The saying goes, if it seems too good to be true, it probably is. You just need to look at a certain auction website to see thousands of listings showing designer pictures where the dress is for sale as low as £4.99 or even 98p! Brides go in to high street bridal stores looking at dresses then are amazed to see those same dresses on the auction website or other independent websites being sold for hundreds of pounds less than they saw in bridal store. Some brides then purchase these dresses maybe thinking that they are being sold at trade price and are expecting a genuine designer dress to arrive as the seller was using a designer image. Imagine the brides horror when her ‘dream dress’ is delivered to her house in a cushion cover or jiffy bag. Then she takes the dress out and instantly notices that it is a nasty fake copy. Can you imagine the look on the brides face when she realises that she has been misled by the seller and basically robbed of her money. Some people may say well ok the dress was only £4.99 plus £80 shipping charges it’s no big deal. But to the bride it is, her dream of a perfect wedding has collapsed around her. I must add that I have seen fake copy wedding dresses being sold for up to £700! Imagine that, a bride can pay £700 for a fake copy when she could pay that price or less for the actual designer dress in an authorised high street bridal store! I have seen the fake copies that brides can receive. They are utter rubbish and only fit for the rubbish bin. As the Company Director of Bonny Bridal UK Ltd, I have received many telephone calls from the shops that my company supplies where the store owner is looking to purchase a dress immediately because she has a distressed bride in tears who had received a fake copy dress after buying it online thinking she was going to receive a genuine designer dress. I am in a position to warn brides about the dangers from purchasing their bridal attire online. In 2005 I created a website called Brides Aware. This is a data base website where suppliers, shops, and brides can leave their horror stories from buying online to warn other brides. You can view this at www.bridesaware.co.uk I also created Brides TV. This too can be viewed online. On here are videos of me showing the difference between a counterfeit fake copy and original designer dress. You will be shocked. These fake copy wedding dresses have no beading at all compared to the originals, the embroidery is terrible, and the dresses are made from cheap fabrics. View this website at www.bridestv.co.uk Other fake copies can come with zips that are not sewn in straight and odd sized panels. When buying a dress online from other countries, these can be sent to the bride declared as a ‘gift’. The seller does this so that the bride does not receive a huge charge in respect of the Customs Duty and VAT charge. By doing this the dress enters the country illegally because the commercial value has not been declared. Customs & Excise can then enter the bride’s home and take the dress. It is also against the law to purchase counterfeit good. So not only has a bride wasted some of her wedding budget on a counterfeit dress, she may risk having her home raided by Customs & Excise. Not a good start to getting married! Designers do not sell their dresses online, let alone allow them to be sold on auction websites. I must state that brides will sell their genuine dress on auction websites therefore I will not commit myself by saying that only fake copies are sold online. But it is easily noticeable if the seller is a bride or a counterfeiter. All bridal stores have a sale rail. The dresses on them are usually ex samples. These can be purchased for half the RRP. Some stores may even offer a payment plan so that brides can pay for their dress in instalments. Brides also receive the guarantee and protection from the store and designer.