Setting a realistic budget for your wedding dress is one of the most important elements to a successful dress shopping experience. We want to take the time to explain why this is so important for you to have an excellent dress shopping experience.

1. Establish Expectations

   Setting a realistic budget allows you to start shopping for your wedding dress with clear expectations for you and your bridal stylist. When you are researching bridal shops to go to, many will provide you with the average price range for their wedding dresses. At La Mariée, we break down the price range for each of our designers. You can review that on here. Reviewing these price ranges will allow you to figure out exactly how much you are willing to spend on your wedding dress. Everyone has a budget and that is a good thing! You want to be respectful to yourself and the bridal shops you are going to. If you budget is $1,500 and the bridal shop only carries gowns that start at $2,000, you aren’t going to find what you are looking for and it can end up being a negative experience for all parties. On the other hand, if you budget is $10,000 and the bridal shop only sells wedding dresses up to $3,000, you most likely won’t find what you are looking for either. Setting a budget means you can establish your expectations for the bridal boutiques you want to shop at and the shopping experience you are wanting. Please know, your wedding dress budget is so important to having a positive, successful dress shopping experience. Make sure you understand what is important to you and have conversations with your loved ones, if they are going to be contributing to your dress as well.

2. Respecting Boundaries

   When you start wedding dress shopping, your bridal stylist will and should ask you what you wedding dress budget is. Be honest with your stylist so they can be respectful of your boundaries and your budget while they are shopping for you. At La Mariée, our stylist will only pull gowns that are in your stated budget range, unless you specifically tell them otherwise, so honesty is key! If you tell your stylist your budget is $2,000 but it is really $3,000, you may feel overwhelmed and frustrated by the shopping process because you aren’t finding what you are looking for. Being honest about your budget means your stylist can pick gowns that fit your style and budget.

3. Understanding What is Important to You

   Setting a wedding dress budget also means you can understand what is most important to you. Weddings have many different elements like flowers, hair, makeup, music, venue, etc. Fashion is one of those categories. If flowers are more important than fashion, you might allocate more to flowers than your wedding dress. On the opposite side, fashion might be way more important than flowers so you are willing to spend more on the dress than the florals for the day. The budget can then reflect what is important to you and your fiance on your big day!

4. Seamless Shopping Experience

   Truly, setting a budget means that you are going to have an amazing, seamless shopping experience. By crunching the numbers, figuring out what is most important and communicating that to your bridal stylist means that you are set up to have the most amazing, memorable shopping experience. This is what we want for all of our brides! Wedding dress shopping should not be stressful or overwhelming. It should be a fun, enjoyable and easy process and a lot of that starts by setting a realistic wedding dress budget.

Key Elements to Include in Your Wedding Dress Budget:

• Wedding Dress - the gown itself, this should be the bulk of your budget

• Accessories - veil, jewelry, headpieces and more

• Alterations - alterations are not included in the price of your gown, we recommend budgeting between $500 to $1,000 depending on the details of the dress and what needs to be changed

• Rush Fees - if you are shopping less than 6 months out from your wedding day, you will be paying rush fees for the gown, alterations or both, keep this in mind and start shopping early to avoid these unnecessary fees!