wedding dress budgets.....?

danibride2012

So, one thing that i have been sort of ignoring is my budget for my dress....i have like no idea how to come up with a reasonible budget.  Any advice that might help me?  Also, if i have an upper limit... to I give that to the consultant or something a little lower?  Should that budget also include the veil, tiera, shoes, slip, etc...? 

jemmini6

Well your budget needs to be whatever you determine you want to spend.  You can find a dress with a $200 and you can find a dress with a $20,000 budget, so it's really up to your personal comfort level.  It's also up to you on whether you want to include accessories in your dress budget.

If you give your consultant a price, that's what they are going to try to pull around, so if you have an absoulte MAX budget, you can tell the consultant to not even bring a dress unless it come in under that, otherwise they will likely assume there's a little play room with it.

aerinpegadrak

Have you tried the budgeting tool on TK?  You plug in your total budget, number of guests, attendants, etc, and it breaks everything up for you according to their formula.  So for a $20K budget, it recommends $1200 for dress and alterations, $200 for headpiece, and $200 for other accessories.  Once you have the initial budget guidelines, you can readjust it to reflect your priorities (for instance, we scored a major deal on the venue and caterer, so we were able to spend more on the photographer and rings).

danibride2012

i didn't know about the budgeting tool on TK...that sounds awesome....like exactly what i need!  thanks!

aerinpegadrak

No problem!  It has weird priorities about some things, but it's an excellent starting point to see the breakdown.

beckpaz

I think you're the only one who can say what's reasonable and what's not.  Figure out the max of what you can (or are willing to) spend and then aim a little lower to keep it "reasonable."  The max I was willing to spend on a dress was $2000, so I set my budget at $1500.  I didn't include the veil, accessories, or shoes in the budget because you can definitely find adjust for those.  I figure if I find a veil that I love, but is ridiculously expensive, I'll just search for cheaper shoes or vice versa!  Haha.

I was very up-front with all of my consultants, I told them I was not willing to spend a dollar more than $2000 on a dress , but I wanted it to be more around $1500 and they listened to me.  (Actually, some of them were strictly keeping it below $1500 until I finally spoke up that it didn't have to be below $1500.)  Also, I made sure to go to one salon where the consultants did not work on commission- the woman was so helpful and honest with everything.

Good luck!

danibride2012

In Response to <a href="http://forums.theknot.com/Sites/theknot/Pages/Main.aspx/wedding-boards_attire-accessories_wedding-dress-budgets?plckFindPostKey=Cat:Wedding BoardsForum:15Discussion:130440ff-4cd1-48a8-8160-88f5e9b59a6aPost:1511aaa3-db4f-4b3f-9b47-332b21929dce">Re: wedding dress budgets.....?</a>:
[QUOTE]I Also, I made sure to go to one salon where the consultants did not work on commission- the woman was so helpful and honest with everything. Good luck!
Posted by beckpaz[/QUOTE]

Thanks for all the good advice.... i am not very good with this sort of thing so i will be out of my element for certain.  How do you know if the consultants or on commission or not?

vicki0508

Also, don't feel pressured into buying your accessories from the salon.  They'll put tiaras and flowers and a veil on you, and they'll look great, but don't buy them at that moment.  Salon veils are $100+, and you can get great veils on Etsy and Ebay for $30.  Same goes for flowers and other head pieces.  Have fun, and good luck shopping!!

alyss21mom

I googled "average cost of wedding in New Orleans" which is where my daughter is planning her wedding and I found average prices given for different services, for a small wedding, medium wedding, etc.

JCM10

Average for my area is about double what we're spending on ours...so you just need to find out what you can afford. There's tons of wedding planning websites out there that give you suggestions. Check a few, and take the lower to be safe. I am telling my consultants about 300 lower than what my budget says...just to see if I can find anything in that range. If I can't, it can go up a bit.

allisonkbye

My budget was $600 and when I found the dress I loved and had to have, budget flew out the window faster than a bullet and ended up spending more than double, $1350 to be exact. Cut back in many other areas to make it work.....so far do not regret it! 

KellyBrian2013

Just know what you're comfortable with and willing to spend... my mom has insisted on funding my wedding and also insisted that I not concern myself with the price of my dress... I could have looked at $3k+ dresses without worrying about a "no" from her. But I was not comfortable with an amount that high, so we budgeted approximately $1,000 for the entire outfit (shoes, veil, dress, undergarments, etc.) The dress we wound up buying has a lot of lace and some beautiful beadwork, and was only $725... in total, with EVERYTHING accounted for (bustier/corset thing for underneath, slip, dress, shoes, veil, & headpiece), we spent $1,084. Luckily the dress is my size and fits me nearly perfectly, so we don't anticipate alterations will add much to it...

... my point being - decide what you are comfortable with and can afford, and go from there. Any GOOD consultant will respect your budget (mine refused to pull anything over $750 after finding out my budget, despite being 100% on commission) and will do their best to steer your towards something you will feel amazing in, will look incredible on you, AND won't break the bank or your budget.

Good luck!

beckpaz

In Response to <a href="http://forums.theknot.com/Sites/theknot/Pages/Main.aspx/wedding-boards_attire-accessories_wedding-dress-budgets?plckFindPostKey=Cat:Wedding%20BoardsForum:15Discussion:130440ff-4cd1-48a8-8160-88f5e9b59a6aPost:a416c694-b603-4490-9746-8bffc66ca036">Re: wedding dress budgets.....?</a>:
[QUOTE]In Response to Re: wedding dress budgets.....? : Thanks for all the good advice.... i am not very good with this sort of thing so i will be out of my element for certain.  How do you know if the consultants or on commission or not?
Posted by danibride2012[/QUOTE]

One place straight up told me they don't work on commission, so when the consultants at the other salons got to be too pushy, I spoke up and asked them if they worked on commission.  Perhaps a little bold, but frankly, I don't care.  They needed to back off  <img src="http://cdn.cl9.vanillaforums.com/downloaded/ver1.0/content/scripts/tinymce/plugins/emotions/images/smiley-tongue-out.gif" border="0" alt="Tongue out" title="Tongue out" />

For the record, only two out of the seven salons I went to had consultants that did not work on commission.

memSomerville

Depends on your priorities. For me, I'd rather pay my mortgage for a month that wear it for a few hours.

I paid $99 for my dress. I love it.

NuggetBrain

In Response to <a href="http://forums.theknot.com/Sites/theknot/Pages/Main.aspx/wedding-boards_attire-accessories_wedding-dress-budgets?plckFindPostKey=Cat:Wedding BoardsForum:15Discussion:130440ff-4cd1-48a8-8160-88f5e9b59a6aPost:ff277072-b604-4771-ab83-969d78f9bad6">Re: wedding dress budgets.....?</a>:
[QUOTE]Depends on your priorities. <strong>For me, I'd rather pay my mortgage for a month that wear it for a few hours.</strong> I paid $99 for my dress. I love it.
Posted by memSomerville[/QUOTE]

Jesus.  Condensending much?

CarlesnEm

I had to ask my sisters how they managed buying their dresses (on my dad's budget).  They both said their dresses cost roughly 10% of the total of their wedding.  They didn't realize it at the time, but that's how it turned out.  I think it's a pretty good way to judge though i.e. if the total of your wedding will be 10,000$ the rough budget for the dress would be 1,000$.  But, I would also think about how big of a priority your dress is.  Like others have mentioned, sometimes Brides want to tweak other items to accommodate a more expensive dress or the other way around (tweak the dress budget to get more flowers etc.).  Good Luck!

leia1979

Our total attire budget was 6% of the budget (dress, tux, accessories, shoes, etc). My dress was 3% of the total budget.

Personally, I didn't want to spend $1,000 on a dress, so I put that money elsewhere in the budget.