When to Start visiting bridal stores?
Ideally, you’ll start to look for your wedding dress 14-18 months before your wedding day, one year before latest. You may find your wedding dress in the first bridal store you visit (this really does happen a lot in our store) and some brides visit more than 7 bridals stores before they say “Yes to the Dress”.
Starting to look early will allow you time to be sure of your decision. It also means that you can relax a little bit and start to make other choices. Such as colour schemes, bridesmaid dresses and even the groomsmen’s attire.
Our bridesmaid dresses take 16 weeks to be delivered.. Please order them at least 7 months before your wedding date to allow for alterations.
What if your wedding is in less than a year?
If your wedding is in less than 11 months please book your bridal appointments now. We’re not saying this to make you panic. We really want you to find your dream wedding dress, and to do this you really do need time on your side.
We have a “Take Me Away Today” rail in store, which are dresses that you can buy on the day of your appointment. However these wedding dresses may or may not fit or suit you, so the earlier you visit the more choice you will have.
When we first opened our store in April 2021, the delivery date for a brand new wedding dress was 4 months. This has now increased to over 6 months with some designers.
HOWEVER our designers do plan ahead for last minute orders, and they all have live tracking systems. These show which wedding dresses are available for delivery in the next few months.
Planning for your dress to arrive at least 3 months before the wedding will allow the time you need to see your seamstress and have any alterations carried out.
Why Is there a delay for wedding dresses in 2022?
The main reasons are:
- Designers are now facing delays for things such as fabric, beading and shipping.
- In 2020 and 2021, most brides had already booked their wedding and bought their wedding dresses. Due to the lockdowns, a lot of wedding dates were moved to a later date so less brides were buying dresses. Now we’re meeting 2022, 2023 and 2024 brides, so the demand on designers, lace and materials required to make your wedding dress are much higher.
- Shipping containers are full and have been for a while. Not with wedding dresses, but with products across all industries. When lockdowns were introduced, a lot of product weren’t shipped to the UK as we no longer needed them. Now the UK is reopen, there are too many containers needing to be shipped and businesses across the UK are being forced to pay a much higher shipping rate for a much slower delivery service from companies around the world.
What to do before booking your bridal appointment?
The main things that you need to do before you start to visit a bridal store are:
- Be engaged!
- Book you wedding date and venue.
- Decide who you’d like to bring to your appointment. Your best friend? Your mum and sometimes your mother-in-law? Some brides choose to come alone. Only you know what’s best for yourself.