5 Things That Will Impact Your Dress-Shopping Budget!!!

One of the biggest shocks that comes with planning a wedding is how MUCH everything costs! From venues to catering to photography and buying a dress, everything can seem so much more expensive than you might’ve imagined whenever you thought about wedding planning before you got engaged. We’re here today to give you a little peek into the bridal industry and offer some information on why bridal gowns are as expensive as they are!!

1. Hand-Sewn Lace & Beading	

Did you know that highly detailed dresses actually have the lace and beading hand-sewn onto the gown? It can take up to 120 hours for these extremely talented professionals to sew the extravagant detail onto these gowns. 120 hours!!! To put that in perspective, if you were to hand-sew these details onto dresses for FIVE days straight, TWENTY-FOUR hours a day, with literally no breaks, sleep, or food of any kind, you would just barely finish the gown in time for it to be shipped off or worn straight off the rack. Additionally, these professionals have to sew the details onto the gowns to PERFECTLY match the designer’s vision for the dress. Sewing is such an important art and can be super time consuming!!

Real Bella Bride, Kendall S. Photo by Lisa Colucci Photography

2. Shipping + Insurance

Many brides special order their wedding dresses. If your dress doesn’t fit perfectly right off the rack, or if you are wanting to buy a dress that no one else has ever tried on, you will need to have your measurements taken and have your stylist special order your dress in the same style you’re loving in the size that fits you best. This means in most cases, the dress will need to be created from scratch–all the materials put together and sewn–and then shipped out to our shop so you can take it home with you! Your dress’s shipping cost reflects the value of the dress itself–the wedding dress shipping + insurance price will cover the cost of safely shipping your dress to our shop or to your home.

Photo by Esther Rohr Photography

3. Alterations

Every wedding dress EVER has needed some kind of alterations, whether that be shortening straps, hemming the skirt, or adding or taking away any kind of detail you’re wanting to change. Dresses are made with overlong skirts and straps so that they can be altered into your specific measurements–it is a MILLION times easier to alter a dress into a size smaller than it is to try to let it out to become a size larger. The national average for the cost of alterations ranges between $400-600 depending on the detailed nature of the gown and what exactly needs to be done to the dress, like adding a bustle (dresses no longer come with bustles so that each bride can have a bustle added according to her specific measurements). Alterations is a time-consuming process that must be done with extreme attention to detail to avoid any dress disasters, which is why alterations experts’ prices are the way they are–these prices reflect the hard work these experts put into making your dress look absolutely PERFECT.

4. Sleeves

We LOVE sleeves! They are so beautiful and are instantly romantic and elegant!! The only thing to keep in mind for sleeves price-wise is that buying a gown with sleeves will come with extra costs to add those sleeves to the gown. Whether you’re having sleeves custom-made or you’re ordering sleeves that your alterations expert will sew onto your dress, sleeves add an extra cost anywhere between $150-$350 to your dress order.

5. Cleaning & Preservation 

After your wedding, your dress will probably show a lot of signs of the fun day you had–grass or dirt stains, food and drink stains, maybe some minor tears from being outdoors, or even water stains from a day at the lake or ocean! No matter what you end up doing with your dress – selling it, or keeping it forever – you’ll need to get it cleaned. Our cleaning & preservation package will take all the stains and smells out of your dress and will package it in a cute display box so you don’t have to store your dress in a garbage bag and hide it out of sight. Cleaning & preservation is about the same price as getting your dress dry cleaned after your wedding but the cleaning & preservation box includes the added benefits of getting your dress preserved from yellowing and can also perform some repairs on your beautiful gown! Cleaning & preservation boxes cost $375 to purchase in our shop.

We totally get that you want to stay within your budget when planning your wedding! We hope this has been a helpful guide about the costs you’ll need to plan for when you go wedding dress shopping!! If you’re ready to find the PERFECT dress for your wedding, you can book an appointment with us here, you can call us at 541-330-7090, or you can text us at 541-368-2090.