Bridesmaid dress before venue? Help me give advice to my friend!

Honestly, I wouldn’t pay for a dress before a bride had done any real planning either. David’s doesn’t have a great return policy so I’d be mad about being out $200 (reselling usually leads to less than 50% of your money back) if my friend changed their mind about actually having a ceremony/reception.

I agree with Sarah. DB's return policy is horrible, and I know women who have gotten stuck with a dress they couldn't return.

Also, even though your friend may know when she wants to get married, she really doesn't have a "wedding date" until she books a venue. If I were a bridesmaid, I would seriously hesitate spending that kind of money before there was even a venue and a firm date.

Not only do styles change regularly, but bodies change too! People get pregnant, or gain weight for some other reason, or lose weight. A lot can happen a year from now. I would encourage your friend to slow her roll, find a venue, and revisit the concept of BM dresses in like 6-9 months.

The rule we say on here is "no venue, no date." It really doesn't matter what date your friend wants to get married on, if there is no venue available she won't be able to use that date. Your friend should book a venue first to confirm her date.

I'm having my friends use Azazie. They have sample dresses they can try on at home and so far I've heard great things. As far as I know they don't discontinue styles as often. But I do agree with PP that they should definitely hold off until the bride has booked the venue.

If her date is close to yours, this is way too early to buy BM dresses. It can cost $150-$250 to alter a dress that is $200 to begin with, if someone changes weight by 2 sizes, for some as little as a 15 pound change. David's dresses take 2weeks to 8 to come in. They say allow 5-6. Then make a fortune doing alterations for clothes that would have needed nothing but hemming if you hey bought ones that fit them at 3-4 months out. Yes, dresses get discontinued. So they should not bother looking at them til 5-6 months ahead, and order at 3-4 months if David's. Bride can pick a color, but wait on the dress, unless you are willing to pick up the cost of up to $250 for anyone whose dress needs alterations because it was purchased too early. Why possibly double the cost of a dress, in order to help sales people lock in their sales and commissions early, by scaring you into thinking if you do not shop way early, you will be stuck . If you do get them early, and one person changes weight or gets pregnant, so much dress cannot be altered, all but one of your BM will have a now discontinued dress, and the one in two who need new ones, will have to buy a second dress, and it will be different from the dress others bought early. Best is for everyone to wait until about 5 months to pick styles and colors, and order at 3-4 months. I have been in several bridal parties with BM dresses from David's. The whole BO gets dresses in weeks in mostly 2-4 weeks , six occasionally.

I picked out a bridesmaid dress in April for a March wedding, and it is already discontinued. So I get it, but I'm also not willing to put money down on a dress, if the bride hasn't set a date and put money on a venue.

I wouldn't want to purchase a bridesmaid dress more than 6 months in advance. So many things could happen between now and then. Including pregnancy.

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All of this! We didn't even start thinking about dresses until about 6-8 months out.

My FSIL made her girls buy their dresses over a year in advance. And guess what happened? The boutique doesn't carry that color anymore and can't guarantee alterations.

I also wouldn't feel comfortable buying a $200 dress if there's no set venue or date. If she asks you to buy your BM dress now, let her know that you'd rather wait until a date is set. You're not being rude by feeling this way!

I would pick another place. I picked Azazie 14 months in advance. None of the dresses went out of stock or were discontinued. I'm not sure how the venue affects anything besides the date, but I agree I wouldn't purchase a dress until she had a date set & scheduled with a venue.

I had a friend who knew her boyfriend was going to propose so she had us look at dresses and she picked out AND purchased her dress. We went to DB and tried them on but we all told her we wanted to wait until he proposed and had a date set before we purchased!

Long story short they did not end up getting married!! So I was glad we did not purchase a dress.