One of the most exciting parts of wedding planning is deciding on a dress. If you’re recently engaged you’ve probably already started browsing wedding dresses and wondering how much you should spend. So, how much is too much for a wedding dress?
As a general rule, paying more than 5% of your wedding budget on a wedding dress is too much because your budget needs to include enough money for the other important elements. These include the venue, photography, cake, transport, flowers, wedding favors, stationery, venue decor, and entertainment.
In this article, I’ll discuss how to decide how much you should spend on your wedding dress, and why wedding dresses are so expensive. I’ll also explain how you can save money on your wedding dress.
How Much Should You Spend on Your Wedding Dress?
When planning your wedding, you’ll notice that the wedding dress is just one of many things for which you need to budget. Most people will agree that wedding dresses, particularly custom or designer dresses, can be quite expensive. So, what percentage of your total wedding budget should you allocate to the dress?
You should allow 5% of your wedding budget for your wedding dress to start with. Then consider how much the other wedding elements will add to the total budget and discuss with your partner how all the elements will contribute to everyone’s enjoyment on the day.
What If You Want To Spend More Than 5% On Your Wedding Dress?
As I discuss in our other articles, you and your partner need to discuss and prioritise all wedding budget items. If your wedding dress is your high priority wedding list item, and you want to spend more than 5% on it, you’ll need to allocate less money to other elements that are not as important to you or your partner.
While each couple’s wedding budget will be entirely unique to them, here’s an example of how couples might typically split their wedding budget:
- 30% on the venue, food, and drinks: The venue, food, and beverages are normally the most expensive element.
- 15% on the photographer: Your wedding photography often also includes videography, wedding album compilation, and editing, which accounts for a large chunk of the budget.
- 10% on entertainment: Wedding entertainment usually includes MC and DJ services and music, making it one of the most costly elements of a wedding budget.
- 10% on flowers: You may want wedding flowers for the bride, bridal party, and wedding venue. Flowers can be costly, depending on the type and whether they’re in season.
- 10% on the venue decor: From table decor, and drapes, to special lighting, wedding venue decor should make up a tenth of your budget.
- 5% on the wedding dress and other attire: As discussed above, this is a great starting point for budget discussions for the wedding dress.
- 5% on other attire and styling: Other attire and styling such as suits, hair and makeup also needs to be considered
- 3% on transportation: Transportation includes limousine or other vehicle hired for the bridal party.
- 3% on stationery: Most couples ask a professional to design their wedding invitations or use an online service to do it themselves. Both options can be costly.
- 2% on favors: Wedding favors are small thank you gifts for the guests.
- 2% on the cake: Most couples choose and design their wedding cakes carefully, and the cake must be able to feed all the guests attending the wedding.
Why Are Wedding Dresses So Expensive?
I’ve explained above why 5% is a good starting point for wedding dress budget discussions. So, why are designer wedding dresses so expensive?
Wedding dresses are so expensive because you’re paying for the designer’s expertise and the dressmaker’s skills. They are also usually in high demand, made from costly materials, and are time-consuming to create as they are not mass produced.
Below I’ll discuss in more detail the reasons for wedding dresses being so expensive.
Designer’s Expertise
You’re paying for the dress designer’s time and expertise when buying a wedding dress. It takes many hours of design processes and hard work to create a new dress, and this is factored into the cost.
Additionally, the designer must decide which fabrics will work with the design and must work with a tailor to produce the dress.
Although some wedding dress styles are timeless, they’re affected by current fashion trends, and when a designer releases a new line, it’s often a tweak on a classic design.
Dressmaker’s Skills
As anyone who has ever tried to sew can agree, dressmaking is a highly skilled profession.
In order to produce high quality designer gowns the dressmakers must have a lot of experience with difficult techniques which takes many years to achieve.
The more highly skilled a dressmaker, the higher rates they can charge, resulting in higher prices for these gowns.
Costly Materials and Accessories
Most designer wedding dresses consist of various intricate parts, including the following:
- Bodice
- Interlining
- Outer shell
- Corset boning
- Slip
- Inner lining
- Lace overlay
To create a dress that flows beautifully, sits softly against the body, and looks elegant, the designer must use quality materials, such as Chantilly lace, charmeuse, raw silk, or top-quality satin.
Many dresses also have beading consisting of pearls, crystals, or semi-precious stones.
While the designer can buy these fabrics and accessories in bulk, they are still costly and contribute to the high cost of a wedding dress.
They’re Time-Consuming To Create
Custom-made wedding dresses often have beautiful, intricate, and subtle embellishments, like beading or appliques.
Delicate bead embellishments can’t be attached with a machine and must be hand-sewn, taking many hours of hard work and expertise.
It’s only natural for brides to want their wedding dresses to fit perfectly, so you will usually need to have a number of fitting appointments which takes up the tailor’s time and costs more.
There’s a Huge Demand for Wedding Dresses
Wedding dresses are only worn once, but there’s a huge demand for top quality gowns from well known designers.
Most wedding dress designers only release a limited number of dresses in one design, which adds to the demand and increases the price.
High-Quality Dresses Aren’t Mass Produced
High quality dresses aren’t mass produced, making them costly to make one by one. Mass produced wedding gowns use cost and time saving techniques, such as glued-on embellishments or beads attached to the dress with different techniques in order to save on cost.
Some cheaper production methods may mean the gown is not as comfortable with cheaper fabric used or different boning construction, or there may not be any scope for alterations if seam allowances are smaller.
How Can You Save Money on Your Wedding Dress?
Your wedding dress is one of the most important and memorable outfits you’ll ever choose, so choosing the most suitable one is important. So, how can you save money on your wedding dress without compromising style or quality?
The best ways to save money on your wedding dress are by renting one, buying used, on sale or “off the rack”. You could use a cheaper online boutique, buy a sample or use a “non-wedding” dress. Instead of buying one at a designer wedding boutique, you could try a local dressmaker to have one made for you.
Let’s take a look at these options in more detail below.
Rent a Wedding Dress
If you decide to rent your wedding dress, you’d pay a fraction of the cost of buying one from a designer boutique. This means that if you’ve had your eye on a designer wedding dress but couldn’t afford to buy one, renting one can be an excellent option.
Many wedding dress rental companies also offer packages that allow brides to rent shoes, bridal accessories, and jewelry, which makes sense as you’ll likely only use these once.
While the positives in renting a dress are clear, there are a couple of downsides though too. Most rental companies don’t allow any alterations to dresses, so you need to select a style that will suit you as is.
Also as size options might be limited, you may not be able to find the exact design you want in your size.
Depending on your location you may have a few options for dress rental. Nationwide companies such as Rent The Runway will have a reasonable selection, however a search for a local wedding dress rental business might turn up a wider range available for you to try on.
Buy a Used Wedding Dress
If you’re looking for a bargain-priced wedding dress, consider buying a used one. A wedding dress that has only been used once can be dramatically cheaper than a new one, but you’ll have to browse around a lot before finding the most suitable one.
Vintage style has become trendy recently, and if you’re looking for a 1920s-style wedding gown, you can save a fortune by exploring vintage stores around you.
Here’s where you can find used wedding dresses for sale:
- Used goods stores
- Yard sales
- Online selling marketplaces such as Facebook
- Vintage goods stores
If you’re buying from an online used wedding dress seller, particularly through Facebook, be sure to do your homework and check the seller’s information and reviews before you pay, as fictitious sellers have scammed some brides.
Use a Family Heirloom
Your mom, grandmother, aunt, or another family member might have a wedding dress packed away in their basement that you can use.
It’s worth asking family members if you can borrow a wedding dress as this can save you a fortune. The only expenses would be dry cleaning the dress, fixing any defects, and altering it to fit you.
Buy an Off-the-Rack Dress
Off-the-rack wedding dresses are not custom made and can be purchased as they are. These are ideal for brides who don’t have much time for dress fittings and consultations with designers, which generally happen over several months. They may still require some alterations to fit you perfectly, but this will still generally be cheaper than having a designer dress custom made.
Opt for a lace-up corset bodice if you’re worried about your off-the-rack wedding dress not fitting you perfectly. This bodice type is easy to customize with the added benefit of looking interesting and elegant.
Opt for a Non-Wedding Dress
When buying your wedding dress, consider opting for a non-wedding dress to avoid higher costs from specialized wedding dress designers.
Buying a non-wedding dress is ideal if your style is minimalist and elegant, or if you’re open to colors other than only ivory or white. Examples of non-wedding dresses include the following:
- Debutante’s dress
- Prom dress
- Formal evening gown
- Bridesmaid’s dress
These dresses are widely available in department stores, boutiques, and online.
Buy a Floor Sample
You might have fallen in love with an exquisite wedding gown, only to discover that it is too expensive. Instead of putting your dream on ice, consider buying a floor sample.
Floor samples are dresses that visitors try on before ordering a brand new one.
Floor samples are identical to brand new dresses, but may have some small defects that are easy to fix. You can use this to negotiate for a great price, possibly saving up to 50% of the original price.
The only downside to buying a floor sample is that you’ll need to dry clean it, but the effort and small expense are worth it.
Shop for a Dress in the Mall
Looking in a shopping mall for a wedding dress may sound strange, but many department stores have bridal lines.
Examples include:
Although they’re not designer dresses and are typically more straightforward in design, they’re much less costly than shopping in a wedding dress boutique. After buying a department store bridal gown, you can ask a dressmaker to customize it, which will work out cheaper than buying one in a boutique.
Use a Local Dressmaker
Using a local dressmaker to make a dress can be a great way to have a custom gown at a cheaper price. You can buy excellent quality wedding dress fabric and patterns from fabric stores and gain inspiration from bridal magazines or websites. A skilled dressmaker will be able to combine elements you like from other designers into your very own custom design.
Use a Cheaper Online Boutique
The number of online wedding boutiques has grown significantly in recent years as brides have become more comfortable with making their wedding dress an online purchase. Many of these stores ship directly from the manufacturing country to the customer, so they can save money on expensive freight and storage around the world.
While most of these stores sell mass produced dresses, some of them will make alterations according to the measurements you provide, to ensure a better fit when the dress arrives.
Some online options include:
Always take care to read the stores’ reviews carefully, and look closely at product review photos to make sure that the item they send to you looks like the one they use in marketing photos.
Another tip is to have your measurements taken buy a local professional dressmaker before you order. It is very difficult to take your own measurements accurately, and using a professional will help to avoid any issues down the track.
Start Your Dress Search Early
For all of the options we’ve discussed above, its important that you start your search early. Whether you hope to find a dress on sale or a vintage treasure, the earlier you begin your search the more options you have.
If you can start looking even 2 years before your planned date, this will give you the chance to know when certain designers have their sales, so you can be ready for the next year if you need to.
Try To Be Open Minded About Dress Styles
Even though you might have had a picture of your dream dress in your head for a long time, it can really help if you can be open to different styles.
You should definitely begin by trying on any dress in your size so you can get a feel for how different styles look when you wear them. It could be that your dream dress just isn’t the most flattering one for you! Also, you might find a real bargain if you keep your options a bit wider.
As we’ve discussed above, spending more than 5% of your wedding budget on the dress is often too much as you need to be able to afford the other important elements, like the venue, photography, flowers, and other items.
However, you can save money by opting for a different kind of dress as we discussed above:
- Rented
- Off-the-rack
- Used
- Floor sample
- Non-wedding dress
- Local dressmaker
- Online boutique
Are you still trying to figure out how much you can spend on your wedding? We have an easy 5 Step Calculator to help you decide your wedding budget. Click here to access your free copy.