£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.

Debenhams online! We have loads of weddings this year and I couldn't find a single outfit for any of them and then someone recommended Debenhams online to me and that it was free returns. I saw someone mentioned Roman previously and they sell on there too. I usually hate everything I order online 😂 but ended up finding 8 dresses some reduced from £100 to £20 and they looked fab! There's so much choice and a lot are very mother of the bride suitable.

When DD got married, I got a gorgeous maxi dress from Monsoon and paired it with a wool dress coat from Per Una Cost me around £400 altogether and I've worn both many times since.

My middle DD is now engaged and I'm eyeing up a Nancy Mac dress and velvet coat this time .https://www.nancymac.co.uk/

I definitely wouldn’t be looking in that sort of shop were either of my kids to eventually get married! Nothing more likely to make you feel 100, and ripped off to boot.

Have a look at this
https://www.bombshellhq.com/collections/outlet

I love the dresses and even at full price they are half that. I have linked to the outlet part.

@3BSHKATS "country casuals monstrosity" made me snort out loud, I know exactly what you mean

Obvs it depends where & when the wedding is, but the MOB look I like the best is a dress with a matching coat (rather than jacket).

I think my mum got hers from phase 8. It was a dress with a jacket and headband. She was able to wear the different pieces on different occasions and got quite a lot of wear out of it. No idea on price but I wouldn’t have thought more than £200 without shoes.

No need to go to a wedding shop for official mother of bride/groom dresses. The prices will of course be 5 times higher.

Plenty of dresses to choose from, including online, enjoy looking.

and congratulations!

How do you find out what your wedding dress would now be worth?

Personally for a MOTB or MOTG I'd be going to an independent not a chain. Brands like Joseph Ribkoff have some lovely dresses and while relatively expensive, not £800. Google Kevan Jon too - does some lovely, structured and colourful dresses.

There is a good second hand market in these dresses as often only worn once.

Search FB for preloved wedding and occasion outfits UK

I bought my latest MOB dress and jacket from Ebay. I found the long length jacket first- not been worn, still with labels and it was £174! Paid £50 for it. By complete chance, the matching dress was on Ebay a few days later, worn once, cost £23. If I'd not found the dress, I had another one in a similar colour that would have gone with the jacket, bought that ages ago on Ebay for about £8? I got a fascinator to match my shoes in a charity shop (£5?) and a brand new matching bag in another charity shop for £4.
My best friend's daughter got married last year, so although not MOB I was auntie of the bride, got a beautiful silk dress and jacket in mint and gold in a charity shop, good make (Romaine?) £18.
My friend and I went charity shop trawling the other day and I got a beautiful pale blue coat dress that would keep for another wedding in the future -£9.25, and a black fascinator for £2, again to keep for the future.
At those prices, even if it's supposed to be dry clean only, I've chucked them in the washing machine on a cool wash and so far they've been fine!

£800 is a shocking price for an outfit you may only wear once. Shop around as other posters have suggested. Make sure mother of the bride hasn't chosen the same outfit.

Try Hobbs, they have some gorgeous dresses with matching jackets.

No need to spend silly money like that. Phase eight have lovely dresses and bolero jackets normally. Also vinted have a lot of only worn once wedding outfits.

I'd go there find a dress and style
I like then try and find it or something similar cheaper elsewhere.

I went to Hobbs - caught the end of the summer sale and got a lovely dress for £130, took the bride, my daughter with me, she was happy, so was I. I wore the dress on Christmas day as well, so that's at least 2 wears so far.

Now my son has just proposed to his partner, so I have to do it all again, but, hopefully not too soon.

Blimey that’s £300 more than my actual wedding dress cost

Took my mum to a mother of the bride shop when we were getting married, very well known in the area with a reputation. The cost was astronomical! They 'dressed' her in what they thought suited her and placed a hat on her head that was that big you could have picked up channel 5 on it! They asked what I thought and I said I honestly thought they'd aged her about 30 years. The material was like that heavy curtain type. We ended up at a high street store and she got a lovely dress for less than a fraction of the price!

Coast. I've just bought a gorgeous dress from there for a posh wedding, I only paid £70 for it. There's a whole range on the website with varying prices.

It’s subjective. Most women don’t baulk at spending a few grand on their wedding dress, because it’s a one off. Ditto your dress as MoB or G.

My mil went to a garden party at Buckingham palace last week. It was a big deal for her, so she bought a nice outfit via a Peter Jones personal shopper. She spent just over £800.

I recently bought a Ghost dress for a forthcoming wedding that was less than £200. I spent far, far more on my shoes and bag.

You spend what you can afford and most importantly, what you love.

A couple of years ago, I went to 2 different weddings in the same New Look dress that cost about £30. Who cares?

The 3 in my family who got married last year all got theres gumtree and ebay still new 100 and under. You'd be amazed how many new dresses are bought and not used

I went to a wedding where the dress cost £20,000. It was amazing and very stylish I must say - hand stitched lace and beading - but that's a house deposit for a lot of people.

If they can afford it, it's up to them what they spend their money on.

I bought a tailor made dress for ds1’s wedding from eShakti. They are online - you can either buy a standard size, or submit your measurements and have it made specifically, which is what I did. You can also alter aspects of the dress - neckline, sleeves, length - to suit your own taste.

And they are not expensive (because they are made in India) - I must admit I did worry that this would mean they would be badly made or poor quality, but I was very pleasantly surprised at the quality of dress I got - and it fitted perfectly too.

In fact I bought 2 dresses - one for the big family dinner the night before - and the two dresses came to under about £110.

As others have said try somewhere like John Lewis. My mother had a lovely dress and jacket and I think they were £150 each. No hat etc but she's not really in to hats. She's also worn it again to another wedding since so bad some wear out of it x

Same

I got married last year and my wedding dress cost less than that, and was/is absolutely beautiful.