Bride on a Budget

I would be lying if I said I didn’t want my princess moment. I have been obsessed with weddings and “say yes to the dress” for a while now. And I definitely want my “say yes to the dress” moment.

I want to try on a bunch of beautiful dresses with my mom, sister, and grandma. And I want to look in the mirror and see the reflection of all of our faces as I try on the dress that is meant for me. I want to have butterflies in my chest when I try on my dress and I want to just KNOW what it feels like to be entirely sure that that’s the one I’m getting married in.

However, I do not have the money to afford a dress at a bridal store. I don’t care where my dress is from, but I still wanted to have the experience of dress shopping.

My budget, however, is not entirely realistic for what dresses go for nowadays. My goal is to spend, at most, $200 for my dress. Expensive dresses are beautiful, but I know there are many beautiful dresses available other places, like Amazon or the thrift store. I want to look and feel beautiful, but I can’t justify spending thousands of dollars on a dress. In the end, the day is about me and my best friend getting married. He would marry me even if I was wearing a plastic bag. But, if you’re lucky, your wedding day only happens once in your life. And dressing up in a nice white dress is a tradition that I’d like to carry with me into my wedding.

So, I got brainstorming.

If you know you cannot afford a dress at an expensive bridal store, you can always have the dress shopping experience with family at a bridal store, and even look at the discount dress section, and then find your actual dress on Amazon, an online bridal store that might have cheaper prices, thrift stores, and so on! You might even be surprised by the beautiful and high quality dresses you can find for hundreds of dollars instead of thousands!

This is what I did:

I called different bridal stores in my area to see if their appointments were free (some are not). And I also asked about their discount dresses to see what I might be walking into if I chose to look at the discount dresses. The good thing is that a lot of the stores seem to have a good selection of discount dresses, from what I have heard. However, the major problem that I have found with discount dresses is that sometimes they have limited sizes. So, even if you find a dress you like, you might be walking away empty handed.

I decided that my family and I would go to a store to try dresses on. And then order a dress online! It’s a win-win because you get the experience of trying on dresses and finding what you like… and then order it online for cheaper!

I did end up finding my dress online within my budget, and when it arrived via mail I was so happy! I was a little cautious because the dress was so beautiful online and I didn’t get to try it on in person— but I was so relieved when I tried it on and it was perfect! It was everything I wanted, and it was a great quality! I can’t wait to walk down the aisle towards my fiancé and finally show him the dress I’ve been so excited about!

~Sincerely and best wishes,

A Bride on a Budget