The chic cheap wedding dress
Posted on April 24th, 2008 – 5:54 PMBy Kara McGuire
On the scale of importance, most brides will tell you that their wedding dress ranks pretty high, if not at the top.
When I was dress-shopping, I didn’t see the logic in spending a mortgage payment’s worth of money on a dress I’d wear for a few hours. I kept myself from getting tempted to spend more than my budget and firmly told the person helping me at the bridal store that I didn’t even want to try on the expensive dresses.
It took a long time to find “THE” dress. When it finally arrived, the sizing of the dress was WAY off. We shipped the dress back to the manufacturer, hoping that it was defective and the new one would arrive and fit perfect. Nope. Same problem. By this time, I didn’t feel comfortable starting the dress search over, so we ordered another dress, only 8 sizes larger than my actual dress size.
When that dress arrived, it fit where it didn’t fit before, but would have to be taken in everywhere else. I accepted that I was finally being punished by the bridal Gods for being cheap, and I’d have to shell out the cash for some major alterations.
Then I’m standing in front of the mirror in my wedding dress, with 3 months until the wedding, and I notice something awful. I could see right through the fabric of the dress! I tell myself, “Take a deep breath Aimee, don’t be a bridezilla … I’m sure a lot of brides have see-through wedding dresses… right?” Then I snap out of it and realize that although I didn’t drop a grand on the dress, I spent plenty and deserved a dress that covered me up.
As most things do with a wedding, everything turned out OK. The bridal store relined the entire dress for next to nothing and it’s no longer R-rated. The fact that I paid almost as much for alterations as I did for the dress will probably gnaw at me until I get into the dress on my wedding day. After that, it will just be one of those hilarious wedding dress-gone-wrong stories.
3 Responses to "The chic cheap wedding dress"
My sister and I both went the cheap route with our dresses. My mother-in-law made mine so I only had to buy the fabric. My sister bought hers on e-bay for $50.
I went to one store (in Rochester). The second time there, I found a dress that had just come in that I loved. They told me that they’d give me the bridal fair discount if I bought it that day (20% off). I took the deal and paid around $400 for a dress, then found a kind woman who did alterations out of her home. She took the whole dress apart for $50 and put it back together so it fit me perfect!
I love it!. My wedding dress was like the second one that I tried on - it was a sample off the rack on close-out. I love it dearly to this day
