Dress Question.. how do you know how much it should be?

[heathrow42]

How do you know how much your dress should cost? It's rather like trying to figure out how much to pay for a car. I found the dress I want today, I put down the deposit and they are going to call tomorrow to find out how long it will take for the dress to arrive (have to see if we need to rush ship it) I was a little unsure about it because they added alot of extra fees.. $50 to ship the dress from the manufacturer to their store. $175 for "extra fabric" ..I'm not a size 4, but I'm sure I'm not a plus size either. $150 if they have to rush order it (that I can understand). This does not include alterations.. and they don't have to clean and steam the dress because that will be done in Fl.

Anyway.. I came home all happy and excited, and started to write a post here on the dis to say, "yay! I found my dress" and then google/froogled. Probably a mistake on my part, I should have let well enough be. It looks like they charged me $2-300 over on the base cost of the dress, plus the $225 for the shipping and extra fabric. ($425-525) -- And one of the places I found online did not add anything extra for my size, and showed the rush fee as $100 not $150. In the end it looks like I might be paying $500+ more!

Don't get me wrong, I am very happy to have found a dress I love after one day of looking. I am even thrilled that I found it for less than I budgeted.. but $500 is a nice chunk of change and could pay for shoes, veil, etc.

I understand that a brick and mortar store has more costs than an online store, and factors that into their prices.. but I just can't help feeling I overpaid though. Is there any good way to find the going rate of a dress..? Should I call another shop that carries that line?

Thanks,
--Heather

 

[cryssi]

It's hard to say without knowing the designer. I suppose you could say that Maggies go for around 800-1000 and Demetrios 1000+, but I have heard of people getting Maggies for a lot less. Check bridesave.com and add about 200 for the approx. MSRP. I could be wrong, I don't know. All I know is that my gown was Essense of Australia. I could have ordered it online and saved 300, but we ordered it from the salon. That 300 was worth it b/c the online place I was going to order from went under...

If the price you were quoted is within your budget and you are comfortable with the salon you ordered it from, then I wouldn't even bother with looking for a better deal. It's a lot of stress. Now if you have time/energy to do it, then go for it, especially since you know what you want. I saved money on my veil by making it myself for about 30-50 vs purchasing one for 200+, and my aunt bought my tiara as a gift...

I hope this helps you some! Good luck!

 

[mellormousee]

I got my dress for $99.00 at chadwicks It was very simple a-line. I had an intimate wedding so I didn't have a veil. I borrowed a crown from one of my girlfriends.
I got the matching shoed for $19.00. Another idea would be to borrow or use someone elses gown I was going to do that, I mean when are you going to ever wear it again. I would give or lend mine out if someone wanted to wear it. GOOD LUCK>

 

[juligrl]

I'm definately not the person to compare dress prices with. I got mine for $99 at a "$99 dress sale". I didn't want to blow my budget on a dress when I would be the only one able to enjoy it and really, I'd only wear it once. I only looked at their sale dresses and found 3 I loved. The first one I tried on was the one I bought and I knew it was mine (I tried on the other 2 because you can't buy the first dress you try). It fit me perfectly off the rack and I bought it and took it home with me almost a year out from my wedding. I tried it on every 2 weeks "to make sure it still fit" so it's probably the most worn dress in history.

The veil, my mother made for about $15-$20. My shoes were from the Shoe Warehouse for $18, purchased one week before my wedding.

If having a designer name on you dress is what will make your day special than spring for it. Personally it was the people that were there to share my day that made the day so that's where I opted to spend the money. There are fairly reasonable knockoffs of designer label dresses out there, so keep that in mind.

As a post-script, I work in the wedding industry and a few years ago at a bridal show, I met a talented "artist" who does lovely framing of wedding gowns. Five years after my wedding I spent $400 for custom artwork featuring my gown and I can still hand the gown down to my daughters if they want it.

 

[JandJ]

Prices vary a lot depending on where you live, what kind of boutique you go to, and of course who the designer is. You can always find your dress - or anything else for that matter! - on-line cheaper than you would pay in a store. DH is an on-line bargain hunter and has saved literally thousands. My dress was $300 less on bridesave.com but I felt more comfortable ordering it from the boutique (plus they had to order it special, basically redesigned the back for me, which would never have been done on-line). My alterations cost practically nothing since the dress was made to order and they only had to do one simple thing, so I was lucky not to have additional costs there. Like cryssi said, if you could afford it and the boutique was nice and helpful, don't think about it anymore.

Smile - you found "The Dress"

 

[heathrow42]

So 2 stores across town from each other - giving me *drastically* different prices for the **exact same dress**. (I'm leaving out the cost of the alterations, since they basically charged the same)

Store #1 - Where I put down the deposit
$1580 - base cost of the dress ($1200) $300 more than the second shop, measured me wrong. They charged me $185 for extra fabric, charged me $50 for shipping from manufacturer to their shop - and that's not for the rush fee. Rush fee $150 - I'm ok with that because it's the same as the other shop.

Store #2 - Same dress
$1075 - $925 for the dress (no extra charges for "extra fabric" - manufacturer doesn't charge it.. no $50 shipping) $150 for the rush fee. That's it. They had their tailor measure me, and when we looked at the size chart I was 2-3 sizes smaller than store #1 (I would go for the slightly larger one though and have it taken in, which is still 2 sizes smaller than store #1)

$505 difference!! I think I would be ok with a $1-200 difference, but $500.. and the first shop has a few complaints filed against them with the bettter business beurau. I'm just worried.. worried that the dress won't be the right size, worried they won't get the dress in time, worried that they will mess something up, worried that they won't deliver, and I'm annoyed about being charged more than 30% extra, for charges the manufacturer doesn't even charge! I wish I had never gone into that first shop and I just don't know what to do.

--heather