HOW EARLY DO YOU HAVE TO START SHOPPING FOR A WEDDING DRESS

Hi I'm wedding photographer in Toronto and today I am back after quite a long break I've just been so busy with both of my businesses and wrapping up our condo remodel if you have not seen that video you should definitely go watch it several months went into the like filming of that video but anyways today I'm going to be talking about when you should buy your wedding dress in relation to your wedding date and when you should have your alterations and it is very important that you try to get in as early as possible for your gown whereas alterations you want a little closer to the wedding day so when it comes to buying your actual wedding dress if you are at least six months out from your wedding then you will absolutely be able to do a special-order wedding dress special order means that basically you try on a sample gown in the wedding dress boutique and then they special order the dress in the size that is closest to you now usually this does not mean that it is made exactly to your body it is simply just ordered in these size that is the closest to your size and when it does come to sizing I always recommend if they ever give you a choice between two sizes that you make sure that you are sized a little bit above just in case you need to take in for alterations if you go too small so if your bust is for example 36 inches and you decide to go with a dress that's 35 ish inches it might be a little too small and it's going to be a lot harder for the seamstress to make that a little bit larger so it's always easier to size down in most cases so special ordering a gown you are gonna want to do this at least six months before the wedding some designers you might be able to do it four months before your wedding but for the most part when you start getting within six months you are going to be more likely to incur a rush fee wedding gowns typically take four to six months to come in from the designer to the wedding dress boutique it takes this long because there is a queue of all the brides who order dresses before you and then the time it takes to produce your actual gown so it's not like the designer is just sitting around on their butts and then your order comes in they're like oh I'm just gonna make their dress right now they're constantly working on so many gowns which is why it could take so long now again like I've said there are some designers who move a little bit faster but for the most part most Galland designers are gonna take 4 to 6 months most likely 6 months so I would recommend making sure that you get into a dress boutique well before six months from your wedding and if you are currently right now more like 4 to 6 months out do not be surprised if the dress boutique says that you are going to have to pay a rush see sometimes this rush fee is $150 sometimes if you are wanting a super EXTREME rush it might be more like four to five hundred dollars but if that is worth it to you and you want a special order a gown then definitely go for it now what if something like that is not in your price range and you are much closer informants to your wedding well then what you are likely going to have to do is purchase a sample gown now this sample gown refers to the gown that's been tried on by brides in the wedding dress store to serve as a model that will then be custom ordered for the bride so this sample is something that has been tried on it is not new you'd be the only bride wearing it on a wedding day but it has been worn before so it is not entirely new you are buying it as is off the rack now there are some bridal boutiques who are completely off the rack my bridal boutique is mostly special-order but we do have a sample selection of about 40 gowns that are off the rack now one thing to keep in mind is that most Bridal sample gowns I would say on average across the u.s. are going to be more like a street size six to eight unless they have plus I sampled if you are not six to eight so perhaps if you're a zero it is gonna be a lot more challenging to be able to alter a sample gown off the rack to your body and same thing if you are larger than that size you are definitely gonna have to make sure that that boutique offers samples that are off the rack in your size so that's just something to keep in mind there are a few brands who can do really quick special order like beholdin and some others you would just have to Google in your area but if you're trying to go to a more high-end boutique or average price boutique in your town most likely it is going to be special order and then they're going to have sample options so make sure that you ask them what size those samples are if you are really close to your wedding date so again try to make it at least six 12 seven to nine months will be better some people are like oh my weddings 18 months away let me go ahead and get my gown and you can do that but 18 months is a very long time or 24 months is a very long time it is highly likely that your vision could change within six months once you start getting closer to wedding plans so I would actually recommend not shopping more than a year out unless you have always been somebody who once you picks a style and a dress you're going to love it and you're not gonna change your mind but most people might change their mind maybe your venue changes or maybe your color palette or your overall style changes and you want a dress that's gonna be more suited to that so that's why it could be a little risky to shop too early I mean when it comes to alterations our headstream seamstress mary always recommends that brides come in about six to eight weeks before the wedding Mary doesn't typically want to see Brides before that because if brides are losing weight or changing up their exercise or their diet before the wedding eight weeks makes it so that you are at least as close as possible to your wedding day weight because what would happen because a lot of brides are getting into fitness routines or trying to lose weight maybe some Brides are trying to gain muscle before their wedding day but if you are doing it several months before your wedding and your body changes significantly between then and maybe two three four weeks before your wedding you're gonna have to read alter that dress you're gonna have to basically start all over again so that's why it is gonna be the safest to wait eight weeks before the wedding that said if you are not planning on changing your body whatsoever then you could definitely do it earlier but if you are hoping to lose a little bit of weight or gain some muscle or anything like that definitely try to time at six to eight weeks before the wedding that should be plenty of time as long as you have discussed this with your seamstress or tailor so that is the information I hope that you guys enjoyed this video I'm going to be putting out lots more videos on wedding dresses over the next couple of weeks maybe even the next two months so if you guys did enjoy this please let me know down below if there are any suggestions or requests that you guys have for dress videos I can film them in the shop or I can just film here and talk about it I will see you guys next time bye