Dress budget!!!

Yes mine was no more then £1500 and it was 1499

I fell inlove with a dress online then tried it on and really disliked it! My budget was £1300 I went into a bridal shop told the lady my budget and forbid her getting any of the rails that where above ha! The second dress i tried i fell inlove with turns out it was £200 under budget. I have no regrets

I budgeted £500 but knew I wouldn't be going to a standard bridal shop. Wasn't even going to get a "proper" wedding dress but my MOH persuaded me to try an outlet store and I fell in love with my dress. Got it for £295 and the alterations and repairs were £215 bringing total to £510 so not bad!

You should go to the shop tell them your budget and see what you can get in your budget, you never know you may find your dream dress.

Have you got over £500 of wriggle room, if not I wouldn't try it on. You could look for second hand, samples etc if you really can't get it out your head.

i hope the shopping goes well

Yep! :-)

I set myself an original budget of £300, but after visiting a few bridal shops I told myself I could stretch to £600 if I found a good off - the - peg dress. I soon realised that this wasn't going to happen so went back to my original budget. I was casually browsing the high street websites when I spotted a lovely lace dress in debenhams, so I bit the bullet and ordered it. Was a bit sceptical but when it arrived I was elated and it fit perfectly....All in all it cost £145 (thanks to an online discount code and cash back! !) Ended up £155 under budget.

Before I started looking I was thinking about £500, then I saw my dress. It was £1300! Luckily the shop had a 10% discount the weekend I went. Add on veil, hoop and shoes though and my budget was well and truly smashed! Totally worth it though. I don't regret it. If you love it and can afford it then go for it!

I had no dress budget. I'd already bought 3 dresses - the first didn't fit right, the second was lovely until I decided I wanted a white dress (this one was burgundy), so I bought a 40 quid copy from ebay. Was happy with the work it needed to fit right round the bust, but stupidly I wanted to go and play dress up. I made my first wedding dress, so didn't try any on, and having bought my ebay copy from China, I didn't need to try any on now either. But I felt I was missing out and wanted to feel what it was like wearing a 'real' dress.

So having planned every penny for the next 18 months so OH and I went almost exactly halves, and needing every last penny scrimped away, I went and fell in love with a Maggie dress (Ascher). I went in with no intention of buying anything and had to fob her off with a £600-1000 budget. I'm now desperately selling all the stuff I've squirrelled away in the loft in the hope that I can get enough together. No way on this earth could I afford the £1240, so I asked if I could by the shop copy as I knew I could get into it, so they're selling it to me for £650. Going to be interesting finding a dress budget out of nowhere now though lol.

Go and try the dress, you may find it doesn't look as good on you as it does in pictures, but if it does you could always ask if they'd sell you the shop sample. They can only say no, then you can look round sites like Preloved to see if you can find one.

I set myself a budget and refused to try anything over it. To me it just wasn't worth it. My dress actually came in a couple of hundred below my budget (before alterations) and I loved it. To me it's just not worth torturing yourself.

We have a tiny budget for the full wedding (by choice) my dress budget was £200 and I knew the only way I could do this realistically was high street, outlet bridal store, charity shop ebay.

My dress is from ebay I knew the look I wanted and knew there was no point getting hung up on any one designer , anyway £65 later I have my dream dress and with a slight alteration and dry clean came in way under budget.

It is possible to stick to a budget you have to be firm or be prepared compromise a little.

Good luck x x

I originally budgeted £300 for it, but after a little research realised just how unrealistic it was. I then increased it to £500 (still unrealistic but slightly less so). But I managed to find a gorgeous Eternity Bride sample in my size for £250. I will have to have it dry cleaned before the wedding and have alterations done, but I didn't expect to actually come in under budget!

My budget was around £500 but that was based on zero knowledge......it ended up nearer £1800 including alterations and a discount lol.

At the end of the day you do need to decide what you're comfortable spending and what you can afford. If you have some leeway then it's OK to allow yourself to spend more for the dress you want. If you have no leeway then you need to be tough with yourself. I am over the moon with my dress but if I'd had to stick to £500, I know I could have found a dress that I would be happy with. Indeed, if the shopping experience at the bridal outlet had been better, I'm sure I would have found a dress there. I would have scoured ebay and preloved more and also looked at sample sales, but a lot of this comes with the wonderful thing of hindsight!!

If you have seen a dress you like, then by all means go and try it on - to a degree you have to do this anyway, but don't allow yourself to be swayed if you can only get it for the higher price unless you can afford it and won't feel guilty after. No dress is worth feeling guilty for.

I was the same as Pammy - set myself a budget of 800 before we knew anything about how much anything costs when planning a wedding!

When I started looking at dresses I was gobsmacked to say the least! ? I literally had no idea how much an average dress cost... I thought dresses around the 2k mark were just designer, over the top things! Oh how Don't tell The Bride had duped me!! LOL

I did a little bit of research on what I liked and what I didn't, then booked an appointment to try some dresses at a bridal shop. I chose this place as I knew she had some sample dresses for sale up to approx 800... I asked not to know any of the prices as I didn't want my opinions to be skewed (I'm the kind of person who would definitely have my opinion influenced by the price!). I tried on all sorts of different styles so I knew what suited me and what didn't. Picked the one I liked and luckily it was 700 going for another try-on this Sat to make sure, then check it over (as it's a 3 y/o sample). Gutted I wasn;t more in love with the runner-up as it was only 300 quid!!

The only danger with what I did was the potential of falling in love with a dress waaaay out of my budget. But I figured if I knew the style I wanted I could look for a similar dress elsewhere, or preloved/ebay for one in my size at a much cheaper price.

Until you've tried on a couple of styles though, go in with an open mind. You might be surprised and end up going for the complete opposite of what you thought you liked!

Good luck with your search!

I set a budget and went £30 over it (and that was the p&p so I'm not too dissapointed with that!) I set a budget of £600 so thought there may have to be some compromise (not getting 'the' dress, buying second hand, dare I say it - China copy) So to get some ideas of what suited me, I went dress shopping a few weeks ago. Had 3 appointments narrowed it down to two, got the names of the dresses and looked on eBay and preloved and saw that I could get both at half the price. So went back to the shops to choose which dress and I instantly fell in love with the Maggie Sottero that I tried on. Full price the dress was £1000 plus alterations - I've negotiated with the lovely lady on eBay and managed to secure it for £629. Delivery is estimated to be Monday!

I'm a very 'excitable' B2B and can get carried away in the romance of everything - however it is worth baring in mind what else you could put £540 towards (honeymoon etc). Would you consider wearing second hand? If so, may be worth scouting around pre loved and eBay to see what prcies they are charging for it!

I thought I would spend around £800-1000. Until I fell in love with a £2.3k dress. Oops. It is amazing though.

It depends how tight your finances and budget are really - I set a budget of £800, tried on a bunch of dresses on in shops which were generally between £800 and £1600... Then decided I didn't really love any of them and I'm getting it made by a seamstress for £750

I didn't really set a budget, my dress cost £1100 + alterations and accessories. Just get what you can afford without getting into debt!

Thanks everyone, I keep going from being sensible and staying at my budget to thinking sod it lol. X

Dangerous words 'sod it' - that way leads to going over budget by very large amounts, debt after the wedding and big regret later.

Keep that budget in mind and don't go over it! My advice therefore, don't try the dress on - walk away, pretend it doesn't exist ooorrrrr have a look on preloved sites or ebay for a second-hand one.

I went shopping for my dress on my own...didn't have a budget really but had been thinking to myself that £500 on a dress that you would wear for 1 day was scandalous. I went to the shop and was completely amazed as I thought that dresses that were £1k+ must be designer. Here I am a few months later having spent £1600 on just the dress but I know that it's the dress I want. It was way over my budget and I have saved and saved to have what I want and have nearly paid for it. I guess it's about finding your limit and I still can't believe that I've spent so much on a dress. I think when you start planning for a wedding you have to decide what your priorities are and for me one of the priorities was feeling happy and confident in my dress...we've probably let some other things go that many other people would have thought was important. If I'd have found the same dress for £20 in the sale at somewhere I still would have bought it as I know it's the dress for me.

I originally said I couldn't justify spending more then £600 on a dress is wear once. When I started looking I forgot to look at prices first. After falling in love with my dress I totally justified spending £1000 on a dress I'll only wear once haha x

Honestly, if £800 is your budget then don't ask to see any over that price. Don't torture yourself. If you've got wiggle room then so be it!