Next month I need to attend my brother’s wedding in Indonesia. I don’t have a dress yet and after some time I decided to rent it here in Ho Chi Minh City. I’m gonna wear it for 1 time only, so don’t bother to make a new one. Although if I decided to make one it only take 2 weeks in the tailor (or 3.5 weeks at the latest).

In Ho Chi Minh City, there are 2 famous street for bridal, they are Ho Van Hue street and Ba Thang Hai street. There are many bridal shops along the way at those streets. I need a starting point to look around, then from there I can walk down the street. One of my friend here made her wedding dress in Saturday Bridal, on Ho Van Hue street, so I decided to go to that street to check it out.

Saturday Bridal is on 81 Ho Van Hue Street, and i stopped by at 135B Ho Van Hue street before and started to look for a dress from there. The place name is Cana Bridal. The shop is small but it has many dresses, white and colored. We need to open our shoes before stepped in into the shop. This applies to all shops there. Tips : Wear simple shoes, flats or even sandals. My husband wore a sneakers and ended up busy with shoes every time we went in into a shop and left.

Another thing to take note is all of the shopkeeper can’t speak english and most of them can’t understand english. So I will share with you a few useful phrase (not a correctly Vietnamese language grammar but at least they will understand) :

• Tôi muốn mua áo (I want to buy a dress.)
• Tôi muốn thuê áo (I want to rent a dress.)
• mua áo, bao nhiêu? (How much is to buy ?)
• thuê áo, bao nhiêu? (How much is to rent ?)
• thuê áo, bao nhiêu ngày? (How long can I keep the dress if I rent?)
• làm áo, bao nhiêu ngày? (How long to make a new dress?)
• Tôi muốn thử áo này (I want to try this dress.)
• Khi bạn cần? (When will u need the dress? Seller will ask this.)

These shopkeepers are very friendly even though they can’t speak English. The only shop that I found the shopkeeper able to speak English is Saturday Bridal (the one recommended by my friend). But they only selling white wedding dress, no colored dress.

All of the shops have catalog in case you want to make a new dress. Or you can bring your own dress design/picture. Lead time for a new dress is 2 weeks, but sometime can go until 3.5 weeks. The lowest price to make a dress is 3 million vnd. I think it’s really cheap for a wedding dress (or bridesmaid dress, or mother’s of the bride dress, or whatever it is) ! Tempting to make a new one but decided on rent only. My consideration was the dress will only be worn 1 time, and I think it’s gonna hard to communicate with them if I make a dress…

The price range for rental is from 800k vnd to 1.8 million vnd. The length of rental also varies, from 3 days to 6 days. Some shops also have lateness charge.

After going through all the shops there, I finally decided on 1 dress in a shop called Thien Thanh. The price is reasonable and they allow me to rent the dress for 6 days! Yes I need a long one since I’m gonna bring the dress out of town. There is another dress I like from another shop, called Cana Bridal, but I prefer the one I choose.

When I finally decided on which dress I want, the lady made a receipt. I need to pay for down payment 50% and the rest on the day I take the dress, which is next month. They don’t have to do anything with the dress because it fit perfectly. All of the dress in those shops has an adjustable strap on the back side, so it can fit from size S to L. Also, they have many style from vintage style dress to modern style dress, and it’s not only dresses for the bride. Bridesmaid dress, mother of the bride dress, sister of the bride dress, you named it, they have it all.

I am really thankful to the shopkeeper of Cana Bridal. She was really patient with me and thanks to her I know some words to use at other shops. She even gave me this card! Only this shop gave me a note like this.

These are some reference you can check if you need to rent a wedding dress or party dress in Ho Chi Minh City :

1. Lucias Shop. 56 Dinh Bo Linh, Binh Thanh District
2. Saturday Bridal. 81 Ho Van Hue Street, Ward 09, Phu Nuan District. (They can speak english).
3. Cana Bridal. 135B Ho Van Hue street, Ward 09, Phu Nuan District. (If you decided to look for a dress in Ho Van Hue street, start with this shop then go along the street on both side.)
4. Thien Thanh. 188 Ho Van Hue street, Ward 09, Phu Nuan District.

Hope this will help 🙂 And now I need a pair of new shoes!