Is an Expensive wedding Dress Really Worth the Money?
Photo: Anna Docking
Wow, wedding dresses are pretty pricey! What do you get for this? How will it impact on your wedding day? Will an expensive wedding dress really be worth the money?
According to Bridebook, the wedding dress can account for about 7-8% of the entire wedding budget, suggesting an average price of £1,500.
This may be a shock if you’re not accustomed to spending so much on one single dress. And that’s just the cost of a store-bought dress!
Custom-made wedding dresses can start at £1,600 and have no upper limit. But what makes them so pricey? And do you actually need an expensive wedding dress? What will you get for the extra money?
When deciding on your wedding dress budget...
Ask yourself the following questions:
- what does your wedding dress mean to you? Does it signify the traditional passing from girlhood to womanhood? Singleton to smug-married? Or maybe it sets the tone of how you want to start your new life with your partner – a fresh start, full of positivity and abundance?
- How do you want to remember it?
- How do you want to feel in it?
Photos – Bamboo Dreams Photography
Do you want to feel like:
- The best version of yourself in a gown that looks like it was whisked around you by glittering stars?
- The goddess that always resided within you has now finally been unveiled?
OR…
…do you take the chance that you will avoid your wedding photos thereafter?
Wearing the best quality dress that you can afford will make you look and feel confident, just as buying a top brand pair of jeans trumps a supermarket pair.
Investing in an expensive wedding dress
If this resonates with you, then maybe you do value the finer things in life?
You might be one of those brides who considers an expensive wedding dress to be an investment, rather than a frivolous expense. I don’t mean that a high-end wedding dress will grow in value like your ISA, but it can make a statement about how you view your wedding and how you always want to remember this most significant of all days.
This dress will live with you forever, in your wedding photos and in everyone’s memories, long after the current economic crisis has gone (and subsequent ones will have come and gone, a couple more times… Such is life).
The less expensive wedding dress option
Even the cheaper expensive bridal dresses on the market (not including pre-loved) are still a notable expense in their own right.
Wedding dresses consume a lot more more fabric and consist of more pieces than everyday garments. More work goes into their production.
Lower cost wedding dresses will have been made in multiples at a fast pace for high profit. This cookie-cutter approach brings you generic styles and sizes and leaves you (the bride), with the likely hassle of having it customised and/or altered. There may even be a substantial additional cost for this. An experienced bridal seamstress near you will charge reasonable UK rates, rather than those of overseas factory workers.
Budget materials can often mean zip breakages, split seams and scratchy or sweaty fabrics that don’t look good as the day progresses. And how sure can you be that they were ethically made?
You get what you pay for!
As well as better quality, a lot more reassurance and a much nicer customer experience, when you invest a little more.
Speaking for myself, I design each wedding dress for one individual bride, making it entirely unique. I place every fold, seam and applique thoughtfully and deliberately to suit my bride’s shape. Moreover, I check the overall effect religiously with every amendment, ensuring that the design is still perfect.
I select good quality fabrics and components that will look luxurious and provide comfort throughout the day. Where possible I opt for the many excellent sustainable fabric qualities.
There can be many layers consisting of different fabrics in a bespoke wedding dress. Each one lending it’s own unique quality to the overall character and movement of the dress.
The art lies in knowing which ones to use and how to use them. It is worth paying more for these considerations, because it shows.
A wedding dress full of love and soul!
When I draft the pattern for the dress, I follow the measurements of my bride, constantly striving to enhance all her best features. During the toile fittings, I check that she is comfortable and can move gracefully. Together we improve and edit the finer details and fit. I don’t rely on standard industry sizes.
Crafts(wo)manship
But my favourite thing about a luxury wedding dress is how much skilled hand-finishing goes into it.
This is not a frock that’s banged out in a day by several different machine operators! A luxury wedding dress takes many, many weeks/months to come to fruition.
I love couture embellishments, which I make myself. This includes hand-beaded or embroidered pieces, to which I also add silk flower petals. I’m constantly learning new embellishment techniques for my brides.
Naturally these fine details take time to create, but they make the gown more personal to the bride. The immense feeling it gives her to wear such special adornments is worth the extra cost. This feeling shines through in her memories and on her photos for evermore.
Invariably all of these factors will lead to a more expensive wedding dress.
My two cents...
In all sectors of life it rings true that if you want something nice, you do have to be prepared to pay more, but when you develop a close working relationship with your suppliers, it enhances the wedding planning experience.
Small businesses such as mine, do go over and above to contribute some special, personalised magic to your day, so that you feel that it was worth it.
I advise you to have a budget in mind for your wedding dress, but be willing to try on dresses that you love that are just slightly above this limit.
I know this flies in the face of a lot of advice out there, hear me out:
It would demystify what more you could get for a slightly bigger spend and enable you to assess whether that extra bit of specialness would make your day significantly more memorable.
But certainly think about the long game, which is how you will want to remember your wedding dress and the way it made you feel.
I am here to answer any wedding dress questions you might have, so don’t hesitate to get in touch!
Photo: Anna Docking
Wow, wedding dresses are pretty pricey! What do you get for this? How will it impact on your wedding day? Will an expensive wedding dress really be worth the money?
According to Bridebook, the wedding dress can account for about 7-8% of the entire wedding budget, suggesting an average price of £1,500.
This may be a shock if you’re not accustomed to spending so much on one single dress. And that’s just the cost of a store-bought dress!
Custom-made wedding dresses can start at £1,600 and have no upper limit. But what makes them so pricey? And do you actually need an expensive wedding dress? What will you get for the extra money?
When deciding on your wedding dress budget...
Consider:
- what does your wedding dress mean to you? Does it signify the traditional passing from girlhood to womanhood? Singleton to smug-married? Or maybe it sets the tone of how you want to start your new life with your partner – a fresh start, full of positivity and abundance?
- How do you want to remember it?
- How do you want to feel in it?
Photo – Bamboo Dreams Photography
Photo – Bamboo Dreams Photography
Do you want to feel like:
- The best version of yourself in a gown that looks like it was whisked around you by glittering stars?
- The goddess that always resided within you has now finally been unveiled?
OR…
…do you take the chance that you will avoid your wedding photos thereafter?
Wearing the best quality dress that you can afford will make you look and feel confident, just as buying a top brand pair of jeans trumps a supermarket pair.
Investing in an expensive wedding dress
If this resonates with you, then maybe you do value the finer things in life?
You might be one of those brides who considers an expensive wedding dress to be an investment, rather than a frivolous expense. I don’t mean that a high-end wedding dress will grow in value like your ISA, but it can make a statement about how you view your wedding and how you always want to remember this most significant of all days.
This dress will live with you forever, in your wedding photos and in everyone’s memories, long after the current economic crisis has gone (and subsequent ones will have come and gone, a couple more times… Such is life).
The less expensive wedding dress option
Even the cheaper expensive bridal dresses on the market (not including pre-loved) are still a notable expense in their own right.
Wedding dresses consume a lot more more fabric and consist of more pieces than everyday garments. More work goes into their production.
Lower cost wedding dresses will have been made in multiples at a fast pace for high profit. This cookie-cutter approach brings you generic styles and sizes and leaves you (the bride), with the likely hassle of having it customised and/or altered. There may even be a substantial additional cost for this. An experienced bridal seamstress near you will charge reasonable UK rates, rather than those of overseas factory workers.
Budget materials can often mean zip breakages, split seams and scratchy or sweaty fabrics that don’t look good as the day progresses. And how sure can you be that they were ethically made?
You get what you pay for!
As well as better quality, a lot more reassurance and a much nicer customer experience, when you invest a little more.
Speaking for myself, I design each wedding dress for one individual bride, making it entirely unique. I place every fold, seam and applique thoughtfully and deliberately to suit my bride’s shape. Moreover, I check the overall effect religiously with every amendment, ensuring that the design is still perfect.
I select good quality fabrics and components that will look luxurious and provide comfort throughout the day. Where possible I opt for the many excellent sustainable fabric qualities.
There can be many layers consisting of different fabrics in a bespoke wedding dress. Each one lending it’s own unique quality to the overall character and movement of the dress.
The art lies in knowing which ones to use and how to use them. It is worth paying more for these considerations, because it shows.
A wedding dress full of love and soul!
When I draft the pattern for the dress, I follow the measurements of my bride, constantly striving to enhance all her best features. During the toile fittings, I check that she is comfortable and can move gracefully. Together we improve and edit the finer details and fit. I don’t rely on standard industry sizes.
Crafts(wo)manship
But my favourite thing about a luxury wedding dress is how much skilled hand-finishing goes into it.
This is not a frock that’s banged out in a day by several different machine operators! A luxury wedding dress takes many, many weeks/months to come to fruition.
I love couture embellishments, which I make myself. This includes hand-beaded or embroidered pieces, to which I also add silk flower petals. I’m constantly learning new embellishment techniques for my brides.
Naturally these fine details take time to create, but they make the gown more personal to the bride. The immense feeling it gives her to wear such special adornments is worth the extra cost. This feeling shines through in her memories and on her photos for evermore.
Invariably all of these factors will lead to a more expensive wedding dress.
My two cents...
In all sectors of life it rings true that if you want something nice, you do have to be prepared to pay more, but when you develop a close working relationship with your suppliers, it enhances the wedding planning experience.
Small businesses such as mine, do go over and above to contribute some special, personalised magic to your day, so that you feel that it was worth it.
I advise you to have a budget in mind for your wedding dress, but be willing to try on dresses that you love that are just slightly above this limit.
I know this flies in the face of a lot of advice out there, hear me out:
It would demystify what more you could get for a slightly bigger spend and enable you to assess whether that extra bit of specialness would make your day significantly more memorable.
But certainly think about the long game, which is how you will want to remember your wedding dress and the way it made you feel.
I am here to answer any wedding dress questions you might have, so don’t hesitate to get in touch!