When to Buy Your Wedding Dress

When you’re recently engaged, there are a LOT of things to start thinking about when it comes to planning; however, there are a handful of things that NEED to be planned with PLENTY of time in advance. When to Buy Your Wedding Dress, is one of them!

Once you find the dress you can’t live without, the bridal shop or dress retailer typically requires a 50% deposit before ordering your bridal gown custom to your measurements.  It takes MOST dress designers 4-6 months to deliver a dress to the retailer after it has been ordered. Therefore, when considering when to buy your wedding dress, you’ll give yourself plenty of time if you purchase at least 9 months prior to your wedding date.

I know 9 months seems like a lot of time but you have to take into consideration that you’ll have about 3 fittings once it comes in and you’ll need to plan time for alterations.

Wedding Dress Timeline:

8 Weeks Prior to Wedding:  First Fitting!  This is typically 6-8 weeks before the wedding or, if you can’t wait-as soon as the bridal shop calls you to tell you your dress is in! Let’s be honest… “I can be there in an hour”! 🙂   During this appointment the seamstress may decide to go ahead and pin your dress for alterations.

6 Weeks Prior to Wedding:  Second Fitting!  This is when you’re trying on your dress after alterations to double-check it’s fit.  This is also a good time to select any accessories at the shop or bring them with you (if you’ve already purchased) to complete the look.  This is what Monty on Say Yes to The Dress Atlanta calls “Gettin’ Jacked Up”!  This may be the first time you- yourself sees your bridal look complete.

2 Weeks Prior to Wedding:  Final Fitting!  By now your dress and complete bridal look should be completely flawless!  Before you leave this fitting make sure you verify that the shop/alterations/seamstress will be steaming your bridal gown for you!!!  You want to make sure that your gown is wrinkle free and aisle-ready!

Wedding Dress on a Short Timeline:

If you have a shorter timeline, most shops know which wedding dress designers offer a Rush option. This may narrow your selection but give you the peace of mind that your dress will arrive in time for fittings and alterations!

If you have an even shorter timeline, plenty of wedding dress retailers will let you shop “Off the Rack”; this allows you to take home a dress that day! These are the sample dresses that have been tried on in the store but they’re usually close to flawless or unnoticibly slightly worn and they can save you hundreds, even thousands of dollars!!! The biggest downside to this option is size availability; typically, wedding dress samples are in smaller sizes such as an 8.

Bridesmaid Dress Shopping Timeline:

Also, don’t forget the Bridesmaids! All those matching bridesmaids dresses typically take a MINIMUM of 4 months to deliver as well. Then they will also likely have to consider dress alterations.

Day Before the Wedding or Day Of:

Steam those dresses, girls! If you want your images to look flawless, you can’t have wrinkles! Read this post on Traveling with you Wedding Dresses for more tips!

When considering when to buy your wedding dress, make sure you give yourself plenty of time!  Have an idea of the style and look you want but don’t be afraid to let the consultant pick a few looks for you, too!  You’d be surprised what looks amazing on you that you never would have tried on! The cunsultants are the professionals, after all!

Thanks for reading and happy shopping!

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