Dresses | Intimate Wedding Series

Happy first Tuesday of June! Can you believe it’s JUNE?! Seems like we just celebrated Christmas… I digress. Anyway… I’m back with another intimate wedding post, and as you may have guessed… we’re talking dresses!

Every big bridal magazine is going to roll their eyes at this post… because their $2,000+ dresses would surely disapprove of a $50 off-the-wrack frock to tie the knot. Let’s face it, if you are looking to cut costs on your wedding day, a $10,000 Vera Wang dress isn’t even on your radar… but maybe those $99 David’s Bridal specials are… and I’m here to share some other (likely better!) options.

1. If you’re dying for the “bridal look” start local. Check out your local bridal boutiques. Every single boutique has a back corner filled with sample gowns they are looking to offload at a discount. They’re last season, they may need to be cleaned, beading may need mending and they likely won’t fit like a custom ordered gown… but they will be bridal and have a designer label.
   A few months ago I was in J Majors looking for a dress to photograph and wandered through their sample wrack…. lots of pretty options, and I was stunned at the deeply discounted rates they were being sold!
2. Again, if you’re dying for a true bridal gown, check oncewed.com and preownedweddingdresses.com. When Jeremy and I got engaged, the first thing I did was buy a stack of bridal magazines and hunt for my dream dress on the glossy pages. An Amsale dress struck me… it was the one. I’d not stepped foot inside a bridal boutique, but I knew this.was.it! I happened to find it on preownedweddingdresses.com in my size and about 1/3 of it’s retail price. I think that dress retailed for $3000 and I paid about $1200. It arrived and was even the perfect length! Seriously, no alterations were needed! About a month later I had a revelation that even though I’d spent 1/3 of retail, I’d still shelled out over a grand for a dress I’d wear once… I couldn’t stomach it. I put it back up for sale and actually profited $300 on that gown! Side note: I ended up wearing my mom’s wedding dress 🙂  Also, check out local consignment/resale shops in your area, when I worked at the Junior League Wearhouse we got lots of donated gowns (even from bridal shops!)
3. Look at bridesmaids dresses! Nearly every single bridesmaid gown comes in at least ivory, if not white too. This will still give you a little taste of that bridal boutique experience as well… you can make an appointment, play dress-up and spend a fraction of what the white gowns across the store cost.**Make sure you check out my Intimate Weddings pins for lots of dress options!

   

4. Shop the mall! Probably the simplest solution… go to the mall! You can find dozens of white dresses just walking into the shops there. Places like Cache, White House Black Market, JCrew (online) and many others will offer you options.
5. Tagging on #4, shop online! Lots of mainstream retailers are carrying bridal gowns online… check out urbanoutfitters.com modcloth.com and zara.com too!
6. Rent. After-all you may only wear it once. Renttherunway.com has a great selection of beautiful gowns.
7. Go non-traditional. Picking a color other than white or ivory will open thousands of options for you… blush is wildly popular right now… I’ve also seen some killer colored gowns floating around… don’t be afraid to do something different!!

The photo at the top is a dress I picked up on eBay for about $40… it was the perfect unique dress to shoot Michelle wearing at Richie Hill. It even caught the eye of the Trendy Bride blog and was featured over there!

Be sure to check out more Intimate Wedding posts over HERE! And… if you’re looking to celebrate small (and budget friendly), make sure you check out my special rates on that page!