Budget and how much to spend, page 2

They sell donated and sample gowns off the rack and give a large share of the proceeds to women's charities. One bride bought a $750 sample at 50% off a month later for $400; another mentions a princess gown listed at $400 against a $3,900 retail. The Brides Project in Ann Arbor is the Michigan equivalent named here.

The room split roughly down the middle on the service rates and agreed on the fee: $300 for the bride and $150 per bridesmaid was called normal to slightly high, but the $550 travel charge was the part almost everyone told her to shop around on.

Reported bride-only makeup ran from $85 at a budget artist up to $300 here, with $200-250 called the expected middle. In Los Angeles one bride pays almost $800 including trial and travel, and an east coast bride paid $5,000 for hair and makeup for herself and her mother.

$100-120 was called the typical rate, $150 the top of normal, and $75 the budget end. For hair and makeup together bridesmaids reported $150 (bad result), $230, $250 and $300-350 in high cost-of-living areas.

Yes, and one bride pointed out that brides costing out packages routinely forget to budget the tips on top of the quoted totals.

Gowns given away by brides whose weddings were called off, the plus-size wedding group, Facebook Marketplace giveaways and local clothing donation shops. Several plus-size brides here say the shortage of affordable options above a size 24 is a bigger obstacle than their budget.

these accounts say yes if it fits the budget without strain - on a 20k wedding another 2k reads as small, and brides point out you will be photographed in it more than any other outfit you own.

A bride flagged exactly that, and another resolved it: both options are bought unseen, so the variable that matters on a hard budget ceiling is not quality but whether you can send it back. One bad non-returnable order ends the search.

The discussion leans hard against it: one silhouette rarely flatters a party ranging from XXS to XXL, and the more uniform the ask, the harder it is to keep everyone under budget. The repeated compromise is to set a colour plus two or three parameters (length, straps, no off-the-shoulder) and let each woman pick her own style.

She worried it was and was told no by almost everyone. One bride wore a similar full-skirted gown to her own backyard wedding and rates being able to hide sneakers under it as the best part.

The discussion converged on 500 to 1,000 as the sweet spot rather than 2,000, with the caveat that the mother should choose it herself. One bride paid 800 to 2,000 each for her mother's dress and brother's tux; another splurged on Jenny Packham and is glad she did.

This was the most agreed-with answer here: buy something re-wearable so they remember the wedding whenever they put it on. One bride's mother would feel guilty about a 2,000 dress hanging unworn in the closet.

Give the consultant a ceiling with a buffer and have her pull only gowns under it, and go in with a list of in-budget dresses that shop carries. One bride tunnel-visioned on a dress the shop did not even stock and gave nothing else a fair chance.

TheKnot put the US average around 1,500 in 2015. One bride bought at nearly 80 percent off retail and landed well below it, while Kleinfeld gowns started around 2,500.

The Austin shop the bride who asked planned to visit ran 50 to 90 percent off, which was her only route to a Rue de Seine gown. Another bride found her dress at a sample sale and a third got hers at 60 percent off.

In this 2016 discussion most brides landed between 600 and 2,000, with outliers from 17.90 to AU$9,000; roughly half came in under budget through sales, samples or online buys, and most overruns happened when a parent offered to cover the extra.

Most brides put the comfortable ceiling at $100-150 and called $260 excessive for a dress worn once. Real amounts people reported paying ran from $60 to $350, with $240-285 common where the bride chipped in.

Nearly every reply said yes, because it is unmistakably a bridesmaid dress that will not be worn again. A minority would pay it without complaint, and one said she would drop out of the bridal party instead.

She had a bit of regret about deciding after only about ten gowns, but says she falls more in love with it each time she puts it on.

the bride who asked bought on her first shopping day in the second store she entered, and brides said a strong immediate reaction is the signal, not a reason to doubt. The regret described here came from the price tag, not from the dress.

Yes. One bride said her mother's photos from the appointment were what killed her doubt the next day, while the bride who asked regretted having only four or five unflattering shots to look back on.

Yes, and budget for it: she made two or three jersey muslins at $20, then still disliked her first finished dress and bought $40 of fabric again. The failed dress was kept as a backup rather than cut up.

brides called $2,500 generous outside of TV bridal shows; several found gowns they loved at $700-$1,500 and said the budget opens almost any boutique. They advised aiming near $2,000 for the gown if $2,500 is the all-in ceiling.

Named shops: Che Bella and a & be in Minneapolis, Flutter Boutique, The Wedding Shoppe in St Paul, Effie's Bridal Trunk in Burnsville, Bride to Be in Bloomington and Woodbury, and Carrie Johnson Bridal in St Cloud (a gown there ran under $700).

Diane's in Freehold (special-occasion shop, the asking bride's 800 evening gown) and Seng Couture in Fanwood were recommended for budget shoppers.

Several brides say no. One bought after 10-15 dresses simply because it was the one she liked most and within budget, another says there is no such thing as the one when it comes to dresses, and the bride who asked picked hers because nothing at a later appointment came close to the feeling.

One bride's Etsy shop custom made a different neckline for free on her bridesmaid dress; the bride who asked contacted a seller but expected her budget to be too low for custom work.

Reported here: 15 percent for committing within seven days of the appointment, a further 5 percent for asking, and 10 percent for a teacher's discount that a bride requested as a joke and got.

She says she would have bought the gown at full price, but the extra 5 percent removed the guilt she felt about going over her self-imposed 1500 dollar target.

The framing that helped: the price was acceptable to her before she saw the comparison, she loves the gown, and small shops carry higher markups because of rent and lower buying power.

the discussion's consistent answer: stop comparing, wait until the gown arrives and try it on. One bride who chased the feeling ended up buying three dresses and still preferred her first.

brides said not to fixate: $300 is small against a whole wedding budget, and the more detailed bodice was the reason she chose the pricier gown in the first place.

The pattern described here: the sale was busy and high pressure, the consultant framed it as buy now or lose it, and she had not yet worked out which silhouette suits her. She still loves the dress in the abstract, just not on her body.

Named here as grass-is-greener and FOMO rather than a fault in the gown: the trigger for most of these brides was not shopping enough, not the dress itself. Several said they would have missed the dress they had if they had swapped.

The idea that catches on here is passing it forward to the next budget bride rather than selling or storing it, with one suggestion to embroider each wearer's initials or wedding date inside before handing it on.

This one is a silver-grey lace and the same style is sold in several shades including a light pink and a dusky pink, but no true blush.

Casablanca Beloved style BL284 Aurora, bought for 950 at Lily Bridal in Orlando, Florida in 2019. It was marked down to less than half the bride's dress budget.

Reception dresses here cost $45, $250 and $450, with one bride budgeting $200-300 and another planning $3,500-4,000. Two bought one because they had settled on a ceremony gown they did not love.

Yes, in specific situations: a trunk sale gave 10% off a $3,400 gown, another trunk show brought a dress to $2,800, closing-down shops sold gowns at $100 and $300, and one NYC shop refunds sales tax for out-of-state buyers. Rush production cost $300 extra.

It comes with strings. Parents, grandparents and an aunt funded budgets of $1,000, $2,200, $4,000 and $5,000 here, but one bride settled on a $650 dress she does not love because her grandmothers were paying and she could not ask for more.

Nearly every bride who stretched her budget says she would do it again: brides who went 600 over, twice over, or double their cap all report no regret, and several point out that the photos outlive every other wedding expense. The two who did not buy the dress they loved still think about it years later.

Mixed: she booked for the full experience, was told on arrival that a sample sale was running instead, and one saleswoman was rude, though she still found her dress.

Universally no here. The standard advice was to recover the difference elsewhere, with fake flowers instead of real, a cheaper cake or cheaper invitations named, and to commit to loving the dress rather than relitigating the number.

One bride bought a non-refundable gown, had a change of heart, and bought the one she loved instead; she says the swap made all the difference and treats a $100 overrun as a non-problem by comparison.

Cut somewhere painless rather than agonise: brides named centrepieces, buying versus renting linens, and similar line items. The other reframe offered was that a big photography spend is wasted on a dress you do not love.

It happens and it stings. A month after this bride bought, the label she had long admired put its gowns on sale around $600, which she says pushed her guilt higher.

the discussion's answer was no, near-unanimously, with the caveat that the only test that matters is whether the bride is comfortable in it all day.

the asking bride's cap was 600 and the shop floor started around 1000, so the stylist went to the basement and brought up discontinued stock. She left with a gown that had been 1900 for 400 plus a free pannier.

It happens. A downtown Los Angeles boutique told one bride with a 200 to 400 budget that they only work upwards of 1500 and suggested she find a white prom dress. the asking bride's shop did the opposite and hunted the basement for her.

these accounts say yes and say it early. the bride who asked named her 600 maximum on arrival and that is what triggered the stylist to pull discontinued stock instead of floor gowns.

One bride got a $1,799 dress for about $1,700 including tax and shipping by stating a $1,500 budget, and says boutiques price the same dress $100-$200 apart, so call around and negotiate like buying a car.

Very: budgets of $1,000, $1,500 and $1,500 became $1,450, $1,700 and $2,000, a $500 shopper paid $620, and one store's dresses simply started around $1,000, though a $5k cap bride finished at $2.5k.

Try it on at the boutique to confirm it is the one, then buy it elsewhere. Another online user tracked this gown down online for a fraction of the store price and the bride bought it that way.

brides planning jumpsuits raise the same fear of regret, and the discussion's answer is that a deliberate non-dress outfit photographs as a choice rather than a compromise.

the bride who asked was anxious she had picked too quickly, and these accounts were unanimous that the gown suited her; nobody in it regretted a fast decision.

This bride paid $2,500 for the floor model of a gown that runs about $3,200 new, a discount she described as 30% and the only reason the dress fitted her budget.

Reported ratios: 90 vs 1,200, 200 vs 2,250, 50 CAD vs 400 CAD, 1,250 vs 9,500, so reception dresses ran roughly 8-13% of the main gown for most brides.

This bride's dream gown was four times her budget and she bought a different one instead; these accounts are unanimous that the one she bought suits her better, and she says she loves it more after reading the answers.

Not here: brides repeatedly said the gown she actually bought looks more expensive and more detailed than the dream dress that cost four times her budget.

The vote split. Most readers picked the pricier fitted centre gown as by far the most flattering, a sizeable minority said take the cheaper flowy one if budget is a real constraint, and several suggested hunting the same silhouette at other boutiques before paying double.

The discussion leaned yes if it fits the budget, with repeated warnings that brides look back and wish they had taken the gown they loved, but many first told her to hunt the same silhouette at a lower price.

The advice was to fix your non-negotiables first, price, comfort or style, and only stretch if it will not strain the budget or push you into debt.

here, no. The only regret reported ran the other way: one bride bought with the whole group present, ended up hating that dress, went back alone and found the right one.

That was the strongest argument raised for taking company. A bride who has not shopped yet wants someone with her specifically to hold the budget line and push back on a consultant, and several agreed a mother or sister who advocates well is worth having in the room.

brides treated it as television. Their experience was that shop staff and even other customers gave more useful feedback than friends and family, who often had little to offer on the actual decision.

Several brides never had that moment; they chose the gown they did not want to take off, or the one they felt best in within budget, and called instant certainty a myth.

Most answers said it is a personal call: if the money is there (the asking bride's parents were paying) and nothing cheaper compared after five salons, buy it. brides' own gowns ran 200-1,500, one paid 900 for a sample that retailed at 3,000, and one bride still regrets choosing the cheaper dress years ago.

One bride who chose the cheaper option many years ago still regrets it, another said she would have regretted skipping her first choice, and a Covid bride who bought a second gown (over 5,000 total for both) has no regrets.

Yes, and it is close to unanimous here. More than twenty brides describe months or a full year of regret, kept the gown, and stopped thinking about it once the day started.

The brides bought a boho lace Amazon gown specifically as the messy end-of-night dress so she would not worry about barbecue sauce, and brides said it did not read as budget at all. Several assumed it was her main gown.

the discussion's consistent answer is that rings outlast the outfit. One bride worked it as $800 for a single day of wearing the dress against under six cents a day for a $2,000 ring set over fifty years.

brides called $2,000 reasonable and even good for a diamond set, and several said they had deliberately spent far more on rings than on wedding-day attire.

Almost nobody here did. Brides reported wearing gowns at 7, 40, 50, 75, 100, 120, 190, 200, 250, 300 and 350 and said they would not change it, several noting guests asked where the dress came from. The two regrets were about the missed shopping day, not the dress or the money.

A few do, and it is the day out they miss rather than the dress. One bride wore a gold gown from her own wardrobe for a quickly arranged chapel wedding and now thinks about a vow renewal; another wishes she had tried more styles before choosing at a relative's house.

One bride gained weight before her low-back gown, told her photographer to avoid that angle, and says the few photos showing her back do not bother her at all now because the day reads as happiness.

The Etsy bridal jumpsuit was called a bargain next to the near identical Halston sold through Net-a-Porter, and the brides describes it as affordable enough to buy on top of a dress. No exact figure for either was given here.

The discussion splits cleanly and both sides are content: brides who spent $1,200-1,700 report zero regrets, and brides who spent $99-$250 report the same. The recurring advice is to set a budget you are genuinely willing to pay first, then shop inside it.

Get off social media and the bridal feeds. brides said a gown that looks great on a model online says nothing about how it looks on you, and that constant browsing is what keeps regret alive.

The repeated advice was to ask directly and months in advance, before any appointment is booked. Two brides did exactly that and found their mothers had a higher number in mind than expected; another mother phoned a salon herself to learn the range before naming a figure.

brides shopping in Canada reported seeing CAD $1,000 to $6,000 on the racks. Two actual Canadian purchases were samples: CAD $1,250 and CAD $1,650 including tax at 50% off in Ontario.

Yes, materially. One Ontario bride paid CAD $1,650 with tax for a sample marked 50% off, and another got a CAD $2,400 gown as a sample for CAD $1,250. The trade-off is that you buy the shop's floor dress in whatever size it is.

Two brides did and neither regrets it. One replaced a gown that had been altered to death and sold both afterwards; another went through three dresses, found the right one in store three weeks out and collected it two days before the wedding.

Two brides regret exactly that. One still feels bummed five years on about passing over her first-choice dress, and another bought her future mother-in-law's pick and regretted it through the whole engagement.

Yes: call ahead with budget and size so the shop confirms stock and pulls dresses you can afford; brides who did this found 550 discontinued gowns, while others skipped shops whose floor was 1000-1200.

Very - several brides chose the best of their options rather than a lightning-bolt gown and do not regret it, and one notes the only dress that gave her that feeling was thousands over budget.

Partly. Married brides at one and three years out still think about the style they did not try, but say the photos and the memory of the day matter more and that nobody else recalls the neckline.

Ask about a referral discount. One bride said her boutique gives 10% off when you name an existing customer, and she offered her own name and those of three friends who bought dresses there.

brides point to the Facebook group China Wedding Dresses - Success Stories NO SALES, which one says is roughly 90 percent Noble Bride posts and convinced her to order.

Frequently yes, and brides treat it as deliberate. One gave a $1,400 maximum and left with a $2,000 dress; another stated $1,000 a week in advance and was put in a $2,300 gown. Commission is blamed, and the tactic works often enough to persist.

Almost nobody did; the one regret came from a bride who spent over 1,000 and wished she had bought a sub-250 prom dress, while a 100 Amazon bride was happy with the photos but still thinks about pricier mermaid gowns.

One bride bought her Kleinfeld gown at full price for 1,634 with no sample sale, tried several others in range, and felt no pressure to exceed her 2,500 cutoff.

One bride with serious regret about her chosen gown browsed this retailer after seeing the post, ordered a different dress, and says she has no doubts about the replacement.

Very. Several brides here bought before a postponement and spent one to two years watching new gowns appear online. The recurring diagnosis is that the long gap between buying and wearing, not the dress, causes the second-guessing.

That is exactly what this bride did. Keeping the rest of the wedding lean is what earned her the splurge, with her mother agreeing to it once the other categories came in low.

Venue and catering 8000, photography and video 2500, invitations and menu cards 350, DJ speaker rental 300 plus 200 of lights, hair makeup and nails 200, cake and flowers from a warehouse club 180, favours 175, rings 300 and a 150 tux rental. With the photographer counted, she admits it went slightly over 10k.

The clear consensus is 100 to 150 dollars, with 150 treated as the ceiling; several say 200 and up starts feeling unfair to ask of friends.

Ask privately or send an anonymous poll for budgets rather than announcing a number, since 100 is too much for some and 300 is fine for others.

Two had doubts: one who spent about $1,300 thinks under $1,000 would have done, and one who kept the whole outfit under 1,000 CAD regrets letting price pick a dress she only 80 percent loved.

One bride said a fun reception dress cured most of her own regret because she got two looks out of the day instead of one dress carrying all the pressure.

Strongly yes here: overskirt on for the ceremony, off for the reception. the asking bride's pulls off over the head, and one bride had her flower girls carry hers down the aisle.

One bride found a lot at the Kleinfeld sample sale and got hers at 70% off. Menzies near Peterborough also sells sample gowns across many sizes at reduced prices.

the asking bride's 1,700 Etsy dress (2,200 with shipping) sits squarely here's middle; brides who paid 1,600 to 2,400 mostly report no regrets, and other Etsy buyers paid 600 for a custom dress and 200 for a vintage one.

Yes: one bride told a boutique 1,400 max and was rung up at 2,400; another forgot tax and a belt, turning a 2,490 gown into 3,000. Arizona boutiques were said to start around 1,400.

Very common here: mothers covered 1,200, 1,500, 3,000 CAD and a 5,000-plus gown, grandmothers covered 1,500 and 2,000, parents paid under 700 GBP. Several brides still kept their own budget in mind so as not to overdo it.

the discussion's split answer: first try to alter the specific thing you dislike, because it is usually cheaper than a new gown; if that fails, go shopping again alone or with one trusted person. A bride who was pushed by her mother 12 years earlier said the resentment showed up every time she saw the photos.

One bride with dress regret had her salon cancel the order for a small fee, then found a gown she preferred shortly afterwards. The advice is to call and ask what your options are rather than assuming you are stuck.

Several said yes if the budget allows, warning that this kind of regret lasts. A friend cited here rebought a cheaper dress after shopping with fewer people and loved it.

Yes. The bride paid about $400 for a pearl-covered gown from the US label Andrea & Leo, ordered online and shipped to Ireland, and had no regrets after the day.

She ordered from thedresswarehouse (possibly NewYorkDress, which appears linked) and picked a style from Andrea & Leo, a US prom and occasion label whose gowns read as bridal.

For a short ceremony plus a restaurant meal she felt a conventional gown with a train would have been too much, and a lighter online dress suited the scale better.