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Events & Weddings

How much does a wedding dress cost?

Work out what a wedding gown will actually cost from the salon price, the alterations, the veil and jewellery, the undergarments and shoes, any rush or shipping, and the cleaning and boxing afterwards. Bridal sells a gown built to a size chart and bills the work that makes it yours separately, so the figure on the tag is the start of the number rather than the whole of it. The calculator splits the two and totals them.

§ 01 Your numbers

Change anything. The answer updates as you type.

The figure on the tag, before tax and before anybody has touched a seam. This is the answer you get when you ask what the dress costs. The default is ours and editable.
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Ask what the number is attached to. A salon carrying a designer's line orders your gown from the house in the nearest size on that house's chart, and the tag prices that garment, delivered, unaltered. A sample sale prices the gown in the room, in the size it was cut in, sold as it stands. An off-the-rack retailer prices something closer to ordinary clothing. Those are three different transactions wearing the same price tag, and the lines below land differently on each, which is why they are separate inputs rather than a percentage of this one.
The seamstress's bill for making the gown fit you: the hem, the bodice, the bustle, the straps. Rarely zero, and rarely inside the tag above.
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This is the line the question hides. The gown arrives in a manufacturer's size, and a bride is not a manufacturer's size, so the garment gets taken in, let out, shortened and bustled by a fitter over several appointments. Some salons keep a seamstress in-house and bill her separately anyway; some send you out to your own. Either way it is its own invoice, priced per job rather than as a package, and it lands months after the deposit. The alterations calculator on this site breaks the jobs out one by one if you want to build this figure rather than estimate it.
The things brought out to go with the gown once you have said yes to it. Zero if you already have them, or are wearing something borrowed.
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These are sold in the same appointment, after the decision, which is the part worth naming. The gown is chosen first and the veil is styled against it while the room is agreeing with you, and a veil is a length of tulle that costs what a piece of clothing costs. That is not a trick; it is simply a second purchase happening at a moment set up for saying yes. Deciding the figure before the appointment rather than during it is the whole of the defence, and it is why this sits on its own line instead of being folded into the gown.
The bra, shapewear or slip the gown needs to sit correctly, plus the shoes. Bring both to the first fitting: the hem is cut to the shoes you will stand in, and the bodice is fitted over the undergarments you will wear, so buying these afterwards can mean paying the seamstress twice. Zero if you have them already. The default is ours and editable.
Charged by the designer's house when your date leaves less time than their production calendar wants, and it is decided by the gap between the two rather than by anything you can negotiate later. Zero if you have ordered in good time, or bought off the rack. Ask for the order date and the promised arrival date in writing, since the rush fee is the price of the distance between that arrival and your first fitting.
Specialist cleaning and boxing after the wedding, quoted by cleaners who handle gowns rather than by an ordinary dry cleaner. Zero if you plan to sell the dress, resize it into something wearable, or simply hang it up. It is a real line for anybody intending to keep it, and it is the one line here you can decide on afterwards rather than before, which is why it defaults to zero.
Estimated cost
$2,250
  • Gown (salon price)$1,400
  • Alterations and fittings$500
  • Veil, headpiece and jewellery$200
  • Undergarments and shoes$150
  • Rush cut or shipping$0
  • Cleaning and preservation$0
  • Total$2,250
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$1,200 to $3,000 is the ordinary shape of a salon order plus fittings and the kit around it. Check the split above: if the tag is carrying nearly all of your total, the alterations have probably not been quoted yet rather than come to nothing.

What this assumes, and where it could be wrong

Every one of these is a place the number could be off. They are here because you should be able to check our working, not because we are hedging.

THE TAG PRICES A DRESS BUILT TO A SIZE CHART, NOT A DRESS BUILT TO YOU.
A bridal salon orders your gown from the designer's house in the nearest size on that house's chart, and the tag prices that garment as it arrives. A body is not a size chart, so the gown is then taken in, hemmed, bustled and fitted by a seamstress across several appointments, and that work carries its own invoice priced job by job. Bridal is a corner of retail where the item is sold in the open knowledge that it will not fit as delivered, which is why the calculator above keeps the gown and the alterations on separate lines with separate payees. If your alterations line is zero, check that it is zero because you bought off the rack and a fitter has already agreed there is nothing to do, rather than because the quote is still outstanding.
The gown is cut to order, so the deposit is a decision rather than a purchase you can undo.
Ordinary retail trained you to expect a return counter, and this transaction does not have one. Once the salon sends your measurements to the house, the fabric is cut and the deposit is committed, on terms set out in the contract you signed at the appointment. That is not a scandal, it is what made-to-order means, but it changes the order of operations: the reading happens before the signing, because afterwards there is nothing to read. Read the gown and rush lines in the ledger above as the part of your total that goes hard on the day you say yes, and the lines under them as decisions you still hold. Ask what the deposit is, what the balance schedule is, and what happens if the house ships late.

Alterations are quoted per job rather than as a package, so ask for the list rather than a number. A hem, taking in a bodice, a bustle, straps and cups and a final press are separate pieces of work by separate hands, and a gown with layers, lace or beading is more work at every one of them than a plain crepe sheath, because each layer is hemmed and each bead near a seam comes off and goes back on. The dress alterations calculator on this site prices those jobs individually. Whether the seamstress is in-house at the salon or someone you find yourself, the bill is usually hers rather than the salon's, which is why it sits on its own line above.

Bring the shoes and the undergarments to the first fitting, because the hem is cut to a height and the bodice is fitted over a shape. A gown hemmed to bare feet and worn in heels is short, and one fitted over nothing and worn over shapewear sits differently. Buying either after the fittings are done can mean paying the seamstress a second time to redo work she has already been paid for, which is how a line the calculator treats as small becomes a line that moves the total. This page assumes you buy them before the first appointment rather than after the last.

What the salon is paid is not what the salon keeps. The tag covers the designer's wholesale price, the sample the salon bought to hang on the rail for you to try on and cannot sell as new, the appointment, the consultant's hours, the floor, the storage of your gown until you collect it, and the tax. This page does not model any of that and it is not arguing that a gown's price is fair or unfair. It is separating the lines so that the number you carry into the appointment is a number about the same thing the room is answering.

Frequently asked questions

How much does a wedding gown cost?
It depends on what you are counting, and the question tends to collect a smaller answer than it wants. The salon's figure is the tag: a gown ordered from the designer's house in the nearest size on their chart, delivered unaltered. Underneath it sits the seamstress's bill for making it fit you, which is a separate invoice and is rarely nothing, plus the veil and jewellery chosen in the same appointment, plus the undergarments and shoes the fitting is built around. This page leaves all of those figures to your salon and your fitter rather than inventing numbers to stand in for them. Put your own quotes in the form above and the calculator totals them, with the tag on its own line and everything the tag left out listed underneath it.
Why are alterations not included in the price of the dress?
Because the gown and the fitting are two different pieces of work, done by two different people, and only one of them can be priced before you walk in. The designer's house makes a garment to a published size chart and the salon sells you that garment; what it takes to fit that garment to you is unknown until you are standing in it, and it varies from a hem to a rebuild. So the house prices what it can price and the seamstress prices the rest afterwards, per job. The practical consequence is that a gown quoted to you as one figure is a gown quoted at its floor. Ask, at the appointment rather than at the first fitting, whether alterations are in-house, what the shop's typical job list looks like for the dress you are holding, and who sends the invoice.
Can I return a wedding dress if I change my mind?
Usually not, and it is worth knowing before the appointment rather than after it. A made-to-order gown is cut for you once the salon sends your measurements to the house, so there is no unsold garment to take back and the deposit is committed at signing on the terms in your contract. Sample and off-the-rack purchases are sold as they stand and tend to be final in the same way. This is what made-to-order means rather than a trick played on you, but it does invert the usual order: with ordinary clothing you decide at home and return what disappoints, and here you decide in the room and live with it. Read the cancellation and late-delivery terms while you are still deciding, and ask what happens if the house ships after your date.
How much should I budget for everything beyond the dress itself?
Build it rather than guess it, because the shape differs per bride and the calculator above is designed to be filled in with quotes rather than admired at its defaults. The lines that are close to unavoidable are the alterations, since the gown arrives built to a chart, and the undergarments and shoes, since the fittings are cut around them. The lines that are genuinely optional are the veil and jewellery, which are a decision you can make before the appointment rather than during it, the rush fee, which you avoid by ordering with time to spare, and the preservation, which you can settle after the wedding or skip entirely if you intend to sell the gown. Get a quote for each, put them in the form, and read the split.

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