Why are wedding dresses so expensive?

[Celaena]

I'm watching daytime TV and 'say yes to the dress' and they're trying on dresses that cost thousands? And I can't tell why that dress costs 7000 and that one 'only' 3000?

It's crazy

It the WAT (Wedding Added Tax).

If you are prepared to risk social stigma and lose all your friends you could buy one privately/second hand/wear an alternative style.

DH and I stepped off the bandwagon for our wedding and did our own thing. It was only one day, we plan to be together for a lot longer than that. You can still have some wonderful memories which are about you and OH, and not the ephemeral bits costing an arm and a leg.

"I spent 10k a piece on both Indian dresses but they were made of silk and real gold/silver thread and pearls/crystals that were handstiched. I then had it custom fit to me."

That is a lot of money for one event.

My mum made mine 36 years ago. I can't remember exactly how much it cost, but it was well under £50.

If you have a designer, silk, hand stitched dress then you would expect to pay an awful lot whether it was a wedding dress or not.

The cheaper wedding dresses are simply a rip off. They're made in China for pennies. Retailers are able to get away with saying a designer dress is £10,000 so a cheaper one can be £1,000. That doesn't hold for other fashion items. A Hermes Birkin is £12,000 but I can a pleather rip off from Asda for probably £15.

They're expensive because people are prepared to pay a lot of money for them. Ditto wedding cars, catering etc.

The nicest wedding dress I've seen in recent years was the one my friend got on ebay for about £20. Once it had been altered by her (very clever seamstress) mum, she looked a millions dollars in it.

My mum's friend made my dress the material cost £50 she made it free as s present.

£60 including the cost of the pattern. Got the style of dress I wanted in the colour I wanted.

Then I spent £300 on a hand painted silk cape to go over it, but it was absolutely beautiful.

My DF was relieved as he'd offered to pay and the first dress I looked at was £1,600! He was so relieved he paid for the cake as well.

Quality of fabric, economies of scales, number of hours for hand-sewing, cost of high skilled labour, mark-up, intricate designs and intricate details.

Quantity of fabric in the dress and in the off-cuts.

Wedding dresses are designed to allow for alterations to be made - more so than most high street dresses.

There are lots of things that go into a wedding dress that could increase the price.

For the same reason that the quote doubles when you tell a hotel that you're booking a "wedding" not a "party".

My sil wore a wedding dress from H&M and looked stunning. You don't have to buy into the whole wedding thing.

Mine was a mori lee and cost £1000 plus £350 for a custom made veil. Bought from a reputable bridal shop in the UK but they still have the dress made in china regardless.

I loved my dress, it was wonderful and the quality was everything I wanted especially for a not particularly 'high cost' dress. The fit and mould of it was better than any other garment I've worn before or since so that's probably part of it too.

I didn't pay, my mum did. If I were paying I'd have probably gone for £500 or less! But as it was, I'm glad I had the dress I did, I felt amazing all day.

Because it takes a huge amount of skill, expensive fabric and labour to make a wedding dress and the people who make wedding dresses are running a business which they need to make a profit, after costs, to pay themselves. It is not because of the word 'wedding'

Trust me! I'm in the wedding industry!

It does take skill and expertise but those attributes belong to garment workers in Chinese factories where they do not command a high price.

These dresses are produced extremely cheaply.

Err... my wedding dress cost £67 from ASOS. Not advertised as a wedding dress but a prom dress. I loved it. People choose to spend thousands of pounds on a dress, I chose not to.

As the word wedding is mentioned and that doubles the price.

I took a vintage style pattern to a dressmaker and asked her how much to make me a dress in satin from the pattern.

She quoted a price. Then asked the colour of the satin, I said white. She asked if it was for a wedding. I said yes. She said that to make a wedding dress it coats more and the price would be £X2.

Which was ridiculous, same dress pattern, same fabric and same time scale but suddenly it was double the price !

So I bought a dress in a wedding shop sale instead.

Wedding dresses have a huge mark up in bridal salons. I worked in one where dresses bought in for £80-£150 sold from between £400-£1800, this was 15 years ago.

The most expensive dress where I worked back in 2001 was £3000. Plenty of those were sold simply because it was the most expensive dress (it was like an ivory Morticia dress in my view).

The mark up can be explained in part by salons only selling a few every week, rather than hundreds of outfits at say Debenhams.

I don't know how much the industry has changed since I was involved.

@LoniceraJaponica - Not one event. Indian weddings are usually three to 4 events. I spent less on the other two events I had but still more than a grand.

@StarCrossdSkys possibly because the workers are being paid ridiculously low wages????

Yes and that was my point.

The item can look expensive and still be made cheaply. All those designer bags are made in Chinese factories too.

I thought lots of shops inc M&S were doing lovely reasonable dresses you could customize? Spend thousands if you want and can afford to - some of the top shops even ask for a deposit just to visit them - otherwise just get what you love. No one needs to do more. Or spend the £20,000 that is allegedly what people now spend on weddings. It's all marketing and hype.

Because they can be !! The majority of wedding dresses are polyester . Very cheaply made with plastic beading but they look very sparkly and pretty . In reality they don't cost much to make and only need to last 24 hours ! They can charge what they like because people will pay it !!🙄🙄

My dress was silk with lots of beads encrusted on it. It had been used in a photo shoot and I got it for about £700 instead of £2.5k. That was 19 years ago. Dresses haven't gone up that much in price in the past 20 years from what I can tell. I had no intention of getting a dress for thousands and £700 was really a lot. But worth every penny. It is really well made. The beads will have taken days to sew on so I was really lucky to get it at that price.

Went with a friend to get hers- vintage, 600 quid and it is stunning on her. Pure luck though.
The amount of work that goes into a unique dress made to fit you is unbelievable unless you understand dressmaking. Metres of expensive fabric, lining, boning, hand beading, lace overlay etc etc. Of course, some places take the piss but the workmanship is a valid point.

When I went dress shopping with a friend I was shocked at the crap quality of some of the 'designer' brands. As another poster said, it's polyester galore, plus they're mostly strapless and pretty simple shapes with zip fastenings.

I feel that unless you go really high end there's not much difference between high street and boutiques.

IME the quality of the dresses I tried on is vastly higher than any others.
They're almost not the same thing!

Mine was expensive to me, but not especially for a wedding dress as I don't have expensive tastes

I think the beauty is in finding a dress that makes you feel fabulous, not in how much (or little, this seems just as competitive!) it costs.