Anyone regret how much they did (or did not) spend on their wedding dress?

[EmyK35]

I don't have a massive budget (max £750ish) but I always thought I would go to bridal shops with my mum and friends, try beautiful dresses on, go for fittings before taking away a beautifully packaged dress.

However I have seen a couple of things I like on the high street, which would save a lot of money (and time and hassle). But would I regret my wedding dress being something I picked up from a high street store in my lunch hour? Would I be missing out on the whole wedding dress experience? Or am I being ridiculous?

Does anyone who went designer wish they went high street or vice versa?

Good for you George, well done for being so sensible!

I spent £90 on a lovely Coast dress. Love it still.

Mine cost about £500 although my parents paid for it. Got worn once - was the nicest I tried on but do regret it in some ways as not really sure it was "me". Plus marriage didn't last which also colours my view I suppose.

Any more weddings I have I would wear something different from a big white dress.

Mine was £90 from a bridal shop closing down sale and I've no regrets. My sister had a BHS dress and she has no regrets either.

Interesting!

Not a penny. Could have spent way more or way less but I loved my dress.

£200. It was in the sale at a bridal shop. I wanted the whole dress buying experience but only had a small budget. The shop people were very nice and didn't make me feel any less for having not much money.

I was very young though and a bit shallow about the whole big wedding thing. (Not that the bling and big weddings thing makes you shallow, not at all, but I def. was)

Still married to the same bloke though. Not so shallow these days I hope! (25 years later)

£212 from the bridal shop off the sale rail. Worn for 11 hours then hung up for the next 15 years! Might actually do something with it this year!!

10 years ago I spent £1500.
It arrived 2 weeks before the wedding. I had ordered a size 8 but the shop failed to adjust to the American sizing so I had a size 12 dress.

They put it back on me and they all agreed I must've lost weight. I didn't.

It was huge and last minute alterations didn't do much for it.
I regret spending the money and didn't feel good about it on the day.

I'm really surprised that most people on the thread have spent under 300. Around where I am people spend quite a bit more on wedding dresses and most get them from bridal shops. Maybe only the lower spenders are posting

I spent (well, my DM did) £300. Loved the dress.
Oh, and just cos you've bought a dress, you can still go and try on others! I tried on about 50, as I loved trying them on. Still would, if i weren't superstitious about taking my wedding ring off.

Greenstone most people I know are the same but tbh I don't think it matters as long as you feel good in whatever your wearing.

I spent £30 on a dress that makes me feel great and I know it won't sit in the loft gathering dust for however long as it can be worn again which is more important to me than the price tag.

That said we aren't entirely "traditional" so the wedding thing for us isn't a huge deal (we've been together since we were 14, 13 years ago) so perhaps if this wasn't the case we'd have spent more?

As it is its registry office with 13 guests, meal at a nice restaurant and back to myums for cake and drinks :)

Oh gosh, I agree it doesn't matter at all. Increasingly I think people are getting their dresses on the high street or online (as I did), but yes where I come from people tend towards the more traditional approach. No-one seems to judge or care either way which is the good news :)

Your wedding sounds almost exactly like mine, by the way! And me and OH had been together for the same amount of time with 1 child. A wedding was not important to me but all the same it was a really nice day.

I had gone to several bridal shops and tried on dresses, but none of them felt quite right - these were up to about 1100.

I then tried on one that didn't look much on the hanger, stood on the box in front of the mirror and it was just 'me' - the dress was great and it made me look great. At that moment, the sales assistant came past and said 'This is the last day you can order a dress for [my wedding date].' So I responded, 'Well, I guess this is the one then!'

It was either 495 or 595, can't remember which. I felt that was about the right amount of money for me to spend in the context of our overall budget and was very happy with the result. I also spent a further 200 getting it altered (including changing the colour of a large part of it) to attend a black-tie event the following year. So no regrets and I managed to wear it twice!

I am having the cheapest dress I tried on (in bridal shops), which is just over a grand. With the alterations it will cost around 1.5 grand. I fluctuate between "that's so fucking expensive" and "comparatively, it's not THAT bad". I'm not having my hair done professionally, don't need a veil, will be wearing cheap arse shoes and I'm doing my own make up, so I feel like I am already cutting costs in other areas which justifies a little more on the dress.

I tried on an absolutely stunning dress which cost 2k without any alterations. It was absolutely incredible. But after thinking about it, I really couldn't justify spending so much money on a dress which I will never be able to wear again - especially since it was quite a modern dress that might not date well.

The dress I've gone for is very simple and very classic. It's basically just silk and buttery soft lace. Because it's so classic, I'm hoping to be able to hand it down to a daughter later down the line.

My mum didn't have much money to spend on a wedding dress when she got married, and she didn't even know what had happened to it when I asked her. If she had kept it I would have probably got married in that (depending on if I could fit into it!!!). I would have also been happy to have worn my grandmother's wedding dress (with a few alterations to update it a bit and make it longer since she was tiny), but she used to dress to make the christening gowns for her children.

To be honest, it doesn't matter how much you spend on the dress. I'd say there are only two criteria that are essential:

1. You have to like it
2. It has to fit properly.

If it doesn't fit well you'll spend the whole day feeling uncomfortable, pulling it up/down, whatever.

I had no idea people spent so much on wedding dresses. Only met one woman who talked about the price of her dress - it was 20 years ago,£1500, she bought it intending to lose weight but never managed it and had to buy another - she was really skint too, they couldn't afford a deposit for a house, I admit to being a tad judgey over what she spent.

£20 on a top that I still wear sometimes (20 years later)
£15 on material that I made into a simple long wrap skirt.

It was gorgeous and I am thrilled that I made those choices.

I did once do the whole bridal shop experience and got the perfect dress fitted for me. It ended up in the charity shop. Complete waste of money.

I bought my dress in the January sales at the first shop I went to on a busy Saturday morning, so start of search to completion of purchase was about 1 hour). It cost £299 (had originally been £600).

I thought that was plenty of time/money to spend and when I look back I don't regret it.

If I'd known about ebay then I'd probably have bought one that way.

If you like it and it fits well (a well fitted dress is half the battle to looking good in it) that's enough. Assuming it isn't ridiculously overpriced.

Don't spend ££££'s in the belief that you'll be able to see it on ebay and get plenty of money back that way. 10% of the new price is about average on ebay.

Mine was heavily discounted as was ex sample. As I said on the other dress thread, it was £150 once cleaned & adjusted.

Did it look nice? Yes.
Do I regret that it wasn't thousands of pounds? No.
Do I think it really matters at all? No.
Am I still married? Yes.

I spent £275 on my wedding dress two years ago, from a bridal shop sale and it would have retailed at £1200. I'm happy with the amount I spent, I could have afforded the full price but it would have annoyed me as I tend not to pay full price on clothes if I can help it! But that was also the same price range as premium high street dresses, which I tried on and didn't have the same feel to bridal gowns - less detail, lining, finish etc. My dress was also very close-fitting and corseted which you tend not to see with high street dresses - I'd lost loads of weight so I wanted to show it off! The floaty style you tend to see in Monsoon/Phase Eight doesn't suit me as they tend to swamp me.

I agree with advice to try on dresses in a bridal shop. The one I ended up with was definitely not one I would have picked from the rail, I actually thought the floaty vintage type would suit me but they were all wrong for my figure.

No. I paid 50 quid for my dress from ebay. I loved it and it was perfect on the day. I have never regretted that. I would have regretted wasting a grand on something I'd only wear once (especially as we only spent £3k on the wedding which included the honeymoon)

I bought a beautiful Maggie Sottero, one off dress. It was half price in the sale at £500 and I loved it and still do.

My only regret is that it was only the first dress I tried on. I really wish I'd tried more, not that I would have changed my mind, but because I wanted the experience of trying on loads of dresses!!

I bought mine in Debenhams and don't regret it. My mum got to see me in my wedding dress which is what really counted. She was very ill and it was a big effort for her to come to the shop with my sister and I. I was trying to rush things through so she could make it to the wedding so I didn't have the six month window that the specialist bridal shops wanted. She died a few weeks before we got married but she helped me to choose and saw it which meant a lot.

I bought mine in Debenhams and don't regret it. My mum got to see me in my wedding dress which is what really counted. She was very ill and it was a big effort for her to come to the shop with my sister and I. I was trying to rush things through so she could make it to the wedding so I didn't have the six month window that the specialist bridal shops wanted. She died a few weeks before we got married but she helped me to choose and saw it which meant a lot.