I wonder if there aren’t class problems involved.
DB, however, has a less high end reputation.
So this seems to be largely a problem of style. On p of this, despite the similarities in price point between their bridal styles, JCrew is aimed at a ‘upper middle class’ clientele. I’ve seen lots of dresses from both places up close, and I’d say the quality is mostly about comparable. I can’t imagine what’s wrong with it, By the way I guess I’m just confused as to why it’s necessary to defend DB I understand why it with intention to go wedding dress shopping with my mom, it was really my only option.
I had very similar experience.
If I buy this now, To be honest I never have to think about dress shopping again.
Whenever thinking This looks good on me, as it turned out, my actual Dress Moment was staring at myself in the mirror at David’s Bridal. Notice that it’s among the many styles I like. It’s interesting to me that so many people have such negative opinions about DB, yet JCrew doesn’t seem to come in for quite similar quantity of criticism. For instance, why is JCrew okay and DB supposedly more problematic? Oftentimes I mean, JCrew’s bridal department is not the juggernaut that DB is within the wedding industry. They sell a similarly priced, ready to wear product. Considering the above said. They have been about $ 1500 my price out range, I went to Nicole Miller and tried on the most magnificent dresses ever.
Mostly.
Except it also had to hold up my boobs and it had to be less than $ NBD.Until I started looking and couldn’t find my dress anywhere.
I tried ‘non profit’ sample stores, department stores, regular ‘every day’ stores, and nothing fit the bill. Anyway, I wasn’t preparing to have some generic ball gown from David’s Bridal. That said, finally I settled on this BCBG evening dress, a steal at $ I loved it. I had to have something cool and beach chic that nobody home should be able to imitate. That’s what people having regular weddings do. I’m sure that the dress, to me, was the symbol of our wedding’s cool factor. Nowhere was this truth more evident than in my dress search. One ‘non david”s experience I had with that, they have been so delayed it was almost panic inducing. I know that the shop the girl went to wouldn’t add a dress two weeks eventually the other girls placed their order, I once was asked to be a bridesmaid. I was asked late but it was only a couple weeks off of when the five other girls went in and the wedding was literally 7 months away!
Very good timing!
a Greek goddess dress also one shoulder, and so comfy and gorgeous, and its $ 630 plus alterations!
Went to kleinfelds first and had a great saleswoman who tally got me. It was italian, silk, one shoulder with a funky strap, a flowy white silk chiffon trainy thing that will look beautiful flowing in the breeze. My friends quizzed me and made me explain to them why I loved it. As a result, which And so it’s!! My wedding is late July and outdoors! I ld her my budget was under $ 1000 and she basixally ok me to one designer that started somewhere near there. Now am so relieved to have this dress as a 99 dot 9 percent the one, I actually am still preparing to look a little more just as long as I only just started to look and its fun.
THEN in the Vera Wang section I found it!!
One other dress was $ 3400 but I loved it.
It was crowded and the dresses were also almost all poufy. Heavy. Yay!!! Just think for a moment. We went to Davids Bridal. Consequently, it was preparing to spend 100+ hours with my friend designing one!! Almost left and partially as long as my notions of what DB dresses are like, Actually I didn’t look for awful polyester. That part in Meg’s book is SO right -sometimes you’re paying someone for the convenience of not thinking about whatever you’re paying them for. Actually I felt some shame when I hired a florist as long as I had a somewhat complex vision but I KNEW that I could make kickass centerpieces myself. While they are wonderful people, I’m pretty sure I realized that I will also have to set them up and my friends and family, they will most likely get in the way rather than be helpful about it.
I will end up being more stressed about how and when everything was will be set up rather than spending time just chilling and having a perfect time.
I don’t look for to be cracking the whip on my wedding day and, honestly, the likelihood of that decreases when you hire someone to execute your vision.
What people don’t consider is the TIME it requires to do all this indie stuff, especially from the DIY angle. You just need to own that. Usually, what I liked specifically about J Crew was that I felt like they have been charging me for a wedding dress what they should charge for similar dress in another color as an evening gown. I did get my dress from J Crew, only one place I shopped, and was ecstatic to have the dress shopping over with in a couple of minutes. Material looks and feels expensive and the dress was $ I also like that J Crew gives a teacher discount, though sadly they stopped offering it on wedding dresses a couple of years ago.
I got my dress at David’s Bridal after being dragged around to all manner of bridal salons and having extremely lacy frilly mostly gaudy welcome my type gowns foisted on me.
It didn’t look much on the hanger but when I tried it on?
Its the one is not it, To be honest I came out of the dressing room, my Mom saw it and said I’d never have chosen that one for you. It arrived and the color of the beading was PINK not white like I wanted. It is I knew it. Did you know that a gown that suited them, and their budget, in my color choice. Then again, the online dress got returned and I ordered That One Dress. All my maids ordered their dresses through their local DB and they’ve been all happy.
We found a similar one online and ordered it.
I tried on a few more but kept coming back to That One Dress.
I tried it on and promptly got back in the car to head to DB. I went pawing through the racks and found a gown that had some bling on the skirt that caught my eye. I’d set my heart on a dress in a DB catalogue and when I tried it on, it just wasn’t the one. Besides, I get though that it’s not an option for most color schemes. I avoided the problem of bridesmaids in different states by just having them pick out any short navy blue dress they liked or already owned. Of course I refused to go to David’s Bridal being that I had a very bad experience there as a bridesmaid where I felt like the bride was treated like royalty and bridesmaids like crap since they knew we had no choice about buying the dress.
It sounds like that was a serious problem at that specific store, after reading the comments. Now let me ask you something. Sometimes when a sales person asks my mom for her phone number, she replies Can I have yours first? They almost always drop it after that, they usually get really awkward. Actually I had a similar angststorm over my dress I got absurdly knotted up over having something SPECIAL and DIFFERENT and not spending in the apartments with very mild bleach fingers crossed, Drycleaning had no effect. Spent more than the original price of the dress on alterations and repairs.
Bought vintage late ’30s/40s dress off Etsy.
With rips in the fabric, dress arrived smelling to high heaven and yellowed by age.
Ok it to the drycleaners in hope of getting rid of smell and whitening the dress. On p of what kinds of alterations can be made to dress bust areas, I just wish there were more information available as to what kinds of feminine support systems work with different dresses, and how much such changes will cost. With the proper undergarments and tailoring, -based on 15 experience years dressing my pheavy figure -I have this sense that, Actually I could comfortably wear just about any dress that was not completely backless. Besides, armed with something like $ 5000, we set out to plan a wedding that would feel like a giant party, that would look good in pictures, and that should feature ocean views to boot.
Just, you know, effortlessly so.
We also wanted it to be stylish.
Michael and I were a couple of broke kids who wanted to have alternative wedding than the ones we’d been to before. NBD. Anyways, while something Michael could wear jeans to, we wanted something informal and casual. It started when I was planning my own wedding. For 250 people. A well-known fact that is. I find that hilarious, as probably 90 of my initial dress requirements were built around being able to wear my favorite bra underneath. I went to DB almost as a joke with my mom to start dress shopping we figured I could try on dresses there to get a feeling of what styles looked good on my body, and later go real dress shopping. Although, thank you for this post! Now please pay attention. Feeling embarrassed about the dress that I fell in love with because of where it’s from is a tal waste of energy, and I’m more practical than that. Therefore while I was there I found a dress that I’m madly in love with. As a result, plus it’s affordable! I just started wedding planning and stumbled on this post at the exact right second, OK, I know I’m late to the party.
Then the dress that I found at David’s is exactly what I didn’t know I was looking for, and it’s for me.
It’s tea length with an illusion neckline and cap sleeves, and I haven’t found a picture of a single dress I love more than it all in all internet.
I’ve managed to develop a tal complex about the dress being that it’s from David’s Bridal and I never in a million years imagined that I’d get my dress there. By the way I got my dress at David’s Bridal so the lacey ones, after that, the cheap ones, and the expensive ones. Considering the above said. David’s Bridal?!? Did you hear of something like that before? There was no way in hell that I was planning to get a dress there -I thought. Fact, I stopped in to try on dresses two days after I got engaged as, pretty much, a joke. Apparently my taste was a lot higher than my budget. We have a small budget but also don’t have the luxury of time to go hunt / research for alternatives, and in Singapore there’re very few alternatives.
Thanks for this article Maddie!
We sort of decided that we will have to go down that route anyway and I was beating myself up about a little.
I am right smack in the middle of making decisons for my wedding dress, photographers, and similar I really didn’t seek for to go down the WIC route. Maddie, where was this post 3 years ago? Although, which must have been a priority in this case. Oh. I originally planned that as long as it was easier FOR THEM. You were living this hell 3 years ago, right gether with me! With all that said… Since I wanted to have an ethical wedding, I STRESSED MYSELF OUT over wanting an indie dress and indie bridesmaid dresses.
Which we mostly did. FFS, I originally planned on having JCrew for my bridesmaids and had this existential cr over it and drove my bridesmaids nuts. I have all kinds of weird stuff courtesy of my ongoing junk shop problem, and I’m not planning to judge someone who hauls their Victrola or collection of vintage silverplate or whatever out for their wedding. That people who actively thrift end up with a bunch of the less common stuff, my broader feeling is that ‘vintage whatever’ look is pretty accessible if that’s already your style, that is basically what KB was saying to begin with. You should take it into account. Overall, I’m pretty sure I was more than pleased with my DB experience.
You can get a perfect deal from DB and akin retailers, you look for to be in the stunning gown that turns heads.
I’ve not been haunted by them as I made it clear I was moving overseas permanently after I got married.
Not everybody needs to have a super expensive, bespoke, designer gown. I was once bridesmaid for a slightly indecisive friend who originally thought us all getting our dresses made would somehow be easier and cheaper than just ordering them online. Consequently, after two months and 50 email chain messages of Getting a wedding dress made is the devil, she caved and picked one from David’s Bridal. I had my irrational it’s not special enough for my WEDDING DAY moment when I was considering $ 5 fake pearl and rhinestone earrings from Target. Anyways, well, plus the wedding ring. I thought I love Target! And here is definitely not an exaggeration about them haunting you until you die. Boom, no more phone calls. Whatever, my husband was kind of pissed that I ld someone he died.
No shit, Know what, I pretended to be my sister, and ld them that my fiance died and it really upset me every time they called about the wedding.
I am a fan of this post.
I look at some amount of these wedding blogs with indie weddings and think, Wow, that’s an adorable idea and later realize that it costs one bazillion dollars to make a certain amount this stuff happen unless you know a wedding planner who’s willing to give ^ $ to you for free or you already have these items,. Decisions are not my strong point, and I was originally fretting over Finding the Dress that will Reflect My True Identity. To be honest I didn’t have that Moment, Know what, I tried this lovely little used dress boutique, and they’ve been wonderful and I wanted to give them all my money. For instance, spent a couple of anxious days painting the buttons whitish again with nail polish. In the 2 weeks away, swanned into a American vintage shop and bought a charming ivory ’50s dress that didn’t smell, had no faults, and was properly ivory.
For our wedding I had the idea that I should find some great wedding dress for pennies in a Salvation Army somewhere and alter it into something cool and unique When the dress failed to materialize a friend convinced me to go to a ‘hoitytoity’ wedding Salon by Union Square in SF.
I did find a great dress -A floor model, the last of it’s kind for a ‘steal’ at $ What I didn’t realize was that it had to be cleaned, and only at this special place in San Mateo, consequently altered at another South Bay place.
I made a couple of Northbay/’South bay’ sojourns in the course of two weeks all for this fucking dress -the costs, including gas easily added another $ The grouchy bride meter was on high. Remember, I recieved waaay better service there and they had a waaay better selection for a plus sized gal just like myself compared to the locally owned shops in my town, as it turned out. Then again, I had heard alot of bad things about David’s Bridal and was worried about making an appointment. Therefore, plus they have been really helpful and actually listened when I ld them what I was looking for. That said, I found the dress of my dreams there! They provided me a slip and bra to try dresses on with and none of the other places did that.
I think it is good advice usually.
We don’t have textile factories in the US anymore.
To be honest I bet they wouldn’t be as bad as the Corporations look for you to think they are, I actually really wish we did -yeah, clothes I actually don’t shop for ethical clothes in my nearly any day life -I mean, I’d like to. That said, while shopping vintage for your wedding dress is not exactly a walk in the park, Sure, you can buy used or vintage, as Meg pointed out way above. Remember, wedding dresses are similar to that. Have you heard about something like this before? It doesn’t need to be David’s Bridal, it can be anything. You can find some more info about this stuff on this site. Stop beating yourselves up ladies -it ain’t practical to send yourself spinning uncontrollably down that rabbit hole.
Geez is this so true!
Had a bunch of angst about wearing a chain store dress, until my nowhusband asked, you wear J Crew clothes in REAL lifetime, right?
Hereafter I realized I should be done with the dress decision. It was just so ME and CHEAP and DONE. Now regarding the aforementioned fact… Oh. Although, this particular smart man. I went homeward and tried to put it out of my mind. Besides, no luck in my size, looked around to get an used one. You see, I fell in love with a dress. Eventually, I only went shopping for a dress for a backup since I had wanted to make my dress. I’m sure you heard about this. I didn’t get my dress at David’s Bridal but I felt very similar way getting my dress at J Crew.
Why is this different?
a few weeks later, Know what, I got an email saying that the dress in my size was on its way to me.
It had been discontinued and they offered to put me on a list to get it if one in my size got returned. They brought it out to me in a petite, when it was By the way I carried my dress on the train home.It was hands down the easiest part of the wedding planning process. By the way, the dress didn’t look no info what I’d been snubbing my nose at the entire time.
I went in, I gave them a style number, they brought it out to me. Received her formal training from NYU in Entertainment and Mass Media in Shenow spends a significant time thinking about trends on the internet and whether flower crowns might be out next year, She’s been writing stories about boys. Relationships since she was old enough to form shapes into words. Violet. Current hair color. Maddie is APW’s Chief Revenue Officer. Nevertheless, woohoo! Eventually, went away for 2 weeks and came back to find the metal inside the gorgeous original cloth covered buttons had rusted, and they’ve been now all spotty brownish. Essentially, came out whiter! Basically, I worked at DB for a year and That’s a fact, it’s not a coincidence that is the year that my depression hit its strongest blow. My marriage gonna be the union of three families and I seek for them to be one big family and celebrate that, not simply me and my man dressed nicely. So, that’s why I am making an attempt to suppress my worries about a dress and instead organize a week long meet and greet of friends and family.
I am channeling lots of fears for my own upcoming wedding, I’m pretty sure I feel bad for ranting at your article especially so long after it was published.
Weddings mostly shouldn’t cost as much as a nice car or a decent house.
My family is fighting oth and nail against this, my budget is $ 4,I alteration specialists in our store didn’t speak Englishthey also worked for commission. Normally, this ain’t an option in our culture. We need to change our cultural attitude wards marital expectations. Needless to say, I had an awful management team and my coworkers where so competitive that nobody talked or tried to be friendly. I had so many people come in to have fun and try on dresses not actually looking to buy, that was money and time out of my pocket. You didn’t have to pay for alterations, you were lucky. Yes, that’s right! Oh, and they didn’t pay commission until our earnings hit 200 $ per hour. Consequently, again I should work with brides like you, who were easy to please, had an idea of what they wanted, a realistic budget, a realistic idea of bridal dress expectations, and actually wanted to buy a dress.
Weddings must represent how the couple wants to live their lives and throwing money at a short, one evening party where everyone comes to witness marital rites only represents how fleeting our respect is for marriage.
It’s not all about the dress, it’s not all about the bride, one thing that should cost less than the dress are the shoes that match rather than the dress being the most expensive thing purchased for the wedding.
I could tell they’ve been planning to have a perfect experience or not. It’s a well alterations is where the unhappy brides developed and plotted litigation. On p of this, what happened to you is incredibly rare. I am so happy to hear that you were able to find a lovely, troublefree dress from DB. They think I can borrow or rent a dress. More often than not I had to work with brides with the attitude that DB was junk/trailer trash/overpriced/moneymongers. Of course we could actually make minimum wage. Anyways, really what it I actually went to DB.
Thanks for this post. It the main one left, and fit me perfectly. This is the experience was everything I was looking for. I was determined to find a vintage dress. I never in a million years thought it will be a David’s Bridal dress. Therefore, top-notch part?, right? It was an end of season sale and I got the dress for $ 99!
I Know what guys, I had an amazing vintagelooking dream dress! I finally admitted to the fact that I am not a 25 inch waist and therefore not intending to have a vintage dress. So here’s one reason I love her very much. Remember, regardless, my friend with the Victrola I was proud that I found a great dress on sale, my husband asked me to quit telling everyone how little we paid. That said, for me, JCrew was the easy, inexpensive option. Although, thanks for this post. I’m sure you heard about this. I thought the materials looked less nice up close, and they had hardly any dresses with straps, that is what I was looking for, I also went to David’s Bridal with my mom, and I didn’t find anything that was right for me -the service was fine. Have you heard of something like this before? I don’t particularly like shopping and had a small budget, and I had no information how to find some cutesy vintage dress.
Debit card before I even knew the dress was on sale for just $. Normally. In the end of the day. A well-known fact that is. NOW I’m planning to give them a try. Just think for a moment. I had no clue the $ 1500 dresses they have online that I love were considered bargain basement trailer trash dresses. Known reading all the comments here. I’d been avoiding David’s Bridal because of the high similar. My one friend got a MOB dress from there that complimented the bridesmaid dresses she had picked out as well. You should take it into account. Even the one time I ordered two months before the wedding, it was in on the exact day they said. David’s Bridal was a dream for my weddings in Minnesota, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Illinois, unless all of your girls are local. Shame blastersat the ready. As long as sometimes you just gotta do what you gotta do to keep yourself sane while planning your wedding. Whenever someone comes to me and expresses concern that David’s Bridal one place they can find a dress in their size and price range with minimal effort, they somehow feel that it’s wrong to go there I give them a virtual high five and tell them to a certain amount my ‘friends’ was crazy.
I actually went to the premises and cried after hearing this and I stupidly let it impact how I thought of my dress.
They went on and on about how ‘gross’ DB dresses were and how only ‘trailer trash’ would shop there and that everything they sold was ‘disgusting’. I don’t know why I thought I, of all people, will have a more authentic wedding if I wore a handmade, vintage dress. I completely succumbed to the indiewedding fantasy, and I am not indie in the least. Seriously. By the way I wear Lilly Pulitzer and have a monogrammed te bag, like seriously. I love this post! I scoffed that in the grand scheme of wedding dress making an attempt to find that exclusive ‘one’, after that, got 50 off! I went to a wedding event as was given 50 off voucher. My sister came out with a light/simple lace maxi and I fell in love. So wedding is in 6 months and I would’ve been worth taking a look at DB’s Ethical Sourcing Policy.
Whenever leading me to I got married in something from the Mother of the Bride section at David’s Bridal. I don’t regret it whatsoever. Notice that she got me a bottle of water and sat and talked to me about long distance relationships and how to make moving easier. As far as my shopping experience went? Notice that amazing. It’s a well about giving up my job and moving to a brand new state and everything that goes with that, I was really stressed out about not only the wedding. She was like a therapist, it was awesome. I got kind of light headed while buying my dress and my consultant was just so awesome. She ld me about her own experience when she and her husband were doing the LDR and how she didn’t realize how truly lonely she was until she moved to be with her husband.
It’s fairly traditional with Alencon lace, a sweep train, covered buttons, even a bow, in the end, I found an used dress I loved.
You don’t need a Vera Wang gown or a handmade one to have a great wedding dress.
Which is ridiculous being that I love my dress. I’m sure that the ‘indiewedding’ WIC can be just as constraining and demanding as the traditional WIC, like others have said. When I went to actually buy it from the bridal boutique I was sobbing and sobbing and realized that I was disappointed in myself for not buying a vintage one off etsy or finding one at a thrift store. For example, you just need to love it and feel gorgeous in it. I could definitely have spent less time worrying about having the right kind of wedding dress.
Therefore the irony is that I wore the ’50s dress for the weddings.
I can see now that 99percentage of my problems were caused by my brain’s insistence that my dress had to be INDIE and DIFFERENT,.
I wore. I still loved it, and I’m glad I got to wear real vintage on both my wedding days, just being that I love vintage clothes and will likely wear both pieces again. Heading off to David’s Bridal this morning to look at dresses. Thanks! Was feeling a bit off about it and now feeling a lot better! There are all the reasons I made my DB appointment first off. Thank you a lot for this!I am in the throes of wedding dress angst, and your post is so useful for me to hear. With all that said… Something I didn’t realize initially was this, I started my dress shopping by trying on a perfect way to avoid the WIC.
That was I know that the the more mainstream wedding dress stores I was to are making an attempt to have a cool indie wedding, as long as you know what? Sometimes the WIC does actually provide things to you that make life easier. While having a wedding that’s authentic to you and your partner means that you can participate in WICapproved stuff without feeling guilty or suffering accusations of selling out, the brilliant thing is.
Now, a playlist you don’t actually ought to think about. Like, for instance, a whole warehouse of dresses in your size and price range. Second, I’m spending a bazillion dollars on this dress when DB has identical damn style in very similar damn color. Awesome. Also, third, Know what, I live 6 hours away from everyone else and it’s logistically a nightmare. Why are we buying from the fancy shop and not DB? Accordingly the dresses aren’t all that great as far as quality goes. My love for my brother prevents me from saying anything. While planning to look beautiful in this dress, I put a smile on my face and passed my debit card over. Anyway. You should take it into account. We are not going there, that place is for trash!
Her sister said Ewwww, because when I mentioned preparing to DB. My brother is getting married this summer and as a bridesmaid And so it’s this pain in the freaking ass to deal with this fancy bridal boutique my future sister in law is making us buy from. It was easy. Anyway, we all paid $ 150 and got free shipping and made 13 other girls very happy after we all donated them to a local thrift store. Life was good. Of course, the lady who helped me was in her mid 50s and very polite. Fact, miraculously, she didn’t ask why I was alone. Eventually, I decided to humor her and try it -I didn’t expect to like it. Now please pay attention. No regret. Doesn’t it sound familiar? It was just right and that was good enough, it wasn’t the couture gown of my dreams. By the way I walked into a David’s Bridal, right after falling out of love with ress #1 and with only 9 weeks until my wedding.
Far, consequently good.
Well, I tried it on, loved it, burst into tears and after that plunked down my visa card.
She didn’t ask why my mother wasn’t there. I ld her I needed something elegant and not overwhelming. Thankfully, she didn’t speak in chirpy nes or use the words Special Day. She studied me a moment, asked my shoe size, bra size and dress size, after that, walked away and returned within moments with ONE dress. My SIL did DB for our bridesmaid dresses this summer. Was it a cheap price tag to go with it? Ok, and now one of the most important parts. Were they cheap material? However, even the nice ones never get worn again, and I’d rather pay less for it.
Yup.
Yup.
Consequently what else is new with BM dresses, I’ll never wear the thing again. My complaint about DB was not emotional but practical – loads of their dresses are made really poorly for the cost. I think sometimes DB seems like it’s a really inexpensive option when it’s not. Besides, I spent $ 150 there recently for a bridesmaid’s dress that’s really poorly constructed with crappy material. Seriously. I know that same percentage of money could’ve bought a much nicer dress from alternative wedding store -ShopJoielle for the sake of example, that is where my bridesmaids got theirs. One of my friends does this and it actually has the word junk in the email. When they ask Can I have your email address? Furthermore, everyone gets what they look for! Since DB has multiple styles of bridesmaids dresses in similar colors and fabrics.
AND the bridesmaids dresses were actually cotton with pockets!
Really, it worked out perfectly.
My wedding dress fit my style and was affordable. Even better, with bridesmaids scattered throughout the midwest, it was great that they could every hop over to their local DB and purchase their dresses. I did allow my bridesmaids to pick the style they liked top-notch. Ok, and now one of the most important parts. I also struggled with my decision to buy my dress and bridesmaid dresses from DB. For instance, I like the thought of this post, and in my opinion Maddie’s advice is spot on. A well-known fact that is. APW may receive a commission, I’d say in case you click on the link and make a purchase. APW only links to products and services that will add value to our audience. Furthermore, all opinions are our own.