Can you still do alterations on a wedding dress rental?

Correct. I looked into wedding dress rentals and they do not allow alterations

It depends! There’s a place in Dallas that rents wedding dresses and on their website it says alterations are allowed if they are simple and reversible. So I think each place has a different policy on what they do and don’t allow.

Thanks. I guess I could also shop off-season as well. Wedding dresses would be presumably cheaper. What is the off-season for wedding dress shopping?

View Quoted Comment Unfortunately there’s not really an “off-season” for wedding dresses, but you can get some beautiful wedding dresses for pretty cheap! Mine was only $200 from David’s bridal!!

View Quoted Comment I’ve never heard of an off season for wedding dresses. I would look for sample sales or preowned dresses.

Thank you, Kelly. What I mean by off-season sales, you know how like stores need to get rid off inventory to make space for new collections? Something like that but for wedding dresses.

Samples sales is a good tip!

View Quoted Comment There’s not really an off season, but other options are specific wedding dress consignment shops and sample sales. We have a boutique in Denver that sells samples, overstock, and one of a kind dresses for discounted prices so you might look and see if you have anything similar in your area. David’s Bridal sells dresses at various price points too, my mom got hers for $99 when she got married a few years back.

I bought my Maggie Sottero for $200 during the National Bridal Sales Event in July and it was regularly over $2k. It’s a sample and has a few loose threads that need fixed, but otherwise was in good condition. There was one other dress I loved, but there were several large snags in the tulle and I worried about repair costs, so if you’re buying off the rack make sure to look over the entire dress! I looked my dress up online at stillwhite.com and people are selling it used for close to $1k. Good luck!

View Quoted Comment I’ve had friends that have bought past season dresses but they never had a large discount. Usually there will be a small rack of dresses that are on sale but it’s not like a department store where they need to get rid of all their inventory. Places like David’s Bridal have large sales but not bridal boutiques with designer dresses.

I would highly recommend shopping samples if you're looking for a high-quality gown at a lower cost! You can either go to a boutique ask to look at their samples or you can visit a shop that only sells samples. Either way, you can find a gown that is currently in style and very discounted. I was able to buy my gown as a sample from a local boutique at much lower than the typical price ($5975 --> $1300). Some of the gowns that were samples were even more cost-effective (one was $500).

You can also buy used gowns online! Still White and Once Wed are examples of some websites that people use.

Some do allow alterations, ask the company you are considering. Also I can't recommend Azazie enough! My gown was $299, custom sized and needed no alterations.

I don't think you could

Thank you everyone for the advice!

Depends on the store. I went to several rental places and they would do the alterations. Has to be in-house so they can make their temporary alterations and I had to pay extra. I am also very petite...shorter than you. Some places told me they couldn't alter the length for the rental. I ultimately rented a dress from an Asian boutique so all their dresses are for petite women which meant less hem and other alterations.

Hey Elaine! Have you decided to go for a rental wedding dress? Have you seen any that you like?

I'm going to buy my dress.