how much did you spend on THE dress?

oal22

I know it inevitably comes down to how much you can afford. At the moment I am just having a look on-line as i have zero idea of what style i would like. I'm worried i'll fall in love with a dress, trot off to the shop, then find out that it is WAY out of my reach, and have to skulk off out with my tail between my legs.

I have seen some nice dresses by Stephen Allin, Ronald Joyce and Novia d'somethingorother, but no idea what price range they are.

There's the potential for controversy here i know...but... on average how much have you spent on your dress?

leap

I had a Roland Joyce dress it was €700. It was cheaper than I expected it to be. If you ring up the shops and ask what their price range is before you go that should help.

lazygal

Stephanie Alin is pricey-you're talking €3k plus. I got my dress for about €1k plus alterations in the bridal outlet in Baldoyle. There's a range there, mostly in or around that price. Myrtle Ivory and Sharon HOey would be the higher end. De Stafford does a range of designers and prices.


I'd recommend the Bridal Outlet, by far the best choice and prices.

bills

I had a novia d'art dress. It was beautiful & i was happy with it but cost €1700 including veil. Thats not including alterations!!

Monife

+1 on Bridal Outlet in Baldoyle. Very professional and courteous, loads of dresses to choose from and reasonable price compared to other shops.

My dress is a Romantica and the style is Montana. It was €875 but with veil and alterations it has come in at €1330. My mum and grandmother paid for it as a wedding present Could have got it much cheaper online but didnt have the time, I didn't realise you have to order your dress soooo far in advance until I started dress shopping, 3 months before the wedding. Wedding in 5 days

Toots

I think my dress probably came in at around the €1400 mark, including veil and alterations. I'm not 100% sure because my parents paid for it. The veil had to be custom made to match the dress, which was pink. Here's a pic, I can't find one of the model standing up though:



Before I went shopping I'd seen a couple of dresses I liked online and then looked at their Irish stockists list and phoned them beforehand to see what the prices were. Most shops were happy to give the price ranges of their stock over the phone. I didn't want to end up in a shop of gorgeous dresses that all started at like €2000!! It'd be too much of a tease!

Moonbeam

Go to the shops and try on everything!!
I lasted about 4 hours and 4 shops and swore I was never going wedding dress shopping again so went back the Monday morning and bought the nicest one that had fitted!!
Got a lovely Linea Raffelli dress that was not too crazily priced and looked traditional but unusual.

My favourite dress was one I didn't even try on as it was 4500 lol
It was light purple:)

I liked Ciara bridal in Powerscourt, the bridal shop in Liffey valley has a very reasonable selection and no appointment needed,The town bride in Powerscourt is brilliant too,you are made feel like a princess and he really knows his stuff but you need to make an appointment.
Had no appointment in De Courcy but had a look anyway,I didn't like anything there and felt uncomfortable there.

Jelly2

If you like quirky and/or vintage, dirtyfabulous.com is fantastic. I got my dress there within one hour when I visited (Dublin), and it was E480. I absolutely loved it.

oal22

thanks for the replies guys

I'll defo give the place in Baldoyle a look. Had my heart set on a ronald joyce dress i saw on the Ciara Bridal website. Very dissappointing...rang the shop to enquire about it, and they had no idea what dress i was talking about. they told me to email them on a picture, which i did,...6 emails later and they STILL havent responded :mad: I eventually emailed Ronald joyce directly and it's been discontinued.

oal22

Monife wrote: »

+1 on Bridal Outlet in Baldoyle. Very professional and courteous, loads of dresses to choose from and reasonable price compared to other shops.

My dress is a Romantica and the style is Montana. It was €875 but with veil and alterations it has come in at €1330. My mum and grandmother paid for it as a wedding present Could have got it much cheaper online but didnt have the time, I didn't realise you have to order your dress soooo far in advance until I started dress shopping, 3 months before the wedding. Wedding in 5 days

You must be so excited at this stage!!!!
I always assumed alterations were included when you bought the dress. There are so many hidden costs like that which add up. Did you have any problems in getting a dress 3 months before the wedding? I keep being told i should order 6-9 before the wedding

Monife

oal22 wrote: »

You must be so excited at this stage!!!!
I always assumed alterations were included when you bought the dress. There are so many hidden costs like that which add up. Did you have any problems in getting a dress 3 months before the wedding? I keep being told i should order 6-9 before the wedding

Yeah getting quite excited now. Yeah I wish they would tell you before you try on dresses that you should add like 400euro to the price tag for veil and alterations!!

Yeah I didn't order mine, they told me it would take too long, luckily the one they had on the rack fit me and just had to be taken in a bit at the bust and obviously the length. It was perfect condition, they keep their dresses well in Baldoyle Bridal Outlet. I was in a high street Bridal shop in Dublin and the sample dresses were DISGUSTINGLY filthy, couldn't believe it.

greeneyedspirit

If you can, try and hit the sales! I got my dress in Ciara Bridal in the Powerscourt town centre back in January (wedding's in 2 months, yay!) - 300 quid, down from 1700 I think. Needs a bit of taking in at the top, but fits perfectly around the hip... Happy days And it's gorgeous of course

pixierosa

I am delighted with my dress- it was the fifth dress I tried on in the first shop I went into and it is almost like it was made for me (except for lenght) - The bridal shop only had it in 2 weeks and it was hardly tried on by anyone so it is immaculate the bridal lady offered it to me at €995 and if I was to order it would have cost €1495 - so massive saving for the dress. Have to get lenght altered prob in at €100 - Bridal shop will also get cleaned b4 i pick up for big day. disadvantage for off the rack you pay outright so I bought it Monday gone and it's now in storage in the bridal shop till fitting nxt february. I did also try on the perfect veil but at €200 - thought could make a saving there and managed to source almost exact match at €100 - sooooooooooooooooo excited:D

Clare Bear

The one I have my heart set on is over 2,000 I wish I'd found one I loved for cheaper but I've seen nothing remotely as nice as it, I have to have it. Beans on toast for me for a few months :P

Bride2012

Clare Bear wrote: »

The one I have my heart set on is over 2,000 I wish I'd found one I loved for cheaper but I've seen nothing remotely as nice as it, I have to have it. Beans on toast for me for a few months :P

I can see this happening to me too. I always seem to like the expensive stuff .

I'm starting budget and working up until I find one I love, well that's the plan. I really really don't want to go much over €1,000 for a dress.

Clare Bear

Bride2012 wrote: »

I can see this happening to me too. I always seem to like the expensive stuff .

I'm starting budget and working up until I find one I love, well that's the plan. I really really don't want to go much over €1,000 for a dress.

I know, I'd be only delighted if I saw a dress for €300 but I would have to be difficult! :rolleyes: It's so different though and I have my heart set on it now so I can't see me changing my mind. Seems like so much money for a dress that I'm going to wear once but I'm trying to justify it by saying I won't be happy in anything else! :pac:

I hate myself for spending this much though but I don't have many girlie moments and never spend much on clothes really so I can allow this.

I'm even lying to myself now! lol

Toots

Check do they have a stockist in the north, a couple of my friends did that and managed to save a couple of hundred euro. The only thing to factor in is fittings etc, so if you've to go for loads the saving might be wiped out by petrol costs.

I have just come across a shop where their dreses start from 300 euro, some beautiful bridal gowns and bridesmaids. I have been looking around for my daughter-in law to be and came across it.

Its the first bridal shop I have come across who's prices are very affordable.


http://www.magicmomentscarlow.com/

ger vallely

€250 for mine. I found a pattern,got a dressmaker and all the material for that price. It was beautiful(well I think so!)Medieval stly, draping sleeves, laced v back and hanging drop from the waist. It was 'gun blue'? and silver lining. It decorates my bedroom wall now!Art and fashion merges!

Clare Bear

Jake1 wrote: »

I have just come across a shop where their dreses start from 300 euro, some beautiful bridal gowns and bridesmaids. I have been looking around for my daughter-in law to be and came across it.

Its the first bridal shop I have come across who's prices are very affordable.


http://www.magicmomentscarlow.com/

Hmm I just saw a new Maggie Sottero dress that I was looking at recently on there for 300 euro, believe me that dress is not 300 euro! Are they knock offs?

Heineken Helen

Bride2012 wrote: »

I can see this happening to me too. I always seem to like the expensive stuff .

I'm starting budget and working up until I find one I love, well that's the plan. I really really don't want to go much over €1,000 for a dress.

I went out with a budget of £400 and came away with a £970 dress

http://www.hopedress.com/media/catalog/product/cache/1/image/ee802744c15fa57586c12b984527e7de/j/u/justin_alexander_8465_second_hand-1.jpg

But it was worth every penny. They threw in the veil too (this is standard apparently, I didn't even really have to haggle... pretty much just said 'do you throw anything in with that?' and she straight away replied 'em, a veil?'. A better deal is to get the alterations thrown in. My veil was marked £135 (but I could probably get online for much much cheaper anyway.

Anyway, the point is I now have over a grand worth of dress simply lying in the spare room :eek:

Moonbeam

Clare Bear wrote: »

Hmm I just saw a new Maggie Sottero dress that I was looking at recently on there for 300 euro, believe me that dress is not 300 euro! Are they knock offs?

Probably a sample.

eamor

if you are on a budget, and you don't mind second hand, I would HIGHLY recommend www.smartbrides.ie
My friend bought the most beautiful vintage 2 piece dress there for €299.
Yes thats right...€299 !!!!
I was there with her, the dresses are amazing... Can't think of the girls name right now, that runs it, but she is lovely. She steam cleaned the dress while we waited :D:D

Kaneda_

Im a man, so ie never had to buy a dress so i didnt spend anything.

Always number 1

I paid €500 for mine - dressmaker, material, pattern and all the fittings, alterations etc; that you could want.
If you have loads of time, you could go with www.houseofbrides.com I got my 3 bridesmaid dresses from them - genuine dessy dresses for €400 (including postage, insurance and customs) instead of €225 each

Alliandre

I got mine in the Oxfam bridal shop for €300 and it's exactly what I wanted.

watna

I got mine online with a matching jacket for $300 (about 160EUR) but it's going to need the same amount spend in alterations as well. It's a copy of a real one which was $2700NZD. I just couldn't justify paying that for it because we have so many other huge expenses (getting to our wedding alone is going to cost us $10,000) and I didn't like any other ones!

I would have preferred to get the real one but I'm happy with what I have - it's still beautiful If I was having a different kind of wedding and my circumstances were different I'd have paid the full amount, no problems!

Gatica

before I started looking I thought to myself, no more than 500. Then I went into a few bridal shops and it looked like most were over 700 anyway, so I was already gonna be going over budget...
Then I saw this fabulous dress that was pretty much what I wanted (over 2000 ). I requested a few alterations to it, such as leaving out layers of lace, which I didn't want anyway, and it brought down the price by over 500! So I highly recommend trying that if you're trying on dresses that are made to order.
They were also having a sale, so overall it ended up well below 2000, I know I went well over budget, but I'm happy with the dress I'm getting for it now.