£800....?! For a dress?

[Tilllly]

DS getting married and I have just been to a shop that specialises in dresses for mother of the bride of mother of the groom

I suppose I should've been warned that you had to make an appointment, that this wasn't exactly going to be New Look!!

Put the cheapest dress I tried on was £800

Is that normal? Am I just being extremely tight fisted because I think £800 for a dress for a wedding is absolutely horrendous.

That's a horrendous amount. Places hear the word wedding and slap on an extra 0

I'd recommend avoiding the typical wedding shops and going to John Lewis. They have personal styling sessions so you still get the private changing room and VIP vibe. But normal prices for dresses!

Dresses come in at all different price levels.

Anything that specialises in 'wedding' stuff will have several hundred pounds just tacked on because it's for a wedding. I'd just shop somewhere normally and definitely wouldn't pay £800. I didn't even spend anywhere near that on my own wedding dress! If you're struggling to find stuff for yourself in mainstream stores, some places do style help/consultations. I actually used Lookiero recently for an outfit for a wedding and they knocked it out of the park.

Get thee to John Lewis/Monsoon.

I always think MOTB dresses look so incredibly old-fashioned. Not my style.

Wow I am getting married this year and haven't paid that much for my wedding dress!

Monsoon, John Lewis, phase Eight all have lovely things.

Those dresses are always hideous too, i bought a country casuals monstrosity for DD2's Christening that was a bit mother of the bride, I was 28 ... I cringe a lot looking at the photo's

Just buy a lovely dress from the high street. My Mum wore something on sale from LK Bennet and looked absolutely great in it. That was pushing the boat out a bit for us but wasn’t anywhere near that amount.

my wedding dress was also high street!

Buy any dress that you like and that's suitable! (And in your price range).
It doesn't have to be a specific Mother of the Groom-dress, in a specific style.

Good Luck!

Yes, this too. I've never seen a clearly MOTB-style outfit that wasn't just incredibly ageing on the woman wearing it. Just buy yourself something that suits you and is flattering.

If you want a posh dress for a very special occasion, you could hire one. After all, even if you have lots of DC and/or they are all planning on getting married multiple times, you probably wouldn't wear the same dress more than once or twice so it's a huge amount of money for one wear (not that there's anything wrong with rewearing, I had one nice dress, not £800 nice, but a lot less, from Monsoon and I wore it to several weddings and a few big birthday parties).

Or you could go to John Lewis, Monsoon, Hobbs or similar and get something very lovely for £100 to £200, that you'd probably have a better chance of rewearing because it would be more 'nice dress for weddings, garden parties, conference dinners, big birthday parties etc' rather than screaming Mother of the Bride or Groom.

The first two shops I also thought of!

Have you thought about renting one? X

Someone posted this earlier, but I think there's a lot of hire places now:

https://www.hirestreetuk.com/category/wedding

You don’t have to buy from the bridal boutique you know? (In fact I’d positively avoid it!)

Whack "Mother of the bride" (or groom) into Vinted or eBay. Obviously, everything's been worn once!

There is a Style & Beauty board on MN.

Why not start a thread there, giving as much detail - context, size, budget, preferences, - as possible, and see what people suggest?

Must admit I had no idea being the mother of a bride or groom required a special shop! Just choose something lovely that you’ll be happy to wear.

When I Google mother of the bride dresses it's quite hard to understand what's the style exactly. There seem to be strappy, off the shoulder, fitted, flowing... The most common theme was sleeves of some sort maybe?

What are they? 😅

That's more than my monthly wage!

LK Bennett, Hobbs,Monsoon, Phase 8, Mint Velvet. John Lewis ( book an appointment with a personal stylist. My mum did it for both her grandsons weddings. Lovely dresses purchased), House of Fraser. Don't go for those awful, stiff MOB outfits. Choose something beautiful that you can wear again.

Typical ones are a dress and jacket combo, or a 3/4 length sleeve dress, and they're often a bit thicker, more expensive fabric than you'd find at say Hobbs or Phase Eight.

The main reason the bridal-parent specific brands exist in wedding shops is to offer something to match or complement the bridal party. My wedding was black, white and silver and my mum's outfit was black and silver. Obviously you can wear whatever.

Not much use to you probably OP but this designer in Ireland specialises in wedding guest outfits. It might be of use to someone else.
https://marionmurphycooney.com/

wedding tax
Just shop around normal high street shops (as others said JL may be perfect)

To each their own. If you don’t want to, then don’t.

I always think mother of bride outfits are frumpy from bridal shops.
I’d buy a dress you love. Phase 8, Monsoon, John Lewis etc. if you have a boundary mill outlet they have big selection.
If you do like that look then Facebook marketplace they resell for hundreds less.
My wedding dress was Monsoon though, I wasn’t paying boutique price.