Three Types of Wedding Dress Purchases

To some, purchasing a wedding dress seems like the most straightforward process in the world. “I go into the store, I try some dresses on, they get my size and in a couple of months my dress is ready. Right?” Well, the answer to that is technically “Yes and no”. For many brides, the process is as straightforward as that. However, when we get into the finer details like budget, style, wedding date, things can get a little tricky. So, in order to demystify these factors a little more, let’s take a look at three types of wedding dress purchases!

Stock Item

Purchasing a dress from a store’s stock isn’t exactly what it sounds like. If a typical department store has something “In Stock”, that means you can buy it off the rack and take it home that day. In the wedding business that’s what’s called a Sample, which we’ll talk about later. Buying a dress we have in Stock means that the design we have on the rack (as a sample) can be ordered for you, from the designer immediately! So that means the dress is not on backorder and isn’t part of a new collection that has yet entered production.

Our inventory of dresses at Brides of Florida ranges around 500 dresses! We have a vast amount of different styles for every bride. Boho plain, Boho loose, Strapless, Off-the-shoulder, Sleeves, Half Sleeves, Plain, Plain with Lace, Full Lace, Light on the Lace, Trumpet, Mermaid, Ballgown, A-Line, Tulle Bottom, With Bling, Not too Blingy, Traditional, Sexy, Plus-Sized, the styles are endless!

All of these different options can seem overwhelming but you really want to visit a bridal store that has a large inventory (like ours), so you're able to take a look at all different types of dresses and figure out exactly what you like. Sometimes, a bride’s Pinterest board will be packed with Boho, A-Line dresses, but when they come in, they really don’t feel like Boho is the look for them. That’s why it’s so helpful to visit a store with a large and diverse inventory as well as different designers.

When you're purchasing a dress from stock, you still get the ability to choose the color, size, and length as well depending on what’s available. But keep in note, most bridal shops also have some designer’s newest collections in stock, and those sadly most of the time have to be ordered with time. If you're buying a dress from a designer's newest collection, that dress is probably not in production yet. New dresses that have just been designed can take six to eight months to order depending on what you need and even longer if you’re making custom changes, so don’t be misled by what “In stock” means when it comes to some newer designs.

Sample

Like we briefly mentioned above, a Sample is a dress that we have in-store and use in our fittings. It is the dress that brides use to sample designs that they are considering saying “Yes” to. Samples usually aren't perfect, that's because they're the dresses that we let our potential brides try on when they're visiting our store. Although we take immaculate care of our inventory, at the end of the day you're buying a slightly used dress.

However, if you're a bride on a budget, samples are always the best choice! Since samples are essentially a used dress, and once they’re discontinued, they’re sold at a pretty significant discount. Because of this, the quality of dress you can afford jumps up dramatically when you consider buying a sample. You'll be able to afford a higher-end dress at a discount.

Express

If you don’t have a lot of time between your first appointment and your wedding day, your options may be slim, but not zero! We’ve had brides walk into the store two weeks before their wedding and walk out with a dress that was everything they ever dreamed of!

So what are your options as an express bride? Well the first would be to do what we just talked about, buy a sample. Depending on the fit of the dress, if minimal to no alterations are required, you can be ready to walk down the aisle with an off-the-rack dress in a few weeks. But there’s another option that’s not so known to brides which is called Quick Delivery. Most designers carry their most popular dresses pre-made in order to ensure a fast delivery time. Obviously the downside with this is that with a short deadline, any alterations to the dress are sometimes out of the question, but if you want to buy a stock dress, you may be able to get something direct from a designer with quick delivery.

As I said before, the process of buying a wedding dress can be much more complicated than purchasing a normal item of clothing. But hopefully with this blog, the process was simplified a little more. Let me know what you think in the comments! Did you walk down the aisle in a sample, stock quick delivery dress? What was the process like?

Until next time.