SOS! What Do I Do if I Fell in Love With a Wedding Dress Over My Budget?

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If your dream wedding dress is one you can’t afford, you don’t necessarily have to write it off. Read on for some options. 

If you’re getting married and are planning a big wedding, setting a budget for that event is important. The average wedding cost $30,000 in 2022, according to The Knot. That’s a sum of money most people don’t just have lying around in a savings account.

As it is, you may be looking at taking on some amount of debt — credit card or otherwise — in the course of having a wedding. So it’s important to try to keep that debt to a minimum. As such, it’s a good idea to break down your wedding expenses one by one and figure out how much you can afford to spend on each specific item.

But what if you’ve set a certain budget for a wedding dress, only to then find the perfect dress that costs more than what you’ve allocated? The average wedding dress cost $1,900 last year, says The Knot, so you may have budgeted that amount yourself. But if your dream dress costs $2,500, you’re in a pickle.

The reality is that you may have to accept the fact that your wedding dress is out of your price range. But before you do, it’s worth exploring these two alternatives.

1. See if you can negotiate a lower price

Is the wedding dress you fell in love with last year’s model? If so, you may be able to get your bridal store to come down on price. Do some research on your dress before writing off the idea of purchasing it, because you never know what leeway you might have to negotiate.

Similarly, it’s common for bridal shops to put out floor samples of different dresses. If your dream dress happens to also be available as a floor sample, you could consider asking to buy that one and negotiate a discount based on its wear and tear.

For example, let’s say your dress has a price tag of $2,500 but the bridal shop is willing to sell you its floor sample for $1,600. Even if you have to spend $200 to get that dress pressed and cleaned, you’re still within your $1,900 budget, and you’re paying a lot less than $2,500.

2. See if you can slash other wedding costs

It may be really important to you to show up to your wedding in a dress you love. You don’t want to go over budget on your wedding in total, because that might really wreck your finances. But if you’re willing to cut back in another area, you might be able to swing your dream dress after all.

Let’s use the numbers above — you’ve allocated $1,900 to a wedding dress purchase and the one you love costs $2,500. The Knot puts the average cost of a wedding cake at $510. If you’re a baker and you’re willing to whip up your own cake, you could almost cover that $600 difference right there.

Similarly, the average cost of paper wedding invitations is also $510. Invite guests by email instead, and you can make up most of that cost (not to mention make responses easier to track, since you’re not reliant on the U.S. Postal Service to deliver your RSVP cards).

In some cases, you may have to be willing to give up your dream wedding dress if it’s tremendously expensive and over budget. But remember, there are so many fabulous wedding dresses out there. And just because you’ve fallen in love with one doesn’t mean you won’t find another you love. So if your over-budget wedding dress doesn’t end up working out, do not assume that your big day is doomed by any means.

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