Buying Online?

We are an authorised bridal retailer and only sell dresses through our shop. We do not sell dresses online, and place a strong emphasis on customer service and dealing with our customers on a one-to-one basis.

We believe that a wedding dress is the most important and special dress that any woman will ever buy, and buying it should be a pleasant and stress-free experience. We care about our customers and don't like to see their wedding dress dreams being shattered and ruined by bogus companies out there who are claiming to sell designer dresses at more competitive prices.

We recommend not purchasing on the internet. There is a risk of receiving a copy when placing an order via the internet. When compared to an authentic Maggie Sottero gown, a copy is inferior in construction, quality and fit. We have received many calls from frantic brides asking us for our help because a gown they ordered over the internet was not what they expected. Should you be one of the lucky brides who receives an authentic Maggie Sottero gown there are additional problems we have been notified of, such as:

Wrong size gown. Wrong Colour gown. No Support from the website you purchased the gown through. A gown being damaged in the shipping process. Losing your money to an internet website that has gone out of business.

Buying gowns on the internet for a discount is a gamble. Maggie Sottero supports full service brick and mortar bridal salons because we know they will provide you with the service you deserve, and the product you expect.

Most brides end up saving much less than they think in monetary terms by having dresses posted to them - when they take into consideration shipping costs, customs tax, buying proper storage bags and that doesn't include the headache of getting dresses professionally steamed, as well as the task of finding an experienced seamstress willing to take on the job of alterations. We have been made aware recently of several local brides-to-be who have ordered wedding and/or bridesmaid dresses from unauthorised retailers on the internet, believing that they are getting the same dress they tried on in the bridal shop they visited, and they have been very disappointed with what they have received.

Some have been promised they are getting genuine designer dresses and have even been offered so called 'authenticity certificates' to try to convince brides to buy off their company. These gowns are not the designer's own dresses, and whilst they may even resemble the designer dress photos, they lack the structure and superior fit which is supposed to flatter the brides figure. We have also come across orders in the wrong colours and wrong sizes, or dresses damaged where the bride had absolutely nowhere to go and have the problem sorted.

From the experiences we have encountered, we would please urge brides who are thinking of this to think again. Our suppliers strictly do not allow internet selling, and have made it clear that any shop doing so will have all outstanding and future orders cancelled. Maggie Sottero is one such company, and I often remind brides that any genuine retailer would be a complete fool to take the risk of losing such a prestigious designer by selling online. As a genuine retailer, I certainly wouldn't take the risk, so what makes any other genuine 'shop' any different?

Our number one priority is to to have a bride looking her best on her big day, and I find it very sad to see companies out there who have other priorities, and in the end, their primary objective does not put the customer first.

Please be careful brides, and wherever you decide to buy your dresses, please be sure to keep yourselves right by dealing with authorised retailers!

Did you see our recent article on fake wedding dresses in the Derry Journal or hear me on Radio Foyle? If you did, and would like to see the copy we have, follow this link to see the pictures of our resident fake wedding dress...

http://www.bebo.com/PhotoAlbumBig.jsp?MemberId=6195108010&PhotoNbr=1&PhotoAlbumId=11697612840