Wedding Gowns in Divisoria and the Bad Experience with Our Couturier

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My Beloved Wife Lei saw a wedding gown during a wedding expo in World Trade Center. She immediately liked that wedding gown and wanted to wear it on the wedding day. Unfortunately, the gown was designed by Edward Teng and his price is way above our budget.

Online wedding forums directed us to Divisoria for affordable wedding couturiers. According to the forumers, there are plenty of affordable couturiers in Yangco Market, located between Tabora and Ylaya Streets.

We visited three places when we searched for a couturier for Lei's wedding gown, namely; 168 Shopping Mall, 999 Shopping Mall, and Yangco Market.

168 Shopping Mall

168 Shopping Mall, known for cheap items from China, has a wedding section at the 4th floor. The place have gowns, suits, barongs and attire for the whole wedding entourage. The shops have couturiers and they accept made to order wedding gowns.

We didn't hire any of the couturier in 168 Shopping Mall because their prices are more expensive as compared to other places. Despite of this, we keep on going back to 168 Shopping Mall to shop for other items like Lei's wedding shoes, the dresses for the flower girls, and her accessories.

168 Shopping Mall is very crowded due to the crowd and the habit of shop owners to place their goods on the already narrow corridor. When shopping for wedding supplies in this mall, you should bring patience, patience, and more patience. Of course you should also bring your expertise in haggling.

999 Shopping Mall

999 Shopping Mall, located just beside 168 Shopping Mall, has a wedding section at the basement. We only talked to Stephen of Jazz's Bridal Boutique. His frank way of talking almost convinced us to hire him as our couturier. Lei, however, decided to look for a better deal in Yangco Market.

Tutuban Center once has a wedding section that got burned around two years ago. I think that shops from Tutuban transferred to 168 and 999 Shopping Malls.



Yangco Market

Our final destination is the Yangco Market, located between Tabora and Ylaya Streets. This place surprised me because I never expected that there is a whole street in Divisoria dedicated to suppliers for weddings, birthdays, and baptism. Tabora Street have souvenirs, invitation cards, and accessories. The  Yangco Market, beside of it, has rows upon rows of wedding gowns.

Yangco Market is the bagsakan of various cloths. That's why mananahi from every part of Metro Manila visit this market. Those who want to make their own wedding gown can buy the cloths in this market. This market also has shops that sell lace.

Couturiers in Yangco Market are praised by many in online wedding forums because they can make quality wedding gown at affordable price. They can also sew based on the printed Internet image of the gown that the clients want.

We found our couturier in Yangco Market. Lei showed her Edward Teng's design and the couturier promised that she can make it. She offered 10,000 pesos for Lei's wedding gown. We also hired her to make bridesmaids' gowns, the dress of the flower girls, my suit, our fathers' barong, and our mothers' gown. She asked 5,000 down payment for the wedding gown.

The price is really cheap and so we expect that Lei's wedding gown will not be as grand as that of Edward Teng or other famous fashion designers. That mananahi, however, promised that she can make a good copy of the Edward Teng's wedding gown and the wedding gown will look fine. That mananahi broke her promise the wedding gown and other dresses were poorly made.

Lei's wedding gown.

After one month (and two fitting sessions) we picked-up Lei's wedding gown and my suit. I sensed that Lei didn't like her wedding gown. She had plenty of complaints about it. Even the gowns of the bridesmaids and mothers were poorly made. Unfortunately, the couturier avoided us and she suddenly stop answering my text messages.

I personally did not expect that the mananahi can copy Edward Teng's gown. My minimum expectation is that the gown will be of good quality because that's what the mananahi promised. What's worse is that the more simple dresses for our mothers and the bridesmaids were poorly made. We felt that the mananahi just tricked us with her sweet promises.

We were wrong in making full payment when we still have complaints for the wedding gown. We lose the leverage to force the couturier to fix her sloppy job. Lei couldn't do anything but fix the gowns by herself.

May our experience be a warning for those who are looking for couturiers in Yangco Market. Be very careful and don't be tricked by the low price. Low price usually means low quality.

Also, don't give the full payment when you're still not satisifed with your gown. Couturiers will not hide from you as long as the money is still in your hands.

What happened to us really sucks but we managed to rise from it. Lei's quick fix saved us from more tensions and stress. We also learned our lessons, especially when dealing with suppliers of any kind.

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Do you have questions about Lei's wedding gown? Or do you want to know the name of this dubious wedding gown supplier? Place your questions and comments at the comment section below or you may send a private message to my Facebook page.
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