Wedding Dress?

[surrealestate.livejournal.com]

Where are the best places around to shop for a wedding dress? (The relevant tag seems mostly concerned with alterations.)

Um, particularly if one is not of the type who has thought about such things all their life (or, y'know, ever) and thus had no idea how far in advance people expect you to plan and so the event is a little over a month away leaving no time for the apparently usual 2-3 month wait. (Speaking entirely theoretically, of course, because no reasonable person would be in such a situation, right?)

Even better would be great places to rent a dress, because it seems absurd to buy one when I'll only need it the once. (Why is it so much easier to rent a tuxedo, an item whose owner could reasonably wear it time and again?)

Comments

Alfred Angelo

[eveninparadise.livejournal.com]

I had much better luck with Alfred Angelo dresses than with David's Bridal. (And yes, I also bought my wedding dress the same month as my wedding.) Alfred Angelo dresses come off the rack in a range of sizes (0-30w) and have a slightly nicer feel for a similar price.

In my case, I knew which dress I liked and called local shops until I found it in my size. The shop I ended up with was Marry and Tux in Nashua, NH (http://marryandtuxbridal.com/), less than an hour's drive and no sales tax. Make an appointment, and you can try on a bunch of new, off-the-rack dresses from different designers. I purchased mine and took it home the same day. They also recommended a local tailor in Medford (Adam and Eva Tailor Shop), which turned my alterations around quickly.

Even though you can buy the dress in a day, you should go soon, since alterations can take a few weeks, depending on how elaborate your dress is. Good luck, and congratulations on your upcoming wedding! :)

Re: Alfred Angelo

[surrealestate.livejournal.com]

Thank you so much.

The current process is that a dress is being made, which is quite exciting (and magically cheaper than any of the other options because the awesome dressmaker doesn't yet have an established business so needs to build a portfolio) and the silks we've chosen made me flutter. :)