<p>Does one have to spend thousands on a wedding gown? Really?</p>
<p>Nope… Go to David’s Bridal?</p>
<p>Not at all. Though, I spent more on my gown than I am happy with. I fell in love with a gown that was over $850. Plus alterations, and taxes, I am over the $1000 mark. I had other dresses that I probably could have worn that while I felt pretty in, just weren’t the one. </p>
<p>While I was trying on dresses, though, I found many beautiful dresses that did not come with quadruple digit price tags. Aside from David’s Bridal, there is Alfred Angelo which tends to fall into the $500-1500 price range. Plus, if you’re looking for that dress shopping experience, in my experience you’ll get treated a lot nicer at an Alfred Angelo. David’s Bridal is very rushed and crowded all of the time. </p>
<p>If you’ve been watching SYTTD, some of the dresses that they’re selling for thousands don’t usually retail for that much. Maggie Sottero and Sottero and Midgley gowns come in around $1000-$1500 in most normal bridal shops, from my experience. Some a little less than that. </p>
<p>Then, there are online China dress shops like Jasmine’s Bridal and Dressilyme that do a really good job making custom replicas that are very inexpensive. Lastly, many bridesmaids dresses can be ordered in white and worn as a wedding gown.</p>
<p>So yeah, the moral of the story is that while some brides spend thousands of dollars on a dress, most don’t, and you can get a gorgeous dress that does not cost that much.</p>
<p>Mine was $250 plus $100 for alterations. It was last season sample from the bridal boutique. This was in 1995. </p>
<p>The dress I originally wanted was $1600, but I did not want to pay that much, so I just looked at the samples they wanted to retire.</p>
<p>When my youngest went through Presents she had to wear a long white dress. I found, on sale and online (from Neiman Marcus) a Sue Wong dress for 300…plus alterations. It is simply stunning. I would have no problem whatsoever using this dress for a wedding gown.</p>
<p>Sue Wong is online and is sold at a number of stores.</p>
<p>One daughter was a bridesmaid and wore a dress from David’s bridal. The dress, while cute-ish never met a natural fabric. And she paid (no alterations needed) about !50. I understand that J Crew has cute (but a bit more expensive) bridesmaid’s dresses.</p>
<p>I’ve recently been involved in 2 weddings and in both cases the wedding dress (new) was well under a thousand. And both were purchased at small, boutique places.</p>
<p>My DIL’s dress was originally $1200. It was the sample dress (and in this case, the dress was no longer able to be ordered so they were selling this dress). They asked $800 for the dress but this was outside of her budget which was $500. She thanked the lady but said that it was outside her budget. (Background: this dress looked amazing on her. Anyone would have thought that this dress was made specifically for her as the fit and cut were that perfect for her.) The owner of the dress shop then came out, spoke with DIL and then countered with $600. I told DIL that we’d give her the extra $100. My DIL did her own alterations (because she’s just amazing that way) so there was no additional expense there. </p>
<p>My daughter bought a dress that was last year’s model and so it was half-price at $500. </p>
<p>In both cases they wanted a wedding dress with straps so they were limited in the available options. Yes, you can add straps to a strapless, but that does up the alterations fee as we looked into that. And neither really wanted that style anyway. </p>
<p>An option that one salesperson suggested is to go to a wedding shop but buy a formal dress that comes in white and that you can add a train to. At the place where this was suggested, the dress was really lovely (I don’t remember if it was a bridesmaid dress or a mother of the bride dress) and the added train would have been a short one, but a train nevertheless. That dress, with alterations/addition of the train, was also under $1000. My daughter wanted a longer train so we didn’t go this route. </p>
<p>Another option is to look on Craig’s List. I was amazed at how many dresses are listed there.</p>
<p>If you watch Shark Tank you may have seen the pitch about the company Nearly Newlywed ([Nearly</a> Newlywed Wedding Dress Boutique Bridal Boutique](<a href=“http://www.nearlynewlywed.com/]Nearly”>http://www.nearlynewlywed.com/)). It was an interesting concept that might be of interest if you are looking for a high end dress at a fraction of the cost.</p>
<p>If you live near NYC you can go to the bridal building on Saturday morning and order direct from the manufacturer. That’s what I did, many moons ago.</p>
<p>I picked up a very inexpensive JC Penny’s wedding dress many years ago for myself. It is truly one of the prettiest wedding dressing I’ve yet to see and it was perfect the way it looked on me. I saw the dress and knew immediately that it was the one. However, many decades later, I do have the regret that I did not get one of a better quality some where else. The dress is, after all, JC Penny, off the rack, with some alterations, so the materials and all are cheap as was the price. It’s all looks, but I’m sure the feel is not the same, and anyone examining the dress other than in a photo or on the bride will see it for what it is. It also itched at the waistline like a dozen mosquito bites where some of the fabric that was not soft was bunched. </p>
<p>But I went to a number of wedding where the thousands of dollars wedding dresses were already falling apart at the reception. But the fabric was certainly of better quality than my Barbie doll clothes material dress.</p>
<p>[Ann</a> Taylor - AT Wedding Dresses](<a href=“http://www.anntaylor.com/ann/catalog/category.jsp?trail=&pageSize=101&gridSize=md&catid=cata000034&goToPage=1&viewAll=viewAll&fRequest=]Ann”>http://www.anntaylor.com/ann/catalog/category.jsp?trail=&pageSize=101&gridSize=md&catid=cata000034&goToPage=1&viewAll=viewAll&fRequest=)</p>
<p>These bridal gowns start at $449. There’s no reason to spend a thousand dollars on a gown.
My future DIL was going to try to find a vintage gown at a second hand shop until she started looking and realized she could easily find a beautiful, new and stylish gown within her budget.</p>
<p>In NYC:</p>
<p>“At The Bridal Garden, we have curated a fabulous collection of one-of-a-kind wedding gowns for sale at up to 75% off the original retail price. Our vast network of couture designers, exclusive retailers, and individuals generously donate their gowns to us. The Bridal Garden is not only a bridal boutique, but also a not-for-profit charitable organization whose proceeds benefit education for disadvantaged children…”</p>
<p>and a sampling from other states:
<a href=“http://www.donatemyweddingdress.org/[/url]”>http://www.donatemyweddingdress.org/</a></p>
<p>Try this: [Buy</a> Used Wedding Dresses | Sell Used Wedding Dresses | Once Wed](<a href=“http://www.oncewed.com/used-wedding-dresses/]Buy”>New, Used, & Sample Wedding Dresses - PreOwnedWeddingDresses)
[Bridal</a> Consignment - Encore Bridal Encore Bridal](<a href=“Encorebridal.com”>http://encorebridal.com/)</p>
<p>My DIL went to David’s and got a dress for under $500. She is planning on changing to a different dress (which she she wore for the civil ceremony and spent $78 on) for the contra dancing, so did not want to spend lots of $$ on the wedding gown.</p>
<p>I made my dress. Supplies were about $125 (in 1983).</p>
<p>There is a consignment bridal shop right next to the quilt store I frequent.</p>
<p>The J Crew bridesmaid dresses are actually pretty nice, and come in pastels.
There are some lovely dresses on Etsy.</p>
<p>My daughter had her dress custom-made for just under a thousand dollars. Silk chiffon, fit perfectly, looked great.</p>
<p>My daughter ordered her dress on J Crew for about $1200 with her 15% teacher’s discount. Fortunately, it fit her perfectly and did not need to be altered. After her wedding, she sold the dress on one of the wedding websites for around $800 + shipping. She figured she would never use the dress again anyway, and it was no longer available on JCrew, so she sold it as soon as she posted it.</p>
<p>My dream dress is a Maggie Sottero, and is less than 2k. When we took my sister wedding dress shopping the most expensive dress in the shop was about 1500, and they had a giant warehouse full of beautiful dresses. My fiance’s sister got married in September and wore a dress from the $99 gown sale at David’s Bridal and her dress was beautiful. I think you can spend just about whatever you want on a wedding dress, be it $50-100 or $10,000.</p>
<p>Son #2 is engaged and I can guaran-damn-tee you his fiancee is NOT going to spend a fortune on a dress. She is very tight fisted with her money! LOL. So, it’s good to know less expensive ones are available. Yes, I love watching SYTTD and others.</p>
<p>Those Ann Taylor dresses are gorgeous!</p>
<p>And every bride I’ve ever seen has been absolutely beautiful, no matter how expensive (or not) the dress.</p>
<p>D’s dress for next month’s wedding cost 350 at David’s.</p>
<p>Mine back in the day was off-the-rack-mall-store, 60 dollars.</p>
<p>I bought my dress in a funny little shop that had a combination of lovely new crafts and old consignment stuff. There was the perfect dress, fit like a glove, from the 1930s. It was so much nicer than anything new I’d seen.</p>
<p>My sister-in-law sewed hers, and also all her bridesmaid outfits as well.</p>