It can’t be as hard as this to buy a wedding dress

[ElephantGrey101]

I am getting married this time next year. I thought a whole year would be loads of time to choose a dress but apparently not. I want to lose a bit of weight before the wedding not too much but I have put on a bit of weight since having a baby ( who is now a toddler).

The wedding dress shop I spoke to said I need to order a dress about a year in advance because it takes time to order the dress in. They will order a standard dress size then I need to find my own seamstress to take the drsss up and that will take weeks.

Is this normal? It must be easier than this. I am going to end up with the wrong size. I looked at high street wedding dresses but you need to order them online.

Can you go into a shop and try on a wedding dress and take it home without any drama?

I have a really big bust so lots of things don’t fit me well.

I’m getting married this summer and the experience of wedding dress shopping was awful! If I hadn’t felt pressured into ordering a year or so before I think I would have found something I really love. The dress I have got is beautiful but doesn’t really feel like me in hindsight and was quite a lot more money than I ever wanted to spend. Then the alterations were more than I expected too.
I did find one online that I loved but was talked out of it by family and that’s my fault obviously as I should have stuck to my guns.
but YANBU about the whole process being un enjoyable!

Go to a Wed2B shop. Buy off the rack, leave with it under your arm the same day.

Then you still need to find your own seamstress, yes. Allow a minimum 3 months for your fittings and adjustments if you're getting married in prime wedding season as they'll be busy.

Go to a different shop! Most places have their own alterations people, and this one does sound a bit dodgy if they charge for multiple appointments but don't actually do alterations!

If there is a Wed2Be near you, they can be a good choice. You'd still have to get your own alterations done, but you take the dress there and then, and they are much less expensive than traditional dress shops.

The online shops like Stacee's and JJsHouse are a good option as well, if you order well in advance. You can order dresses to try on, then when you have chosen one, give them your custom measurements and they will fit the dress to you. It sounds like a big old gamble but they were amazing with my bridesmaids dresses earlier this year.

I got my wedding dress from Ebay for not very much at all, and then paid a LOT of money to have it altered to fit me perfectly. I absolutely love it still.

It's a bizarre issue whereby wedding dresses use suppliers in other countries that are overworked.
You're best cutting out the middleman and ordering straight from etsy where Eastern European makers are offering amazing couture dresses for a fraction of the price and 10 times the quality.
I got myself measured by a local seamstress. The dress arrived in 1 month and was a complete wow, totally bespoke.
To get something similar through a shop here I would have paid at least 5K.

The markup here is insane and the delays bizarre. It takes about 3 weeks to make a complex wedding dress, it's just backlog that delays things.

They have styles cut to a template that are supposed to fit most bodies with minimal adjustment, easy adjustment and a pull of a corset.

Getting your dress made means that little tweaks can be made such as moving a neckline a centimetre, moving an underarm seam when the fabric is being cut, rather than afterwards. It’s the little things that can count.

At the last wedding I went to, the bride had bought a beautiful dress but it was obviously from one of those shops and it showed.

Are you in or near London? I know the best hire wedding shop. I got mine from there and loved it and now 3 friends have done the same since

pretty standard unless you buy off the sale rack

try Wed2be though, they have some lovely stuff

I found a beautiful designer dress on Facebook marketplace.

I went to wed2be, so i had an idea of what style I wanted, but I found the fabric in that shop slightly cheap and scratchy.

I went to people’s houses from marketplace and tried 3 on, on separate occasions.
Chose the one I wanted and paid a fraction of the price of new. She'd had it dry cleaned.
Went to a local dressmaker for alterations as I didn’t know what I was doing and she said there was nothing she could do to improve - it fit perfectly.

Wed 2 be looks like a great option and there is one near me. If there are any high street shops that still sell wedding dresses I will definitely have a look too.

If.you are near Huddersfield, there is a fab wedding.dress shop called Limelight.
They have there own seamstresses there and are super helpful and really friendly.
They are also online.

I bought mine on eBay secondhand for 20 quid. It’d been worn once but looked brand new. I absolutely trashed it and didn’t care because it cost me fuck all. It fit fine as it came but I was expecting to get it altered. Just get a size or 2 up and take it to a seamstress. Mine was a high street one which was around £450 new I think so relatively ‘cheap’ for a wedding dress but at least the sizing is a bit more predictable. Monsoon and Ghost both do lovely wedding dresses if high street options are of interest to you.

Most of the big charities have bridal wear shops eg Oxfam, British Heart Foundation. If you have one near you that could be a good option. Would need to find your own seamstress to make any alterations but fraction of the price, worn once dresses that you can buy on the day.

Thank you. That is worth a look. I could get to Huddersfield quite easily.

I think I have a lot more options now. Maybe the shop I went to was not that great.

I got married last month and ended up buying from Vinted! It was a Wed2b dress and it’s lovely. £600 in store but £90 from vinted. Was already the right length and needed no alterations. I only bought it 3 weeks before the wedding so was panicking slightly.

If you can get to Castleford, Elite bridal have a good store. They also have an outlet there and you can take the dress straight away. They were relaxed, happy to let me wander around and try on what I wanted (call in advance though as some days you have to book if they are busy). Most importantly for me they didn’t come into the changing rooms with me and make me feel uncomfortable like others have done. Very friendly and down to earth.

I was supposed to go to Wed2b but accidentally went into wed4less instead. Omg it was awful. They never leave you alone so you’re stood there in your underwear while they grumpily bring a selection of dresses that don’t suit and get gradually ridiculous in price. They also charge £50 to take a dress off the hanger to sell to you if you want to buy a sale dress 😂 CF’s. You also can’t touch any dresses, they are bagged so you can’t see the detail (meaning you pick unsuitable dresses for yourself) and can’t see the price on most of them. The woman who served me never even cracked a smile 😕

just be aware that you usually can’t alter a dress more than 2 dress sizes so be careful how much weight you lose if you do order a dress.
I bought a vintage style one from eBay originally but lost so much weight I couldn’t do the alterations myself. It’s still sat half altered and such a waste of time and money.

If you can get to Huddersfield, I presume you could get to Castleford. Elite bridal have their outlet shop there. They have all their dresses in a range of sizes that you can take away on the day. They also have a in-house seamstress for alterations.

Most wedding dress shops are like this so its quite normal - but most shops will have a recommended seamstress attached to them in some way.
When I got my dress, the shop refused to order smaller sizes in case you lost weight as alot of brides don't lose the weight. My dress had to be taken in 3 dress sizes but a experiences seamstress will be able to do that efficiently with little effect on the dress itself.

There are some places like Wed2B which you can just take away or John Lewis type shops that you can order online etc. But you will be limited to styles and sizes more than if you ordered in advance and then took in.

My Dd got her dress 7/8 months before she went between wed3be and a bridal dress shop went with the dress shop in the end, it took 10 weeks to come and then she got it altered in the shop, go to dress shops try some on.

Dd2 is getting married she has been to some wedding fayres and retailers just like to cause panic I think just so you use them.

They just wanted you to panic and buy from them, deep breaths and don't panic.

Just be aware that manybof the dresses will have altered already so just because it says size X on the label it could have been reduced in size. I know a bride to be who got really depressed when nothing in her size fitted her in the charity bridal section but the reality was they were no longer that size.

I shopped online for my wedding dress, bought one only from Monsoon and had it delivered to John Lewis where I tried it on and brought the dress home on my push bike in a carrier bag. 🤣
It doesn’t have to be so overly complicated depending on the style you like as well. There must be dresses designed for bigger busts even online - you can return if need be. I just bought mine slightly large so I had the option of altering it if need be.
Good luck OP. 🫶🏻

I have just that people have been posting on this thread again.

As an update I have managed to get a lovely wedding dress.

Has anyone mentioned Bridal Reloved yet? They have ex samples and so forth so you just take it home and get it altered. I had a very positive experience with them 3 years ago.

I’m about to get married for the third time This time round I’ve booked a personal shopper appointment at John Lewis in Oxford Street explicitly to try on wedding dresses, because they have at least one style I like. I hope that will work.

Previously I’ve bought an outfit at Harvey Nicks, which was brilliant (I was a bit thinner then) and then the second time went to a dressmaker. I once went to a bridal shop and fled after 30 minutes, I don’t like the vibe or the hard sell. They nearly put me in a bloody white top hat like the Volkswagen advert.

I'd look elsewhere. Tbh it took us one shop and half an hour for me and my dsis. My friend got hers from a specialist charity shop and paid £30 and looked stunning on the day. I went with her and she tried three dresses on and all done within an hour and we walked away with the dress.

It's all a con. Some places you even have to pay for the appointment! I bought mine online because I just couldn't be doing with it.