Do/Did you regret...

[scarlett873]

my first wedding...i spent $700 on the dress, underthings, veil, slip...the dress now hangs in my mom's closet.

my second wedding...originally, we were going to vegas to get married. we were planning to do the venetian at first...i had found THE perfect dress for that...but once i tried it on, it was NOT for me! lol...we switched gears a bit when i found a deal to WDW that we just couldn't pass up! so we booked a chapel in orlando (couldn't afford the disney shebang). still unsure as to what to do for my dress, i remembered my mom saying for my first wedding how much she wanted to make my dress for me, but just didn't have the time. so i poured over pattern books for weeks...finding exactly what i wanted...asked her to make it for me! we spent less than $100 on the fabric and pattern. i ended up with a beautiful dress and it was totally ME!

 

[Firefly Girl]

I truly believe every bride can find the dress of her dreams at a price she can afford, if she looks hard enough! I think you should keep looking, and if you really think you have searched long enough and hard enough a couple of months later, and you can't find anything else you want, then go back and get the budget buster.

I originally fell in love with a Carmela Sutera in a bridal magazine. it wasn't sold in any stores around here so when I went to visit my parents we went looking at a store that I knew carried carmelas. Small problem, they didn't have any of that style in a sample! They said they could order it for me but enouraged me to try on other dresses there first. I did and I found my Jasmine, it was $700 which was a lot less than the $3500 Carmela! I still like the Carmela and feel I would have been happy in either gown. But my parents were certainly happier I went with the less expensive one!

 

[ballroombelle]

There's always ebay...you may be able to re-coup some of the costs afterwards. But if you're willing to do that, you may be willing to rent, too.

You say you can swing it but have you already assessed the cost of all your other vendors? Add 10% to that for those unforeseeable costs/must-have extras and see if you really do have enough.

IN the planning process, let's say you've budgeted $2K on flowers...then you get there, you see something spectacular you have to have-and you've added another $500. $2K for the photog is your budget...but you find a really superior photog is available and heck you're spending loads on these gorgeous flowers you want someone who's going to capture that all beautifully...add on an extra $1K to that limit...

...what I'm saying, not so succinctly , make sure this is the one place where you absolutely CAN'T compromise...the dress may just be a few hundred over your dress budget but those few hundred can make a difference later on.

 

[LUVTGR]

If it is a designer dress there are alot of buy direct options that make it alot less expensive. A friend of mine got a vera wang dress 75% off. She did a search on google and got prices from all the discount dress providers. You need the designers name, style # of the dress, and your size. They will email you a quote on the price they can get the dress for. Hope this helps. I'm having the same problem w/ spending so much on a dress I'm going to wear once.

 

[Desiree]

Since we're paying for our wedding and honeymoon we're going the fairly inexpensive route too. My first wedding was a prom dress, but it was beautiful! It was ivory satin with lace overlay. It was gorgeous. I'm hoping to find something similar for this wedding. I think I spend a total of $300 on my first dress and it was absolutely perfect. I hope I can find a deal just like that!

 

[Fantasia Sam]

LOL I don't regret paying what I did for the dress nearly $1000 but I do regret getting completly "stitched-up" (excuse the pun) on the alterations - I think mine alone cost a further $250.

I would have been more than happy with a David's Bridal except we don't have them here and I certainly looked at Bridesave.com but again it would have cost me loads in "customs and duty" if I'd had the dress shipped here.

Melissa - i think shopping around is a great idea and if after all that you're still in love with the dress that was a little over your budget then you know that that is the money you're gonna have to spend so that you don't feel any regret on the day.