishie My dress should be ready any day... I'm just waiting for the email from gianarbridal. They started end of January and said 30-40 days. I'm so excited! I can barely contain myself! awesome... I hope you will post your pictures...

Bought Chinese online dress - A+ experience Weddingbee Boards here is another thread of girls talking about gianinarbridal and showing pictures of 2 different dresses...

oh another great thing about them is that they claim that the dress is only worth around 40 bucks. this is how they avoid problems as well as additional costs for you at the customs. I hope I wont cause them trouble with my post here :-D

Quote: Originally Posted by jamk32179 Hi Ladies, Thanks for all of the great options. I have emailed a few of the options to get pricing. What was it that "sold" you on a particular company? I'm so confused as to who to work with. Thanks! I chose gianinarbridal because they send you proof pictures as soon as the dress is done and they still allow changes before they finally send you the dress (I specifically asked them about that). This was mainly why I decided to go with them. Also I didnt hear anything bad about them unlike about Landy, Duosheng or the other named companies. Prices are reasonable and you can always chose between a cheap and expensive option. But even if you go with the cheaper fabric, all the dresses I saw looked great. In my opinion they come closest to the original picture. Good luck in deciding. Tell us who you chose.

thank you for the information kerrij...

Quote: Originally Posted by Melidell Basically, I think that if you want FBIL to be there, she'll need to be there too. If you think he'll just go without her you're probably being overly optimistic. This is his wife we're talking about- would you go if it was your husband being excluded? I think you're totally right to not like this girl and she sounds like a nightmare (lying to the inlaws!) but as soon as you try to exclude her from the wedding and the reception you become the bad guy. If there's a rift in the family because of this they'll blame you and your wedding. You probably don't want to start your new life together like that. If you back down now then you're the bigger person, and if she decides not to attend or acts poorly when she's there then she looks like the bitch that she is. I definitely agree with you. inviting her to the wedding and to the shower is the right decision but keeping her out of the wedding party just makes sense... I mean of course it depends on how much "function" she has. Like in my case, my bridesmaids will be responsible for guest coordination, translation (german-english) and organization stuff... thats why I need somebody who I can count and rely on. planning a nice wedding and having a person in the wedding party who just complicates things makes you lose a lot of your excitement and happiness... I would clear things up with the brother and how he sees the whole situation. maybe he can help and talk to her.

@ melidell: so do you think she should after all keep this girl in the wedding party? I dont think this girl deserves that.. she doesnt appreciate it at all!! she shouldnt get the impression that no matter what she did/does she can continue like that without having any consequences and limits. Because somehow she will still be treated as an important part of the wedding. that doesnt sound right to me...

I am sorry if I dont agree with all the posts so far. but I just know how it feels when you carry around a burden like that without solving it for yourself PLEEASE dont just suck it up!! Try to find a solution that is relieving for you. That doesnt mean you have to ignore her and just invite her to the shower hoping that she wont show up and also assuming that she wont resist on her position as your BM. Find a calm second with her to talk about everything or call/email her explaining her how it came so far and make a suggestion to solve it. ask her also, why she tries to make it so hard for you and if she has a problem with something you dont know about. offer her also that you will be willing to try to accept or understand her point of view if there were any mistakes from your side. but she has to open her mouth and talk to you like an adult!!

Quote: Originally Posted by MexicoBeachBride2010 Hi Everyone, I feel stuck and need some outside advice. Back when we started planning our wedding my fiance's brother got engaged after 5 months of dating and married just over a year after meeting. This wouldn't be a big issue but the woman he married isn't really friendly and doesn't try to get to know my fiance and I. After their wedding things with them looked to be improving so we decided to ask them to be in our wedding. Big Mistake! Since then she has been a constant source of stress and doesn't come to wedding related things. She also never seems interested in our wedding stuff and never even talks to me. I decided to talk with her about how I was feeling and used I statements alot. During our conversation she became incredibly nasty and rude and just made me feel awful. She also told me to find someone else to be in the wedding. Because of this I don't want her to come to my bridal shower and did not extend an invitation to her. She has been a constant gloomy cloud over our wedding and my fiance and I have had enough. We told my FI's parents that unless her attitude changes she is not welcome to participate in any of our wedding events i.e. shower, ceremony, reception etc. Now my fi's parents have been hinting that I should invite her to my shower and my FI's brother (also a groomsman) has told my fi's parents that if she isn't invited she doesn't want to come to the wedding. So my dilemma is do I just suck it up and invite her or do I stand my ground. Throughout this process I have continually tried to make things better with her and she doesn't ever try. She also told my fi's parents that I yelled at her and kicked her out of the wedding, which is a total lie! My fiance and I both agree that she doesn't need to be at my shower and our ceremony/reception however we don't want his brother to not come because of her. I just don't know what to do. I just want to finally have a stress free and happy time planning my wedding since thus far being a bride has not been and it's mostly due to her. I just feel only people who love and support should be included in these special events and since she made it clear she doesn't I don't see why she has to come. Any insight/advice/experiences will be greatly appreciated! Thanks! Hi, I had a very similar experience with one of my bridesmaids. She was actually one of my closest friends but we both changed a lot during the past 2 years. Myself because I met my fiancé and she because she got a promotion in her job (and now she is just flying a little too high). So what happened was that she started to dislike my fiancé because she was jealous about the fact that we still have a better quality of life even though she has this great job and does well now. She once came to our place (she lives in a very small town and we live in NYC), stayed for 12 days. We drove her around, showed her all the sightseeing stuff and ended up paying EVERYTHING for her (groceries, going out, eating out, gas, tolls, entrances, parking fees, etc.). But after that vacation what she did was to make it clear in every possible situation that she thinks that my fiancé is acting weird or wrong and has a "bad attitude towards everything". What I didnt realize at the beginning was that she just got really selfish and didnt want me to be with him because obviously we do so well because he has the better job and if I wouldnt be with him I would be "lower class" than her again. so she started saying things like: "I have mixed feelings towards your relationship with him", etc. But when we got engaged last year in August, I called her to tell her the great news and her first reaction was: "oh great, so you know who will be your bridesmaid, right?" I was really overwhelmed and just stuttered "well, yees, okaaay"... BAAAD DECISION!!! But to come to the point: She developed the same attitude towards my wedding as your FBIL, never showing up, hating to talk about wedding related stuff, even worse, complaining about everything I did and trying to force through her opinion all the time. I had no idea how to handle that situation because I was just not happy with her being in the wedding party. Especially because my fiancé had enough of her too. I waited for the right moment and there it was: she started bitching about the fact that I want her to wear the same dress as my second bridesmaid. So I said: "listen girl, its not about what YOU want on MY wedding." her reaction was: "ok, thats it, I had enough of your wedding bullsh!t, maybe you should stop worrying about something that is 11 months away and instead get more useful things done!" we got off like that and I wrote her a very honest email about what I think about her and why I think she is acting this way. What came back, really surprised me: first of all she said she wanted to apologize for that conversation and that she really appreciates our friendship, bla bla... but of course there was a but again... she started to point out mistakes of my fiancé again.... I called her and told her what I felt and that it really makes me sad that she is acting like that and that I didnt think I made the wrong choice with her at the beginning but now I just doubt if she is the person who should stand at the altar with us "wittnessing" our relationship even though she doesnt like us being together. of course it pissed her off that she could possibly loose her "title" as bridesmaid. So she started to threaten me, like: I wont come to your wedding if I wont be your bridesmaid, etc.... So I had 2 possibilities: keeping her as BM or getting rid of her and risking that she won´t come (we know each other for over 10 years now!!). I got rid of her, writing her an email again, stating that she is not supporting at all and that I just think she would be better of as one of my guests, wearing what she wants, showing up when she wants, etc. Nothing came back so far... it´s been almost 2 weeks now... So my advice to you MexicoBeachBride: Definitely get rid of her being in the wedding party... she wont change unless you show her the limits. but do it in a smart way. you have to show her the mistakes she did and that you feel really bad about what happened between you and her. tell her that you thought you guys would get along great and have so much fun together. make her a bad conscience by saying you are really regretting what happened so far and that you never thought that it will turn out this way. but then be honest and tell her that you think there are other persons who really care about you and your fiancé who would love to be in the wedding party and do all the wedding organization with you. tell her, you still want her to come to the shower, hoping that you can work it out in an adult way (without running to the parents in law and complaining) but make sure you tell her that there is definitely more behind when being a supportive and helpful bridesmaid and being part of the wedding party. thats why it would be better if you would chose somebody else... if this girl is smart enough, she will realize what she did wrong and that you have other stuff to take care of than her being such a burden for you and your fiancé. if you find a way to make her feel bad, showing her that YOU are the nice and understanding person who tried to make things better from the beginning but she didnt make a move, she will probably stop to act like that... of course there are persons who just dont get it, that they acted wrong. but you have to take the risk, otherwise you wont be happy about your wedding. and you HAVE THE RIGHT to be happy about it. its such an amazing and important step in your life. a one time experience! nobody should try to cloud it. because all the people who really care about you and love you, will be happy for you!!!

Quote: Originally Posted by ewok OK, maybe it is not as bad as I thought last week... I am still disappointed, and will e-mail Landy Bridal about this later tonight. I purposely chose them based on good reviews, and must admit that stitches and beading seem well done. Here is the original: Here is mine, please pardon the bad hair and no smile on some pics, DBF was driving me crazy not taking the pics like I wanted. Front: On this pic I'm pinching the back to hold it better: See how much room I have at the back: I don't know if you can see how the neckline was done, it is kind of sweetheart strapless, and they added that chiffon layer to give it a halter like look. Not very linear like a true halter, specially since I have nothing to fill it. Can you also see the creasing at the front about waist high? Seem like the extra layer used on the bodice (sandwiched between the satin and the inner layer is not sewn perfectly straight and bunches a bit. We tried to iron this out without success. I think most of it is fixable, not sure the neckline can be made perfect though, which disappoints me, since how hard can it be to make a nice halter in the first place? (Adding lots of padding should help, I've tested it using my magical filled push-up bra.) Someone here gave me a reference for alterations, I have to contact them, but I'm so busy next week, and time is running fast! hmm... I dont understand how they could make it so much bigger if you gave them the right measures... I also understand what you dont like about the neckline. they could have made the separation of halter/chiffon part less visible, for example by using a thicker chiffon or a double layer. But I actually like the skirt and also the beading. it is a nicer color than the original beading. It is also not really noticable that the extra layer on the bodice isn´t straight. Anyway, you should definitely contact landy bridal and tell them that this is not what you expected. But I really hope you can fix it the way you want it... it definitely has potential and a good tailor will be able to give you some options and advice of how to change the parts you dont like... Good luck