Wedding dress shopping

I will be getting married next October and will begin wedding dress shopping this October. Normally a year in advance is good because it can take anywhere from 6-8 months for your dress to come in and then you may still need to do alterations.

I think it depends on how "designer" you plan on going honestly. The past brides I've known got their dresses from David's Bridal (less than $1,000) and didn't take more than about 4 months to come in. If you factor in the time for alterations if necessary, I'd say you'd wanna have your dress ordered at least 6 months before, so probably start shopping around a couple months before then. I think higher end gowns will generally take longer, then I would allot at least a year. My wedding is in May and I start dress shopping tomorrow!

It depends where you go but my dress took 7 months to come in. Places like David’s Bridal and BHLDN don’t take as long. Also most places require you to put down at least 50% for them to order the dress with a lot of places requiring full payment up front. So I would call and ask the dress shop you’re interested in what their policy is.

View Quoted Comment I came here to mention the payment thing as well. We had to have 25% down and pay it off in full in like 30 days before they would order.

Usually ordering your dress a year out is recommended. This way there's time to make payments, have the dress come in and do alterations!

I would start early because a dress can take anywhere from 3 to 8 months to come in and then you still have to get alterations so that will be at least another month, possibly more depending on how many appointments you need.

Most gowns take 6-9 months, but David’s takes less time from what I’ve seen here. Mine took 8 months.

Usually, you’ll put a 50% deposit then pay the remaining 50% when it arrives.

View Quoted Comment How early do you think?

My wedding is in May and i started looking 1 week ago and bought my dress at a bridal shop this Thursday. It won't come in until February, so 6 months, and then I'll have 2 to 3 fittings after that. My choices for payment were either 70% down and remainder when dress comes in or 10% off if i paid in full.
I agree with David's bridal comments. My friends got their dresses in 4 months or less

View Quoted Comment I went in January for a November wedding

Thanks for posting this! I am going to have to get going on looking. I wanted to lose a bit of weight, but that’s what alterations are for, eh? Good luck!!!

I stayed looking for a dress end of January of this year. Purchasded my dress in February. Dress showed up sometime in June I think. I didn't expect to arrive until August. So I say 10 months should be safe.
And most dress shops require a 50% deposit

I ordered my wedding dress in August of last year (about 3 weeks after getting engaged) and my wedding is October 8. I think it was the perfect amount of time. It arrived in February but it’s given me the chance to pay the dress off.

I get married in May and I started dress shopping today.

I’m getting married October next year and just bought my dress this month. I’m actually glad I started looking early because it’ll take 7 months for it to come in and then an additional 3-4 months for alterations when it comes back. I’m glad I looked early because it’s a huge sigh of relief knowing that that’s checked off my long checklist. Also, I had to put 60% down and the remainder will be due when the dress comes in.

Be mindful of the shops policy. I had to put a 75% deposit down for the salon to order my dress and the rest of my payment was due when my dress arrived.

I went in July and I’m getting married September 2020... I would call around to the shops you plan on going to and ask how much down do you need for them to order your dress. The place I went to was 70% down.

Just wanted to update on my previous post. I ordered my wedding on Saturday, August 24th and it will be here by September 23rd! I was amazed at how fast it will come in.

Hi! Just wanted to chime in here as I'm getting married April 2021...... I went to try on my dress last weekend and loved it. I mentioned the date to the woman dressing me and asked when I should come back in and buy, she said this designer needs 12-14 months for delivery as they're made to measure, so to order in the next 2 months! So I placed my order and went on my way. I was only going in for a first look but so glad I did!