A totally sane experience

For various logistical reasons I ended up needing to find a dress for my wedding while in Beijing and, in a fit of temporary insanity, decided to make like a local(ish) and conduct the hunt Dianping-style. In the end I bought one from Emma's Bridal and am really pleased with my experience and the dress itself. Wanted to put this up here in case anyone else finds herself in my position and needs to find an affordable Beijing bridal shop that's a decent fit with laowai tastes.

Emma (the owner) has a selection that runs more toward the look of Western brands like Pronovias (think satin, lace, chiffon) and less toward tulle and buckets of glittery rhinestones, unlike the typical Chinese "western" wedding dress. The quality of her fabrics seemed much nicer than I encountered in bigger midrange bridal shops too (I can't speak to the very high end, because I was being a bit strict about my budget and didn't investigate those places at all). I spent about 3000 RMB, which was less than I expected, and am pretty confident I got more for my kuai than I would have in a bigger shop here, let alone back in the US. Most of their business is made-to-measure orders (takes about 2 months, iirc), but I happened to fit well into the sample of the dress I wanted, so I just bought that. I bet if you wanted small modifications to a made-to-order design, like a shorter train, they could proabably accomodate you.

The shop is tiny and hidden away up in an apartment building in a residential compound, so you really do need an appointment. Emma used to work in a foreign company, has worked with other foreign brides, and speaks some English, but we mostly used Chinese so I can't say exactly how much--if you're not somewhat comfortable in Mandarin it still might be good to include a Chinese speaking friend among your trying-on advisors. I also found her to be very chill in general--she knows her stuff but also listened to what I wanted (even though I must have been annoyingly vague) and never made me feel pressured, which was definitely not the case in at least one bigger shop I checked out.