Terms of service

Last updated: 27 September 2026

WHO WE ARE

Ephemeris Bridal Limited is a New Zealand company, and Ephemeris is the name we trade under. In these Terms, "we", "us" and "our" refer to Ephemeris Bridal Limited.

Ephemeris Bridal Limited
19 Braemar Place, Twizel 7901, New Zealand
stylist@ephemerisbridal.com

1. ORDERING

Your order becomes binding when you complete payment at checkout.

Production begins only after you have sent us your measurements, or confirmed your sizing with our stylist.

We will tell you if anything is missing from your measurements before the clock starts. We do not restart the timeline without telling you.

If we need anything from you before production can begin, we will contact you and your order waits until you reply. Your order joins the dispatch queue only once we have everything we asked you for. We are not responsible for a dispatch delay caused by a late or missing reply, including where that delay means your dress does not reach you before your wedding.

2. THE THREE WAYS TO ORDER

Ready-to-Wear. Choose from the sizes listed on the product page. Long gowns have a standard skirt length of 120 cm, approximately 47 inches, from the waist. We cannot customise ready-to-wear dresses before dispatch. If you need a shorter hem or a closer fit, a local seamstress can advise on suitable alterations for your chosen design.

Made-to-Order. Our made-to-order size range runs from S to 11XL, subject to the design. For sizes 5XL to 11XL, please contact us before purchasing so we can confirm whether your chosen dress can be made in your size. Choose the size closest to your measurements. After your purchase we send you a measurements form, and your skirt length is cut to the measurements you return. Please provide your waist-to-floor measurement and your heel height separately, following our measurement guide. We check the size you chose against your measurements before your dress is made, and if you sit between sizes or another size would suit you better, we will contact you first.

Bespoke. Please contact us before ordering if your measurements fall outside the size chart, you need a different torso length, or you would like a substantial change to the design or skirt shape. We can also discuss an individual design made for you. An individual skirt length is already included in our made-to-order option. Bespoke requests are assessed and quoted individually. Availability depends on the design, fabric and the changes required. We will confirm the price, the agreed specifications and the timeframe before proceeding.

For Ready-to-Wear, if you are between sizes, choose the size that accommodates your largest measurement. Many of our designs use lacing or elastic for an adjustable fit, and some can accommodate variation of up to approximately two sizes, depending on the design. Please follow the size chart for your chosen dress rather than ordering a smaller size in reliance on this flexibility.

Your measurements. You are responsible for giving us accurate and complete measurements, taken with the guide we supply. If you are not sure how to take them, please have them taken by a professional: a bridal seamstress, a tailor or an alterations studio. We are not responsible for incorrect measurements given to us, and a garment made correctly to the measurements you sent us is not faulty.

If you expect your measurements to change, tell us before you send them. Where your wedding date leaves enough time, we can hold production and work from updated measurements instead. Write to us and wait for our written confirmation: production moves only once we have confirmed it to you in writing. Once your final measurements are with us, your order goes into production against them.

Alterations. In our experience most brides need no alterations, and those who do usually need only a small adjustment such as a hem or taking the bodice in. We do not alter garments, and the cost of alterations and fittings is not covered by us. A final fitting with a local seamstress is standard practice in bridal, whoever made the dress, and our patterns are drawn to make that straightforward.

3. DISPATCH TIMES

Ready-to-Wear: allow up to 4 weeks for dispatch from the date we receive your measurements, plus delivery time. This allows for our size check and any transfer between warehouses. If you need your dress sooner, email us before ordering. Earlier dispatch may be possible, depending on where your size is held.

Made-to-Order: allow 3 months for dispatch from the date we receive and confirm your measurements, unless we agree a different timeframe with you. Delivery time is additional.

Bespoke: allow approximately 4 to 6 months from the confirmation of your final measurements and specification, plus delivery time, unless a different timeframe is agreed.

Rush requests: a rush fee of USD 250 applies to an accepted rush order. Rush availability depends on our tailors' capacity and must be confirmed by us before you order. We will confirm the revised dispatch timeframe. Delivery time remains additional. A rush order is not expedited carrier delivery and does not guarantee arrival by any particular date.

4. PAYMENT

For wedding dresses purchased on a payment plan, you pay 60% at checkout. The remaining 40% is due within 3 months of purchase or before dispatch, whichever comes first.

If your order is ready to dispatch before the balance is due, we collect the outstanding balance before dispatch using your authorised payment method where supported. If payment cannot be collected, we send you a payment request. Your order must be paid in full before dispatch.

5. PRICES, TAX AND IMPORT DUTIES

Any applicable New Zealand GST is shown at checkout.

United States. We cover any import duties on orders delivered to the United States, including orders dispatched from outside the US. Applicable sales tax, if any, is shown at checkout.

Other destinations. If checkout states that import duties and taxes are included, or collects them with your order, we arrange payment of those charges. You should not have to pay the same import charges again on delivery. If a carrier asks you to do so, contact us with the notice so we can resolve it.

If import duties and taxes are not included or collected at checkout, and we have not stated that we cover them, you are responsible for any applicable import charges and carrier clearance fees.

Shipping charges and the applicable tax and duty information are shown at checkout. Please contact us if anything is unclear before placing your order.

6. CANCELLING AN ORDER

Under our voluntary policy, an order cannot be cancelled more than 3 working days after purchase, and a cancellation fee of USD 250 applies within that window.

This is a voluntary contractual term. It does not apply where you are exercising a statutory cancellation right, and it does not apply to a remedy for goods that are faulty or not as described. Where a statutory right applies to your order, the cancellation rights set out in our Returns & Exchanges Policy govern instead.

7. DELIVERY

We ship with UPS, FedEx, DHL or New Zealand Post. All parcels are sent with tracking. Not every parcel travels with a signature service: the options depend on the carrier and the destination.

We ship to the delivery address on your order, and we may dispatch earlier than the timeframe we quoted. A change of delivery address takes effect only once we have confirmed it to you in writing.

The address we ship to, delivery, refused and uncollected parcels, and parcels that do not arrive are covered by our Shipping & Delivery Policy.

8. RETURNS, EXCHANGES AND FAULTY ITEMS

Returns, exchanges and faulty-item claims are covered by our Returns & Exchanges Policy. Eligible ready-to-wear items may be returned for a refund to the original payment method or an exchange, subject to that policy. Parcels that are refused or not collected are covered separately by our Shipping & Delivery Policy. Nothing in these Terms limits your statutory consumer rights.

9. FABRICS, COLOUR AND WHAT A SCREEN SHOWS YOU

Every screen renders colour differently, and lace, tulle and satin behave differently under a camera than they do in daylight. We photograph and film our pieces to show them as truthfully as we can, video included, and a small difference between what you see on a screen and what arrives is normal. Our fabrics are woven in limited runs, so colour and texture can also vary slightly between batches.

If a colour or a texture matters to you, please write to us before you order. We will film the piece for you in different light and answer any question about it. We would far rather do that than have a dress arrive and disappoint you.

10. ALLERGIES AND SENSITIVITIES

We list what a garment is made of on its product page and on its care label. If you react to a material, write to us before you order. Tell us what you react to, whether it is a fibre, a dye or finish, elastic, or a metal trim, and we will check the piece against it and come back to you: the outer fabric, the lining, the thread, the trims and the fastenings. We would much rather answer that question before your order than after it.

We cannot know your medical history, and a reaction to a material we have described correctly is not a fault in the garment.

11. WHAT WE ARE RESPONSIBLE FOR, AND WHAT WE ARE NOT

We are responsible for making your garment to its description and to the measurements you send us, and for getting it to you. Where we get that wrong, your remedies are set out in our Returns & Exchanges Policy and in the consumer law that applies to your order.

To the fullest extent permitted by law, we are not liable for indirect or consequential loss arising from your order. That includes lost profits, the cost of rearranging or replacing an event, and disappointment or distress, including disappointment about fit, about timing, or about the difference between a photograph and the piece in your hands.

To the same extent, we are not liable for:

a dispatch delay caused by a late or missing reply from you, including where we asked for your measurements and did not receive them
incorrect measurements given to us
a change in your body between the date you send us your measurements and your wedding
alterations, wear, cleaning or handling after your garment reaches you
a delivery problem caused by an address you did not tell us about

Nothing in this section limits our liability for death or personal injury caused by our negligence, for fraud, or for anything else that a law applying to your order does not allow us to exclude. Nothing in these Terms removes your statutory consumer rights.

12. PHOTOGRAPHS OF YOU

If you tag or mention us publicly, we may reshare that post on our website and our social channels, with credit to you. We will not use an image in which you are identifiable in paid advertising without your written consent. Write to us at any time and we will take your image down.

13. INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY

The designs, patterns, photography, text and website content belong to Ephemeris Bridal Limited. You may not reproduce, resell or publish them as your own work.

14. GOVERNING LAW

These Terms are governed by the law of New Zealand. This does not remove any consumer rights that cannot be excluded under the law of the country where you live.

15. CHANGES TO THESE TERMS

We may change these Terms. The date at the top tells you when they last changed. Orders placed before a change remain governed by the version of these Terms that applied when you completed checkout.