It’s a common but important question: when should you order your wedding dress? Should you wait until a few months before your wedding? Particularly if you are getting married next year, these questions may be coming up for you if you have yet to order your 2023 wedding dress. We always try to give an accurate estimation for brides who ask when they should order, but it can be difficult giving a specific date for dresses as delivery dates are subject to demand.
What we mean by this is if everyone waited 5 months before their wedding to order a dress, delivery times would increase. Most weddings in the UK take place over a period of 13 weeks in the summer. Therefore, there would be a tide of orders in January and we would struggle to get the dress here in time.
With so many brand new designs in our store now, it’s a great time to start shopping for your perfect wedding dress. To help avoid any unnecessary stress or rush orders, we have put together our best advice for ordering your 2023 wedding dress in time for your big day.
Our recommendation is always to order your dress when you find “the one”. Even if you have just gotten engaged (congrats!) and are questioning if it feels too early to start looking for a dress, you could be saving yourself a lot of stress and money down the line. Our dresses can often be rushed to get here in time, however this is not always the case and it does increase the overall cost, including rushing your alterations. After placing your order, most dresses take about 3-6 months to arrive in our store depending on suppliers capacity. You will also need to allow approximately 2 months for alterations.
Another thing to consider is the stress that may come when picking up your wedding dress if it arrives a little too closely to your wedding date. If the dress arrives in plenty of time before the big day, you will feel far more prepared and reassured.
We usually see a lot of our brides purchasing their gowns between July and October if their wedding date is in the following spring/summer. If your wedding is in the late summer/autumn 2023, we would expect you order your dress between August or December this year. If possible, we recommend you order before the end of the year as (while it is still possible) January may have some limited options due to longer lead times for dresses, meaning they cannot be rushed. Others have costly lead charges, which can all be avoided by simply starting your wedding dress shopping a little earlier.
As wedding dresses are made to order, they will take time to be made. This is also how we are able to offer so many options for our brides, as there is not a huge amount of stock sat somewhere. If our suppliers have a rush of orders, they can sometimes take longer to get the dress to us. When we place an order, we will receive an estimated ship date. We will pass this information onto you so you know when to expect your dress.
That said, it is wise to leave time for delays. It does not happen to every dress, but sometimes there can be a delay with fabric arriving or the dress being delayed in shipping. We highly recommend allowing another month for any unexpected delays, just in case. It is better to plan ahead and buy your dress earlier than be stressed the month before your wedding when your dress is late!
In terms of alterations, it is super important to leave enough time for them! Don’t count back 5 months from your wedding to the date you need to order by. Ideally, you will need around 8 weeks for the alterations process. This can be done quicker if needed, but if you are reading this with plenty of time before your wedding then allow yourself a nice, relaxed experience with ample time for your alterations.
Another good reason to order your dress early is your bridesmaids. If you have a group of bridesmaids, you will probably want to find your dress before they start looking for theirs. Bridesmaids dresses can be harder to agree on, so leave yourself plenty of time to arrange and order these too!
In summary, we usually recommend ordering with 9 months to go to the wedding at a minimum. Order with 12 months to go for a completely stress-free experience. Whilst we can source dresses quicker than this, why stress yourself if you don’t have to?
Find your 2023 wedding dress early and book an appointment with us today!