Made In The USA… I Hope
April 8th, 2008 @ 11:10 am by Mrs. Gingerbread
Neither Miss GB 2.0 nor I were made in the U.S.A. To be honest, I never cared about the whole “buy American” campaign, because I was first exposed to it during the 1980s with all the anti-Japan sentiments (see Vincent Chin).
Anyway, now that I am living in Canada, I suddenly want to buy American. I am sure you are asking yourself the following: 1) Why? and 2) What does this have to do with weddings?! Answer: I ordered my wedding dress online from, Netbride.com, a U.S. based company and in doing so I’m saving over $350 off the price. If the dress is manufactured in North America, I won’t have to pay duties on it! (see NAFTA). If it is made somewhere else, I am looking at paying 16-18% in duties, which in this case is almost $200. This does not add up to much of a savings after all.
I called Netbride and they say the Watters bridal gowns are sometimes made in the U.S. and sometimes made in China. They did tell me that Marisa is the one designer that they carry that only manufactures in the U.S., so make a note of that Canadian brides who want to save some dough by buying online and not getting smacked with duties.
Boo on vagueness, international borders and importation duties! You are totally ruining my ability to bargain shop 
So as I sit and twiddle my thumbs while I wait up to 12 weeks for my rush order (just up to 6 more weeks to go!), maybe someone can point me in the direction of a good place for alterations in Vancouver. Any recommendations?
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16 Responses to “Made In The USA… I Hope”
I have a Marisa gown as well and they are gorgeous and well made dresses 
Miss GB, give Townline Tailors a call. I take all of my clothes there for tailoring and they are fabulous! I seem to remember seeing a wedding dress or two in there in the past. They are right downtown on Howe Street across from Pacific Centre (at Dunsmuir).
Can’t wait to see more details about your wedding!
Another thing about things made in the US and not in China has to do with certain environmental and labor protections.
Aww boo to the extra money. You can always have it sent to me and I can meet you at the boarder!
First, I’m so excited to hear that netbride delivers to Canada. However, I second the boo to not being able to bargain shop online. We just moved here to Vancouver too. Internet shopping used to be one of my favorite things to do in the US- finding the cheapest price, free shipping, finding anything online, and now I just get depressed since most places don’t deliver here and I can’t find anything I want online. Bye bye petco, zappos, potterybarn, amazon.com, paper-source, nordsrom. Wahhh. Boo to Canada for making me have to go to a B&M store instead of getting fun packages in the mail. I do love Canada though!
@melanie: Thanks for the recommendation!
@Mrs. Butterscotch: Haha. Border crossing is a whole other issue! They tax you at the border depending on what you are bringing in. I think it might be hard to smuggle a wedding dress…not that I would ever smuggle anything, Canadian Border Services Agency.
@BabySmudge: Don’t get to excited about Netbride just yet. I’ll let you know the nitty gritty about the delivery when that time finally comes Shopping online is probably my biggest complaint about living in Canada. I suppose the health care and overall equality issues trump my desire to bargain shop though. *sigh*
Oh yes, I would never smuggle anything in either. But… if I did need to see my poor old dying aunt ginger and bring her a wedding dress as her dying wish to be burried in, well I am sure they would take some pity on my aunt ginger. ha!
Me again! I just wanted to let you and Baby Smudge know that there is a fantastic option for when you want to shop on US sites and not pay brokerage fees or extra shipping to have it shipped to your Canadian address.
In Blaine, Point Roberts and Sumas (which are all just on the other side of 3 BC/US border crossings), you can get packages sent to a mailbox business that doesn’t have a PO box address. Just do a search online and you’ll come across quite a few. You buy your item online, have it shipped to the US address and go across and pick it up. Declare it at the border (of course!) but if it’s less than $50.00 or is candy etc, there are not duties or taxes. If it is over $50.00 you’ll have to pay duty and tax but you won’t incur expensive “international” shipping fees to get from Canada to the US and you won’t be forced to use the courier broker to import it for you if it’s over $200.00.
@melanie: Thanks for the tip! My FI has a boat down in Point Roberts and I saw the US post office there and thought about getting a PO Box there. But then we realized that a lot of places/companies don’t ship to PO Boxes, which makes your tip so very very very AWESOME!!! Now all I need is a Nexus pass so I don’t have to sit in line at the border…
@melanie: Doh! I just got a message that my dress is in and originated in China. Too bad the dress wasn’t under $50 or I would send it just south of the border.
Go to Vanessa Vu. She’s the seamstress at Maria’s Bridal on Hastings, but they will be closed starting May for renos, so she’s available to do alterations (my bm dresses are going to be altered there because I bought them online). Usually, she’s not supposed to do alterations outside of the store, but since it will be closed for a while, they are making an exception. She is really good. 778-895-8058
…or you can email her at vanvus@gmail.com (spammers out there, please don’t send her junk mail, she’s a very nice lady)….
@schor: Thanks for the recommendation and for making it so easy for me by including her email address! Do you want me to tell her that you referred me?
just tell her that a girl who is having her wedding dress altered by her referred you (i bought my dress at Maria’s), so that she knows you’re not some weirdo …no need to tell her my name, thanks for the offer!
Mrs. Gingerbread, Vancouver
Age and Occupation: 32, Psychologist
Fiance's Age and Occupation: 33, Software Engineer
Engagement Date: Sometime in the fall of 2004
Wedding Date: July, 2008
Blogging Since: March 24, 2008
Venue: Rainforest wedding, beachfront restaurant reception
About Me: I recently moved to Canada from Southern California. Trying to plan a wedding in a new city, not to mention a new country, is tough, but the fact that we can get legally married here more than makes up for it! The wedding will be an opportunity for most of our family and friends to see our new city for the first time so it will be both a wedding and a reunion. Besides my future wife, I am also madly in love with a good bargain, Swedish pastries, Tivo, and my two dogs and calico cat (in no particular order).
My dress is a Marisa, and I fell in love with it before I knew that all their dresses are made in the USA. It made me feel good that I’m not supporting the really poor human rights policies allowed by the Chinese government.