Weddings on a Budget: Attire

As my friends and family know, I am planning a wedding. It has been quite an interesting experience in the midst of the biggest economic crash since 1929, but hunting around for a beautiful wedding within our budget has actually been pretty fun particularly since we are going against the current trend of $22,000 weddings.

So, lately I have been spending lots of time shopping for my wedding dress. This purchase has taken on a near legendary stature. For me personally, I love clothing, designing, traditions, and a bohemian spin. At first I wanted to design and make my own wedding dress, but upon calmer reflection, realized that I would be peeling the paint off the walls with my fingernails if I tried that all by myself. So to the shops. First, shopping for the dress confirmed for me how little I like bridal boutiques. You have two or three people yammering to you that you should have ordered your dress two months ago while gushing that when you see the One you'll Know. Excuse me, are we talking about the groom here or the dress? There is only one of my groom in the world. He is irreplaceable and him I must have. A white dress is not quite so desperately limited. I love beautiful clothes, and because I have had the pleasure of working at costume shops around lovely garments, I have realized that there are dozens of dresses that would look equally spectacular on me. I shopped and found gorgeous diaphanous things that made me feel celestial: Demetrio's, Priscilla of Boston, Maggie Sottero, Pronovias, all beautiful. All for the mere cost of anywhere between $900 and $3,500. Now, wedding budgeteers say that the wedding attire (this includes the groom's attire as well) should be around 10% of the entire budget. So if I bought the very cheapest gown, add all other gament costs and Sean's attire that would make our budget somewhere around $15,800.

So, no Bridezilla boutiques for me, please. I likewise am not a huge fan of the synthetic fabrics at David's Bridal. I also pretty quickly nixed the idea of buying a used wedding dress as I want no bad dress karma, and I continued to search for another option. Dawn, my matron of honor told me about this place called ARIAdress. The company makes simple, unembellished patterns and you can choose to have the dress made of cotton eyelet, silk shantung, Duchess satin, silk satin or silk taffeta. The cost of a dress runs somewhere from $145 to $435 which is precisely the right cost for many bridal budgets right now. They ship out a sample dress for the cost of $15 (you cover shipping it back) for you to see if it is something you like and then go from there. I examined the dresses for quality and their simple designs are lined and well stitched. They seem to be a very good option. There are three stores in the nation, and this link to their contact info: http://www.ariadress.com/contact.htm. I have decided whether I will be going with them, but I am happy to know of their existence. If anyone has any experience with them please share it.