Veering a bit off from the MOB dress thread, I’m wondering what’s the budget for your MOB/MOG/Gala dresses. DH & I go to a very formal gala every year (for over 10 years). DH: Bought a nice tux early on. I upgraded him to a bow tie that actually needs to be tied a few years ago. It’s my job to tie it and to resent that his preparation timeline is under a half hour.
I’ve done Rent the Runway with mixed success. Spent up to $500 for dresses. These are mostly delivered from nordstrom.com. I get three options, try on at home and return the rejects.
So now I have the MOG happening next year. Thoughts?
I think $300-500 is my actual $ upper limit. A $1500 dress at 65% off falls into this category. Or a $3000 MSRP dress on RealReal… I always look for things that can be worn more than once.
I am not in a position to decide yet as I don’t get invited to galas nor are either of my kids in any serious relationship they’ve shared with me. I would be reluctant to spend more than $500 and likely would try to get something under $200, but time will tell. I would be very unlikely to be able to wear something very dressy more than once or twice.
I recently bought a beautiful formal gown at Estelle’s Dressy Dresses. I went to the store but I believe they work on line. Since I am a huge fat pig, my options are limited and it was an Orthodox wedding that I bought the dress for, so my options were even more limited. However, I found a sleeveless dress with a cute jacket which covered my bottom and that even I was satisfied with and it was $195. My D loved the dress and so did H. I had looked at Rent the Runway and didn’t see anything as nice as what I got. Plus, I can wear it again.
For the yearly events, I try to stay at $150. I can usually find great sales that keep it at that limit. if it’s an event I don’t care about that much that is annual, I’ll re wear my dress after 2 years. Unless it was something extraordinary people forget.
For galas and such, I happily repeat my outfits year after year and no one has ever complained. For MOB, I figure I would spend at least $500 and only wear it once. I guess that makes absolutely no sense!!! Hmm…need to rethink my philosophy!
I’m only going to wear the MOB dress once. I want to be comfortable, and look nice…but I have NO anticipation that the dress will ever be worn again…for anything…unless I give it away to a friend to use.
You know…like those bridesmaids dresses…“we picked one you could use again”. Did that ever happen?? Not with me.
I’m not sure of my budget…but the dresses I have been looking at are $300 or less. But then…I haven’t found anything that works…yet.
I had two black tie weddings in my family the same summer several year ago. One gown was about $1000 (worn to a very, very, very fancy wedding in Manhattan) and the other was $800, that I wore to my nieces destination wedding in Booth Bay, Maine. They were both very different weddings and neither dress would have been appropriate for other wedding. Haven’t worn either gown again.
I had another family wedding the same summer and was able to wear a dress I had bought for the a fourth non family wedding that summer. It was a very fancy short dress and about $500.
I have 3 family weddings next summer and hoping I can wear one dress twice but it will depend on what type of wedding they all are having. I might be able to wear the Maine gown to one as it’s H’s side of the family, in June, in Ithaca. And I might look into making it short. The other wedding is my niece’s in SF in April. The third will be in Rochester but no idea when yet.
Two summers ago I had a family wedding on H’s side and found a DVF lace dress at TJMaxx runway store in Boca for $75 on the clearance rack. I’m going to look there for next summer wedding dresses when I’m in Florida over the winter.
I decided, after a challenging cancer diagnosis, that I had focused too much on living below my means for too long, and wanted to start focusing on living fully.
Part of that change has been to loosen the purse strings (remaining responsible and well within our means, but just spending more freely). I used to put very little money into clothes. But for my kids’ weddings I did decide to go for what would work best for me for the day and for the pictures. I am short and also have a weight issue so not every appealing dress would work for me. I wanted to cover upper arms and have a loose, flowing skirt.
I found a perfect dress (mid-calf length) for D’s morning wedding at Nordstrom.com. Have since worn it to a couple of other dressy, but not formal, occasions, and got numerous compliments on it. Cost around $300.
For son’s wedding I splurged even more, went to a dress boutique in a very upscale town. They had dresses there, in my size, that I was not seeing online despite heavy searching. The saleslady was great, choosing several good options for me to try on. I bought a dress for over $400 and then the saleslady suggested a necklace that went perfectly with it, for which I paid another $200.
Could not believe it was me doing this. I am a person who usually goes around in old cotton tops and elastic waist pants.
No regrets – felt really good about my appearance both days, got numerous compliments – and I think some surprise from people who had never seen me dressed well.
Now I try to put more thought and resources in to having at least some clothes that work better than “good enough” for me. It is my favor to the world.
I do think that people without weight issues have more options for looking good within a broad price range. Mother of bride (who is very fit) at son’s wedding wore a gown that looked great on her at a terrific sale price at a major department store (perhaps Macy’s) – I think paid well under $200. Worked well for her, but I needed to do what would work well for me.
We attend several very formal Galas every year due to H’s job. I usually buy one dress a year and then rotate years old dresses to different events. I bought new MOB dresses when Ds got married and now rotate those in the mix. Those dresses ran between $300 and $400. I am very good at finding dresses on sale. I have also worn chiffony “palazzo pants” with beaded tops/jackets and I also have a gorgeous pair of velvet pants that I get compliments on. Most everything I buy is picked up on clearance racks or online before the Gala season starts. $500 is definitely my limit.
I lucked out with a RL fancy lace dress for less than 200, reduced from $800. I posted that 1 1/2 years ago. I wore that to evening event at a fancy Bat Mitzvah. After shopping a lot, and ordering a few dresses online, I finally got a $600 dress for daytime event.
Now I’m facing another Bat Mitzvah with same side of family. My cousin says to just wear the same 2 dresses. After all the ordeal of the hurricane, I may just do that. I feel like my great aunt Bessie; in pictures of family events, she wore the same dress for at least a dozen years.
Now, if I was the MOB or MOG, I’d go to the nicer stores, with the great salespeople.
I am with BB on this. I would buy a dress for 300-500 marked down 50%. For me the material is very important. A full retail price dress at 150-300 is not going to use the best material, especially when it comes to lace and such. D1 likes a dress for me at 1100 for her wedding. I would consider it, but most likely not going to wear it again. I have a habit of buying a dress or outfits when it goes on sale and it looks good on me, even if I don’t have an occasion to wear it. I do not like to feel like I am under the gun to have to buy something. Having to get a MOB dress is the only time I’ve felt like I do not have something appropriate in my closet to wear.
I didn’t want to spend more than $300 on my MOB dress. I ended up finding a $650 dress for less than $155 on Last Call (Neiman Marcus), online. I wanted a very nice dress, but I knew it would be worn a total of one time (by me, anyway). I was fortunate to find a great deal on a really nice dress … but I would NOT have paid $650.
I don’t go to that many dress-up events, but when I do dress up I try to keep the dress to less than $350. I also know that with shoes, accessories and proper undergarments the cost of the dress is just a starting point. Buying clothes can be a very frustrating experience for me so I try to avoid throwing money at the problem.
That said, when the day comes for me to purchase my MOG/MOB dresses look out! Fit and how it makes me feel will be the selling points. Price will be in there somewhere, but I will be willing to splurge for those events. And for that reason, I will probably find something amazing on a clearance rack but I’m not counting on it.
I am not a “dressy” person. I do not attend a lot of fancy events. DS is getting married in August and I want to look great. I am thinking max $350 for the dress. Hopefully less. I am just waiting for the MOB to decide what she is wearing so I know what direction to go (long/short etc…)
I am single so only have one income available plus I am really practical. I can think of so many other things I’d rather spend money on. I set a budget of $200 for my MOG which I know I will only wear once. I ordered a dress that was on sale for about $100. It should get here today. If it fits, I’ll be done shopping. If not, I’ll be back at it again but even if I’m desperate, I won’t spend more than $200.
I have also worn chiffony “palazzo pants” with beaded tops/jackets and I also have a gorgeous pair of velvet pants that I get compliments on. Most everything I buy is picked up on clearance racks or online before the Gala season starts. $500 is definitely my limit.