My fiance and I saw them at a wedding expo early 2012 and were very impressed with their stand, the business owners and the sample bridal dresses they had on display. We were excited by the fact they sell replica Vera Wang dresses at affordable prices. We soon made an appointment with them and ordered made-to-measure bridesmaids dresses for my wedding.

The first sample dress was made, it was beautiful and of high quality, so we proceeded to order the other four bridesmaids dresses. Four new dresses arrived, and four dresses were not made to the same quality presented in the first sample dress. All dresses had to be sent back and have hooks and eyes added to them because the backs did not close all the way to the top. One dress was so bad, that the two sides at the back where the zipper goes did not line up and had to be completely corrected. The owners were happy to help get that dress fixed. However, please note that I only received that dress back, one week prior to my wedding. I had to chase that dress up several times.

Two out of the five dresses were sewn completely wrong, one was out by 20 cm's - those two dresses required massive alterations to get them to a wearable size for the intended girls. We questioned several times why the dresses were not made in accordance with the order forms.

I was upset by the poor quality of the dresses, but was confident that Belle Couture would take responsibility for the mistakes and repair the dresses. They had been very friendly and helpful up until this point. The website's terms and conditions do state that they do not do fittings or cover alterations and we were fully aware of that before buying anything. However, considering the dresses were made completely different to the confirmed order forms, cm's different - we are not talking about alterations in this case but delivering the dresses correctly in the first place.

We went back to Belle Couture to let them know that we were unsatisfied with the product that we received. They did not return any of our phone calls, countless voice-mails were left. The owners eventually answered our email communication, only to be difficult towards us. They blamed us for the dresses being sewn so very differently to the order forms, which was an un-expected response. The emails we got were rude, argumentative, accusatory, and lacked empathy. The solution they offered was to post all the dresses back at our expense for a refund, but only if it was done prior to the wedding date. The owners said just to go buy five new dresses, which is obviously easier said than done when it comes to buying bridal wear close to the wedding date. I did not want a refund, I just wanted the dresses to be corrected so that they could be worn for my wedding. We repeatedly noted to Belle Couture that our whole wedding theme and colours were centred around the colour of those dresses which was a specific shade. Finding new groomsmen ties, changing flowers, reception settings, reception bridal table backdrops and the like to match new dresses was not an option so close to the Wedding day.

I offered to go see their dressmaker directly as both owners were overseas at the time of my query. They said that could not be done, because unbeknownst to us the dresses are made offshore in China which was not disclosed at the time of sale. Due to this reason, the dresses could not be fixed in time for my wedding which they were purchased for. The owners could only guarantee the dresses get fixed and back to be after my wedding date. Having five bridesmaids ready to be worn post the wedding date is obviously not a workable solution.

We asked them to cover the cost of fixing the dresses to the size we had ordered from them in the first place, they refused. We said many times, we just wanted to have five wearable dresses in time for our wedding which is what we thought we bought from them. It was an extremely stressful and upsetting experience, there was a lot of tears.

Another solution presented to us was to send extra materials for us to take to a dressmaker to get the dresses fixed. We liked that idea and requested the materials to be shipped asap. After several days of emailing and arguing about the materials shipment, the shipment was eventually made. We received the materials six days before the wedding. Massive bridesmaids dresses alterations at the last minute obviously would need more time than six days to get the work done.

In the end, we received two unwearable dresses which were sewn too small which we had to spend a fortune getting a dressmaker to correct. The business did refund the cost of one dress as a goodwill gesture to the value of $250, even though it was two dresses that were incorrect not just one dress. We were allowed to keep that dress. Unfortunately, that money did not cover the cost of the massive alterations on two dresses. We were left out of pocket. It was an unfortunate and stressful experience.

Approximate cost: $1250