NBR: Wedding Dresses

mkanderson85 · June 2010

I watch a WHOLE lot of Say Yes to the Dress. I am constantly shocked at how much money some people spend on their dress. I felt bad choosing a dress for $1200 and some of these women are spending 10x that! AND- when they say that they have a modest budget, the consultants say, "oh- we don't have that in your price range." What was your budget for a wedding dress? Was the dress REALLY the most important thing for you? I was more concerned with other aspects...

nabiasi · June 2010

I spent $800 on the dress, veil, tiara, and shoes combined.... and I thought I looked fantastic. lol. We splurged on the band instead!

AmieVan · June 2010

I have to say, I do love that show. But, I'm always SHOCKED at the prices! My wedding gown was about $800...it was my dream dress

jessielegendre · June 2010

I completely agree!!! I don't remember exactly what I spent but I think it was b/t 6 and 8 hundred. Nowhere near what they spend on that show. They are crazy!!!

LadyDelilah · June 2010

Let me tell you about the deal of the century. My budget was 1500$ I fell in love with Lazaro as a designer and I knew I had neither the time or the money to order one of his dresses. I went to a bridal shop my Bubbi suggested we go into and found one off the rack one size larger than I was but marked down for 800$ I thought there was something wrong with it but the owner told me it was an "odd size" and "last season" I LOVED my dress! and I saved like 3k

amy0105 · June 2010

I'd rather not post how much it was...but, after trying on about 20 dresses I found one that was in my budget...it was a nice budget and my mom would have spent more if I couldn't find one within my actual budget (we would have spent less on flowers or decor or something else with the wedding)...

FWIW - I tried on dresses from every range from $500 to $4000 -- my budget was not $4000...I just wanted to see the difference...

Laroogirl · June 2010

My dress was one of the things my parents paid for. DH and I paid for pretty much everything minus $2000 my parents gave us. It cost $500 and I had to pay $200 to have it custom made for my height since it could not be hemmed once ordered due to beadwork.

Funny thing is my mom spent more on her dress 23 years before I got married.

FWIW we spent around $10,000 for our entire wedding including my dress.

Dobie_Mama · June 2010

I spent $1300 on my dress and it was by far the most important thing to me. We were poor college kids - I made payments on it! We cut corners everywhere else we could, but I had to have my dream dress.

Aloe0l · June 2010

My dress, which was 2 seasons old when I bought it, was only $450. The dress, veil, crinoline, & tiara all came out to be about $700 in the end.

bone2595 · June 2010

Those women are nuts.

I think my dress was around $800. Spent another 100 or so on the accessories.

Overall, I'd say our wedding and honeymoon combined only cost maybe $8,000-$10,000, which is less than what those ladies spend on their 'modest' dresses.

kaiteedidit · June 2010

My Dad paid for my dress, it was the one I fell in love with in a magazine and I went and tried it on and it was perfect. We paid $2300 for it, I think the veil was $300 and the tiara was $175. I'm very thankful that my Dad paid for it for us.

BLykins16 · June 2010

I think I spent about $800 on my dress and that included shoes, veil, crinoline skirt, bra, and hair accessories. I loved my dress and though I could have spent more, there were more important things to spend the money on, like our honeymoon!

MermaidNM · June 2010

I love that show. I spent around $300 on my wedding dress. It wasn't my favorite at the time but it was a great deal and turned out perfect. I thought the dress would be the most important part before I started planning, but once we got to planning and spending money, it just wasn't.

Now over two years later, I am glad that I have such beautiful pictures and the perfect wedding band on top of having the best husband ever.

JhawkCE · June 2010

I didn't have a budget. I spent way too much, but it wasn't anything we couldn't afford or that we had to save for since we got married after we were both financially stable. I don't regret it at all. It was that important to me. I don't remember too much about the food or decorations, but I remember how pretty and confident I felt all day (I know shallow) in that dress.

I'm a jeans and t-shirt kid, but this was one item of clothing I wanted to be able to look back on and be able to say "I looked GOOD".

toyah81 · June 2010

Well, my budget was $1500-$3000. I wanted to look good! Lol

BUT, I ended up finding the perfect dress at an online sample sale for a little less than $500! And it had every single aspect I was looking for in a dress. My veil: $11 off Ebay - it was ivory, 2 tiered with crystals and everything I wanted

I couldn't justify spending $200+ on a veil when my dress ended up being so cheap!

rachelnleo · June 2010

Spent $1000 on my dress, yes it was important but more important to us was the open-bar and party-time reception!!

Conniebird · June 2010

my dress cost about $450 My folks bought it as a gift (a huge and welcome surprise) then about $50 on shoes and a good strapless bra for it. our budget for the wedding was about 3k.

I also love that show but have a small heart attack when I see girls buy dress that cost more than my whole wedding. but hey, if they can afford it awesome for them!

mrs.spears26 · June 2010

my dress was around $800 and then alterations were more

minaa7 · June 2010

I lovvved my dress and I bought it online from Nordstrom.. it was on sale for only $125 and alterations @ Nordstrom were only $50! :-)

katie277s · June 2010

the grand total for everything (dress, veil, shoes, bra, etc) was $1000. I couldn't imagine spending any more than that!

mrs.kapow · June 2010

The dress ended up being way more important to me than I would have imagined.

I had THREE dresses. Yes, three.

But my total for all three was around $1000.

It's a convoluted story, but I know now that I want to give my sister X amount to buy or put toward a real dream dress for her. It meant the world to me to feel beautiful that day.

wifeandmama · June 2010

I picked out a Nicole Miller dress for $1200 and almost got it.. then I found a BCBG dress at Bloomie's (not a wedding dress - just an ivory cocktail dress) and fell in love! It was $300 or $400 and absolutely perfect!

StevieJo · June 2010

I can't remember, mine was either 1000 or 1200. But I found plenty of great ones even in the 600-800 range. There is NO NEED to spend as much as they do on that show. I can understand if you have the budget, spending more than I did but when you get into the 10's of thousands its just a waste.

kimmyt09 · June 2010

Mine was a lot, but I was very fortunate that my parents were buying it for me. It was my dream dress, and I'm sad I'll never wear it again.

yeshuahamasshiah · June 2010

My dress was $350, I made my own veil (spent maybe $8-$10 in materials), my shoes were the same shoes my mom wore when she married my father. I also made my garter and my BFF and I made all our flower arrangements including our bouquets.

Our families live out of the country so only our mothers were able to get visas to attend our wedding. We paid for everything ourselves. Our budget was 30,000 (which we had saved while engaged) and we spent $28,200 including our honeymoon.

Chickpea2010 · June 2010

I think mine was $3500 BUT - exactly 2 months before my wedding, the original dress I bought came in and it was sized so completely wrong, the seamstress had to have been on something when she took my measurements.

So there I was 2 months before my big day with no dress. We had to do what we had to do.

BTW, if anyone needs a never-worn, wonky-sized wedding dress, I'm your girl.

Dreamsicle23 · June 2010

I forget how much mine was, but I think it was under $500. It wasn't my "dream" dress, but I liked it far more than others in the price range. I probably would have spent $1000-$1200 if I had the money at the time, but even if I was rich I don't I could rationalize a $5000+ dress like they have on that show.

efortune · June 2010

I spent....$40 on a white sun dress for a beach wedding.

susie985 · June 2010

I love that show although those prices are outrageous! I think the total for my dress, all the stuff for under the dress, tiara, veil, shoes, and alterations cost me around $1200. And I did make payments on it!

His-N-Hers · June 2010

I liked my dress a lot but feel that I just as easily could have found another dress to get married in and been fine. I think I spent $800 for it. It took me 6 months to decide on a dress--- I must have tried on a 100 in that time.