Okay, so now it is time to search for the perfect wedding dress.  Chances are you have a pretty good idea of what style of dress you want already.  Some women have been planning out their wedding in their heads since they were young.  Or, maybe the thought never really crossed your mind until you met “the one”.  Regardless, whether you know what you want already or not, it is extremely important to shop around and keep an open mind before setting your sights on one particular dress.  Not only because your budget is counting on careful shopping, but it’s entirely possible that the one style that you have your heart set on, may not even be the right look for you, once you try it on.

When shopping for your perfect wedding dress, you will probably want to make use of both the internet and the phone book.  Yep, the good ole yellow pages.  The reason for this is, at least in my experience, the “online yellow pages” sometimes can leave out businesses, or actually take longer to find what you’re looking for (how is that for ironic).  So make use of both.

Some of the bigger stores may have websites online where you can go and check out their dresses from the comfort of your home so you can get an idea of the different styles that they carry.  Despite that you may have a specific style of wedding dress in mind, it is a good idea to be open to different dresses and pick a few others to try on when you go to the dress store.  That way, if your favored dress ends up not hanging well on you, or turns out to not be right for your height, or the neckline just doesn’t look how you imagined it would, you will have back up styles to choose from.  And also, in case your favorite ends up being five times higher than your meager budget will allow for.

Another thing to consider when you shop for your wedding dress, is whether or not you will need alterations done to the dress after you purchase it.  What if the dress is just perfect, but it is two inches too long and you don’t want to have to wear three inch heels to accommodate for the extra length?  You will need to find a seamstress to take in the length, and that is going to cost extra money, so remember this factor when you shop for your dress.  Depending on how much work will be needed in alterations, it could end up costing nearly as much as your dress, assuming your dress was a frugal purchase.

That said, to stay within your budget, your best bet is to shy away from the designer labels unless you find a really, REALLY good deal on one.  Like say, it was the “in” design four years ago and the store has slashed the price by 90%, kind of deal.  Next, keep an eye out for sales.  When stores need to liquidate last season’s stock to make room for the new designs, they’ll cut the prices on the old stock.  Unfortunately this often means a much longer hunt for your dress, as often the “leftovers” are in odd sizes either too small or too large for you – at least that is how it seemed to be for me.

A great place to shop for wedding dresses is at warehouse stores, or outlet stores.  These types of stores make their money from selling either the “irregular” or “slightly damaged” clothing returned from the main stores, at drastic price reductions.  Also, there will be perfectly undamaged clothing, which was just not lucky enough to have been sold during the clearance sales.

Recall that earlier I said to keep an open mind to what type of dress you may buy for your wedding? I found my dress at a warehouse store, and it turns out that my perfect dress, was not actually a wedding dress at all!  It was a PROM dress!  It was a cream colored, shimmery, full length dress that came with a sheer stole, which I had a seamstress make into sleeves!  The dress itself only cost me about $80, and the seamstress work cost another $30, so I was able to get my wedding dress for just over $100!  Even at the warehouse store, the actual wedding dresses still cost $150 and up – at least for the good ones – so because I kept an open mind and started looking “outside the box”, so to speak, I was able to find one that was just right, needed very little in alterations, and saved me a bundle of money!

Good luck with your shopping.  Remember, keep an open mind, allow yourself a few different style choices, and if need be, look at dresses that aren’t actually wedding dresses to save yourself some money.  And the most important thing of all – have patience.  Dress hunting can take several weeks, so be sure to start looking several months ahead of your wedding so you aren’t dashing through stores a week before the event and end up with something you just randomly grab off a rack that fits, just to have something to wear… Even though you may only wear this dress once, it should be something you are happy with!