Frequently Asked Questions

We require a 50% deposit when ordering your gown, and the remaining 50% is payable once we have been notified that your gown has been dispatched. Sample gowns are 100% payment at purchase.

We do however offer a 10% discount on all gowns (not including accessories or sample gowns) if paid in full on order.

Please note the cost of a gown does not include alterations, veils or accessories. We are also unable to offer refunds or exchanges and therefore all sales are final. Once you have paid your deposit, you have contractually agreed to pay for the gown in full.

We accept bank transfer and all major cards, but are unable to accept cheques or cash.

Yes please!

We operate on an appointment only basis, so that each of our brides have exclusive use of the entire boutique and private dressing room. We also want to ensure that every bride has our undivided attention.

We allow 1 hour 30 minutes for each appointment, to ensure that you have enough time to try on all the dresses you wish and chat to us about your vision. Of course, we never want our brides to feel rushed, so if you think you will need longer than 1 hour 30 minutes, please let us know when booking. We want you to feel totally relaxed and have the best experience, so we can certainly cater for your individual needs.

We would recommend that you start looking for your wedding dress around 10 to 12 months before your wedding. Of course you can look earlier than this, however this time frame should give you enough time to find the perfect dress, time for the dress to be made and arrive in store, and finally your alterations.

Don’t worry if your wedding is sooner than this, we can do rush orders with most of our designers (an additional cost may be charged), or sometimes are able to sell you a sample gown.

Most of our samples are a UK size 12 or 14 (with a few smaller and larger sizes also), which mean that it is unlikely that the sample gowns will fit you perfectly during your appointment. We are very good however at pinning and clipping the dresses, so that you can see how the dress will look once it is ordered in your correct size. You will however definitely know when you find the one and we cannot wait to experience such an exciting moment with you!
We recommend that you bring a maximum of two or three of your closest friends and family to your appointment. If you invite too many people, it can become a very stressful experience, with many different opinions. In such circumstances the bride can often lose focus of what they actually want and the experience can become overwhelming. Your appointment should be about YOU! You can of course always bring more guests once your dress arrives, if you have a large bridal party.

We recommend that you wear nude underwear for your appointment and ideally a strapless bra if you have one. If you don’t however, please do not worry as we can work with anything.

We also have a selection of heels you can borrow, however if you would like to bring your own shoes please feel free to do so. Once you have purchased your gown however, please make sure you bring your actual wedding shoes to all subsequent appointments as these will affect your alterations.

It is extremely likely that your dress will need to be altered to fit you perfectly.

We work with a couple of independent seamstresses, where you have the choice of either having all of your fittings at My Funny Valentine, or attending the seamstresses lovely studio. We will discuss your options with you when you order your gown.

Brides are under no obligation to use either of our seamstresses and vice versa. Please note our seamstresses are totally independent from My Funny Valentine, however they both come highly recommended and therefore book up quickly, so we would recommend booking in with them as early as possible to avoid disappointment. We will of course help you with the booking process and timing.

You will normally need 2 to 3 appointments with the seamstress, so please keep this in mind when working out timescales.

Please be aware that alteration costs are not included in the price of your dress.

We are very relaxed and therefore do allow photographs of your favourite gowns.

We do however ask our brides to remember that as our gowns are samples and will be pinned and clipped to show you the fit in person, they do not always photograph well. It is often that brides can therefore be disappointed when looking back at photographs of their favourite dresses, when they in fact loved the gown in person.

For this reason we therefore ask you to remember how you felt when wearing the dress and not to just base your feelings on a quick phone snap.

There are many professional photos of your favourite dresses online to help you remember, if you want to refer back to.

We are happy to store your dress free of charge for up to six months after it arrives into the boutique. If you require storage for longer than this, please let us know and we will try to accommodate this where possible.

Please do not worry!

We think that all of our brides are stunning as they are, but we do understand that some brides have a goal weight in mind for their wedding. If you are planning to lose a lot of weight, please discuss this with us when ordering your gown so we can take this into account.

We can always alter dresses up or down (within reason) when they arrive, so if changes are needed our seamstresses can work with you to get that perfect fit.

Yes, we love it when brides want to put their own stamp on their dress such as adding straps or sleeves, changing necklines and backs, or adding lace etc.

Please let us know at your appointment if there are specific changes you would like made to the gown and this is something we can discuss with our seamstress to ensure it can be done.

We ask that our brides refrain from wearing fake tan around your appointment date. Although we appreciate that everyone loves to have a bit of a glow, fake tan can permanently stain the sample gowns. We thank you for understanding.