Dress budget--what's reasonable?

futuredrbear · April 2014

Hi all-- Let me start by saying I just got engaged and I am pathetically clueless about wedding costs! A lot of the dresses I adore are around the 3K mark and I honestly don't know whether that's an unreasonable amount of money to spend! My total budget will be 30K (not including rings and honeymoon) for a wedding outside Cleveland. So, tell me: what's a reasonable % of your budget to drop on the dress?

CMGragain · April 2014

I think $3000 is a huge amount to spend on a dress you will only wear for a few hours. JMHO. Looking at dresses on the internet is fun, but you can't really choose your dress from online photo-shopped pictures of anorexic models in tortured poses. Have you actually tried on any dresses? There are lovely dresses for under $2000.

emmyg65 · April 2014

It's all about what you can afford and what you feel comfortable spending. Personally, even if I had a $30,000 budget, $3,000 would be an absurd sum to spend on a dress. But then, the dress was not a big priority for me. This isn't really something other people can answer for you.

Classy_Dame_009 · April 2014

Wedding gowns can be anywhere from a few hundred dollars to tens of thousands of dollars, but I would estimate that most brides pay under $2000. My gown budget is $1500, my sis-in-law paid $800 for hers, and my other sis-in-law paid $400 for hers (both purchased off-the-rack).

Really, it's what you're comfortable with though. Decide what aspects of your wedding mean the most to you, and which are not that big of a deal to you, and allocate your budget accordingly. I completely understand having expensive taste in dresses! I plan to buy a used designer gown online so I can get one of the more pricey designers but within my budget. Try checking out preownedweddingdresses, tradesy, or oncewed.

Happy hunting!

QueerFemme · April 2014

Like everyone else said, that depends on you. My dress was Mori Lee and it was about $1100.00. I saw some AMAZING dresses in the $1500-1700 range. I watch Say yes to the dress often, and honestly, most of the dresses I see there that are $2500-3000 aren't any nicer than the $1500-1800 dresses I saw at my local salons. Unless you are buying a Pnina or something that you can't get anywhere else.

it really just depends on where you want to allocate your budget.

Dignity100 · April 2014

Everybody's budget is different. You have to do what is comfortable for you. I went a over my budget, but in the end I was OK with that. Some brides spend around $100 for a wedding dress and are a little uneasy about spending that much while others spend $10,000 and would have paid more.

I'm assuming you're talking Cleveland OH? Not sure if you're looking for any shop reviews or not:

Catan's - They have dresses in any price range, their average sale is around $1500. Be careful of their alterations dept, they're pretty pricey (I got my prom dress here and it took their alterations dept 3 times to get it right, but that was years ago). They had the best selection. They let me 'shop' their racks myself.

If you're looking for a more reasonable dress, there's a shop I would compare to 'Vow's' on 'I Found The Gown' called Daley Nuptuals - this is a TINY shop, the lady is just starting up, but she's very very nice and has great dresses for really good deals. I would have loved to give her my business but fell in love with a gown she did not have. The gown you try on here is the gown you take.

I got my dress from a place in Mentor called Expression Bridals. They are not on commission and have some nice dresses. I got my dress here - Catan's is closer to where I live so I called and asked how much they sold the dress for and it was $200 more than Expression and they wouldn't match (and this was before a coupon I had received from a bridal show for Expression).

The Dress Bridal Boutique in Medina also has REALLY good reviews. I never went there. Their dresses are a little more expensive from what I've heard (I think starting may be $1000 and up).

I went to a few other shops but will not comment on them (unless asked specifically).

DanikaMarie0227 · April 2014

I had this same dilemma recently (I have a similar budget to yours) & the information I found said that about 10% is generally allocated towards attire. However, this includes the dress +alterations, tux, and accessories. In the end it all depends on what you & your fiancee are comfortable spending (assuming you're paying). Figure out this # first so that you don't try on dresses out of your budget. On one shopping trip, I was picking out dresses I wanted to try on and the consultant (very nicely) asked if I was checking prices because one was $8500!!

In the end, the dress I loved was over the total attire budget by approx. $1000 - so I almost didn't try it on but the dress shop owner was willing to let me buy the sample (which was in AMAZING condition) and included alterations within my budget.

Good luck & have fun shopping!

tammym1001 · April 2014

I think 10% of your wedding budget is reasonable to spend on your dress. That's about what I spend including my veil, shoes, and alterations. I didn't have to cut back in any other areas to make that happen and I think that's what's important.

suburbanstepmom · April 2014

I agree with all the PPs, but would like to say that if you have such a large budget I'd go with what you like rather than what the cost is.

Personally, I fell in love with a dress that only costed me $130 (not including alterations). So, if you love the dress who cares what the "appropriate cost" is? Just saying.

catlady14 · April 2014

It really depends on how comfortable you feel spending that much for a dress you wear for a few hours. When I first went dress shopping, I was very adamant about not spending too much on a dress I would not wear again. I went alone to a consignment shop and got caught up in the moment and ended up buying a dress that was $400. It was a taffeta trumpet white dress that I bought mainly because I thought it was a great deal even though it was nothing like what I had liked previously.

After a few weeks, I kept looking at it over and over and decided that it was not what I really wanted or had envisioned, so I sold it and went to another salon which carried a dress I had been lusting over since before I was engaged (Lazaro 3108) just to check it out. Because it was an older dress they did not carry it but had a similar dress (Lazaro 3315) which ended up being perfect for me.

My budget is similar to yours (35K) and the dress I wanted was 5K at the salon. After talking to them about how much I love the dress and how it was over what I wanted to spend (10% of total budget), they agreed to sell me the sample for the $3,500. If I had just gone to that salon from the beginning I would have save myself the hassle of buying then selling the first dress. While I would have liked to spend less on the dress, I could not find it used anywhere nor where there any similar dresses I liked.

tl;dr :
Make sure you are comfortable with what you are going to spend but don't buy a dress you don't love just because it's cheap.

singinchick13 · April 2014

I think $3000 is the higher end for your budget, but it is doable. Our budget is similar to yours and I am looking at spending around $2500 for my dress and alterations, but am flexible. If it is absolutely worth it to you then I think you can make it work, but there may be other things you will have to spend less on. Good luck and I hope you find what you are looking for!

Dress budget--what's reasonable?

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