Wedding Dress Deadlines

In recent years, Reality TV has made wedding dress shopping look as easy as saying 'yes to the dress' but this often overlooks the behind the scenes construction, shipping and timing related to buying a wedding dress.  Today's advice comes from bridal expert herself, Martha Carrington, owner of Wedding Wonderland in Knoxville.  She was kind enough to fill me in on some of the deadlines to keep in mind when shopping for your wedding dress.

When to start shopping...  If you're engaged, dress shopping should start right away.  The style and formality of the dress will often drive your theme or vision for wedding day.  Having this narrowed to your ideal will make choosing a venue, wedding decor and other details easier.  A big, poofy ball-gown may not make sense after you have booked a causal outdoor reception.  Regardless of where you shop, the dress will come from the same factory as all the other bridal salons so the sooner your get started the less likely you are to run into timing problems and clash with a determined theme.

When to order your dress...  According to Martha, wedding dress orders should be ideally placed 8-12 months prior to your wedding day.  While this may seem like a lot of time, your wedding dress is sewn from scratch, based on your measurements... no quicker way about it!  With shipping turnaround taking longer and longer, brides that wait until closer to wedding day may run in problems getting their dress on time.  Most wedding dresses come from factories overseas where labor issues, fabric supply and even natural disasters on the other side of the world will affect completion and shipping.  Most wedding dresses take 4-5 months to ship and popular designer Maggie Sottero has taken as long as 6 months.  Having the extra time, leaves plenty left for alterations and necessary fittings so you look picture perfect.

Insider Tip:  Planning for a May or June wedding?  You should be ordering your dress now!  Since nearly all wedding dresses are constructed in China, local holidays will affect shipping times.  The Chinese New Year (taking place January 23, 2012) is practically a national holiday and factors are closed for weeks as workers take this time to visit family and friends.  As a result, you wedding dress, ordered in December may be under a tight deadline for a May wedding date.

What if you're in a time crunch?  If you and your fiancé are opting for a shorter engagement or perhaps you fell victim to procrastination, options do still exist.  Some designers will offer rush orders, speeding up the turn around on later orders.  This will run a bride anywhere from $50-$300 extra depending on the timeframe and company.  In stock or off-the-rack gowns are good options for last minute shoppers and may elicit a bargain based on the quality.  Remember, floor samples have likely been tried on by numerous others and won't be in the same condition as a brand new dress.  Best bet is to shop early or be willing to compromise on the available selection.

Where did you purchase your wedding dress?  Did you run into any tight shipping deadlines?  Leave a comment below! 

Images courtesy of Wedding Wonderland.