The Perfect Wedding Dress - on a Tight Budget

In a perfect world, we would all get married and not have to worry about how much money we spend. The reality is much different. If you are planning your wedding on a tight budget, you can still afford an absolutely stunning wedding dress and still pay for the other wedding expenses. You clearly can't just blow your entire wedding budget on the dress, but you don't really have to, if you know what you are doing.

First, create a budget and decide how much money you have to spend on your entire wedding. Then break that amount down into by item. This way, when you go shopping for your dress, you will know how much money you can spend, and still be able to afford everything else you will need. This is especially important because so often, people want to shop for your dress before everything else. Don't fall into that trap.

Next, shop around for the best prices on wedding dresses. There are many places that you can look, local retailers that sell wedding apparel, as well as many online merchants as well. Your goal is to find the perfect dress for you, at a price you can afford.

Believe it or not, you can often find beautiful wedding dresses at terrific prices at your local Goodwill or similar thrift stores. This is a great way to get a pricey designer dress for a truly terrific price, and no one has to know where your dress came from, unless you feel inclined to tell them. If you happen to live in Los Angeles, try going to the Hollywood Boulevard Thrift Stores or Ventura Avenue Thrifts. You will be amazed what you will find.

If you don't live in Los Angeles, then pick the most upscale neighborhood zip code in your area and find the thrift stores in that area.

The other place to look for great wedding dresses is by calling Broadway or Off Broadway Playhouses and ask if they will lend you or sell you one of their character wedding dresses. Also try the movie sets if you live near one. Many of these sets will be happy to let you choose from their hundreds of costumes and wedding dresses.

Once you've found a dress at a bargain price, take it to a tailor and alter it, or fit it accordingly. You might want to add or remove certain parts of the dress that don't appeal to you. The best tailors for the best prices are often Asian tailors that include Filipinos, Japanese or Chinese. You can walk down the aisle confident and knowing that you paid next to nothing for your beautiful dress and no one will know the difference.

If the above idea won't work for you, you can also try shopping at bridal shops when they are having seasonal clearance sales. If you can find a dress that was leftover from the previous season that you like, you can often negotiate a really good deal.

If you start shopping early enough, you may find that some of your local bridal stores have options that will allow you to layaway the dress you want, and make biweekly payments on it until it is paid for. This is often a great way to stretch your budget, and maybe get a more expensive dress, without cutting into other resources.

Another great way to save money is to buy a used dress from the classified ads or yard sales, and then have it altered. You can even have bead work added, change the length, add sleeves, etc., to truly make the dress your own. If you get a perfect dress for $30 or less, you can afford to basically change it however you see fit. This works really well if you or someone you know has the ability to do alterations and modifications, as you often only end up having to buy the supplies needed to make the changes and not the labor.

You may also not have to worry about the problem at all, as you may choose to wear your mother or grandmother's wedding dress, to carry on a family tradition. You may need to have some alterations or repairs done, but this is the ultimate way to save money on your wedding dress.

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