23 April 2009

the sensible bride.


Okay, so, I might be flogged for this, but as I've said before...this is my blog. So, deal. I am not getting married (already am) nor do I know anyone who is soon, but I have strong opinions about weddings and marriage. This particular opinion I want to share with you today was sparked by a post on Design Mom, as seen here. It got me thinking about the ridiculous lengths women will go to in order to get the wedding dress of "their dreams". Call me crazy, but I think anything over $750 is insane! Probably even $500. My own wedding dress was $220 and I thought that was steep, and I didn't even pay for it. I feel this way for several reasons. I will list them to make it easier on all of my loyal readers:

1. You only wear your wedding dress ONCE! Uh, hello, ONCE! Did you all get that? ONCE!

2. Unless you have a large dispensible income, you really have no business buying a $1000plus gown. Ask yourself this, do you give that much to charity per year? If the answer is no, then skip the desinger dress and be realistic. Remember, you will only wear it ONCE.

3. When you are at a wedding, do you think you could really and truly tell if a dress cost $100 or $2100? I would say 97% of the time the answer is no. Not to mention, aside from the fact that no one can tell, no one really cares how much you spent.

4. If you must spend gobs of money on clothing, save your thousands and buy something really practical, like, designer jeans or a timeless leather bag. Something you will surely get your money's worth out of.

5. Finally (because I promised to limit my reasons to 5), there are just way too many affordable opitons these days when it comes to wedding gowns. I have included pictures above, and below are all of the links.

And, believe it or not, you can go dress shopping with your head AND your heart. Really.


The dresses above all came from j.crew, Target, Nordstrom, and Dillard's. They range in price from $45.00 (no lie) to $695.00 (wowza, that's a lot of dough). Happy hunting!

ps Can you tell that I am not a HUGE fan of strapless dresses?

Here comes the bride!

9 comments:

  1. I couldn't agree more. People spend way too much on dresses these days. My dress was "recycled" using my grandmother's dress from the 1940's. I had to have a dress custom-made for me anyways, so using an old dress was a great way to save money. And I loved it! Oh, but I do have to add that I have worn it more than once. I put it on again at least once a month and do a couple twirls :)

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  2. And I'm also pretty sure my dress will be the favorite "dress-up" dress when I have a little girl. I used to work at a preschool, and at the end of the year I would bring in all of my prom, homecoming, and bridesmaids dresses for them to play dress-up. That was, by far, their favorite day of the year.

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  3. Could not have said better myself! Not to mention when you have a day wedding and evening reception (like me) we had so much fun all day and my dress was (still is) a mess, but it looked beautiful in all the pics. I was comfortable and loved it! It was the dress of my dreams! I think for the veil and dress and alterations it ws under $600.00!!!! It was also a classic dress that I think my girls could wear if they wanted to at there wedding (I should probably get it cleaned) I loved it!!!!! I think we should totally go dress shopping jsut for fun one day!!!!!
    Mrs. Lewis

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  4. ok, ok i completely AGREE! so much build up and money spent for just one day. if people put half as much time and effort into their marriages as their weddings and finding the perfect dress we wouldn't have all the divorces we do (hey, speaking from experience). i can proudly say that i too had a classic dress and with the veil and alterations i believe spent less than 450.00.

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  5. oh and by the way.... i vote we totally do a friends day where we wear our dresses and eat ice cream while watching movies!

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  6. juli, too funny. i myself twirled in mine several times before having it boxed and cleaned. and how awesome to bring the kiddos your old dresses. NICE! sounds soooooo fun!
    mrs.lewis, i loooooooved your dress. very audrey hepburn.
    anon-is that you jilly-bean? reveal yourself!

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  7. Amen.

    I found a nice dress on the "reduced" rack and used a coupon that I had gotten at a bridal show. It was $225. Plus, at my family weddings, most the guests are too drunk to even notice what you are wearing (right Mrs. Lewis?).

    But, back to topic, I agree that it is very possible to feel like a princess and be financially responsible.

    Mrs. Jarrett

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  8. yes, it was me. i forgot to put my name.

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  9. Amen sister! I frequently referred to myself as the anti-bride:) My mom had to remind me several times to buy a dress.... whch turned out to be very special in that my mom had been saving money from my grandma Tillie(her mom) to put towards it. Oh and by the way... I wore mine twice... once in jamaica and once for the STL reception...still not a reason to spend thousands..
    p.s. I was in a wedding this summer in which the bride spent $6,0000...can you say WTF?

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