Bridal shopping is awful. If you can have someone make your dress, do that. If you can't, go through the catalogs and see if there is anything you like. Call a shop that carries the line and see if they can get it for you. It takes about four to six months for a shop to get a dress.
Anything that is remotely unique or interesting will cost as much as a used car. I was ready to slap people when they said that Kate Middleton might change the trend against sleeves because most brides want sleeveless dresses. You can't get a dress with sleeves on the low end of the cost curve. Anything with sleeves is at least a thousand dollars.
Another option to the above is to go and look at a high end department store. Find a dress you like. This will cost less than a bridal gown.
I don't know about your area, but there were a lot of people trying to get rid of their old gowns on Craigslist here. If you could find something awesome that could be modified that would be neat. However, since people get their bridal gowns custom tailored, I think that most gowns would be useless.
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Anything that is remotely unique or interesting will cost as much as a used car. I was ready to slap people when they said that Kate Middleton might change the trend against sleeves because most brides want sleeveless dresses. You can't get a dress with sleeves on the low end of the cost curve. Anything with sleeves is at least a thousand dollars.
Another option to the above is to go and look at a high end department store. Find a dress you like. This will cost less than a bridal gown.
I don't know about your area, but there were a lot of people trying to get rid of their old gowns on Craigslist here. If you could find something awesome that could be modified that would be neat. However, since people get their bridal gowns custom tailored, I think that most gowns would be useless.