My daughter is getting married in July and we are planning her wedding and, as her parents, we are choosing to pay for it. Last month, I shared some helpful tips on selecting a venue on a budget. Read part one of our story here. This post covers the dress and cupcakes.
The dress. 
I feel like there should be some seriously dramatic music playing when talking about the wedding dress. However, since this is print, please use your imagination. May I suggest “Heart of Courage” by Two Steps From Hell.
One of the things my daughter and I kept hearing about the dress is that it can take the longest to find so start looking and trying on right away. Talk about giving you stress! Sheesh, what happens if we don’t find it right away?
There are numerous options for the wedding dress. You can rent it. I know a lot of people freak out at that thought; I get that this is a pretty special dress. Yet, have you checked our Facebook marketplace lately? Dresses, galore! Besides renting, of course, there is used. Concerned about a used dress? Cleaning is generally about $50-$75 and alterations can run a lot more depending on how much has to be done. Borrowing is an option, but that is even harder for sources. Any dress can be taken to a good seamstress that can help fit, modify, and update a dress. Lastly, you can purchase outright in-store or online. I have seen numerous videos of try-on dresses from Amazon and other online retailers. My sister-in-law bought her future daughter-in-law’s dress online for less than $180. They had to give very detailed measurements and, when it arrived, other than needing a good pressing, it fit extremely well. I was really surprised; the dress was just as described.
For my daughter, we decided to go to a local bridal shop and let her try on dresses within the budgeted amount. We set a rule, first and foremost, to stick to trying on dresses with our budget. Generally, the bridal shop will guide you to dresses within your price range and this is helpful. Our plan was to try some on to see what style she liked best. Then we would expand our search and, if needed, travel to Salt Lake or Boise to look for more dresses.
To start, she picked out three dresses, all different styles. The first dress was ok but fit weird and didn’t even put a smile on her face. The second dress was stunning and she came out lit up and grinning. I knew then that we were done. That’s my daughter: she doesn’t want to try lots of clothes, just wants to find what she loves and be done. She did that with the dress; she didn’t even try the third dress on. We added a veil and boom! that’s all she needed. Decision made. The dress fit perfectly, no alterations needed unless her shoes are not high enough. The best part was the cost was not even half of what we budgeted for. The veil was $55 less than the dress. She had chosen a rack dress, so nothing to order, and will just need a quick press/steam the day before or so. So we saved half of the dress budget! Total time in the dress shop: less than 35 minutes and that included the time it took to swipe the card. My daughter can be scarily efficient if she wants to be.
The dreaded finding a dress was the easiest part.
As a side note, my daughter did the exact same thing on the wedding cake! She and her fiance chose the cake in one appointment. They chose a fairly simple design with only two layers, and it comes with four dozen mini cupcakes. Again, the choice was less than the budget by about $70. They get the style and flavor they want and we save money.
