Dress Regret! Help!

I think you are greatly overreacting: "I feel like the dress reminds me of how I did not honor my financial boundaries and acted on impulse". It's just a dress, love! Many, MANY brides go over on their allotted budget, and all this means is you will need to shave a little here and there from other areas of the budget.

I say this on every single dress regret post, because it's true: we are conditioned to think there is ONE dress out there that will make us crumble, the dress! But in reality, there are dozens, if not hundreds of dresses you could try on that you would die for. I always pictured myself in a deep cut, flowy satin dress and I bought a stretchy, sparkly, fitted dress. Often times what you thought you wanted most isn't actually what your real dress is like, and that's okay. You didn't violate your wishes or dreams, you made a purchase you probably shouldn't have [financially speaking] but, it's over and done with and you can't walk it back. You love the dress, and that's what matters here.

You can try and sell it, but you will likely get less than what you paid. So if you're not willing to eat the cost, realize that you impulse bought this dress because of the way it made you feel. It's gorgeous, it makes you feel amazing, etc. If you keep looking, you WILL find more dresses you love and increase your dress guilt, so I'd recommend stopping that immediately.

If I was you, I would stash it away and not look at the pictures [pictures often don't do it justice right]. Wait until you're 8 months or less out from your wedding and try it on, get it altered, and see how you feel about it. If you hate it, find a new dress and eat the cost.

If you don't have a date yet and are worrying about possibly not getting married for over a year, then that's PLENTY of time to recoup the extra $550 in other areas (less eating out, buy in bulk, spend a night in rather than going out to an event, rearrange other areas of your wedding budget, etc.).

As to your style changing, while that could happen, it would be a hard sell to top a dress that made you cry in it. By the time I wear my dress down the aisle, I'll have had it for over 2 and a half years, and my style didn't change. I actually had a moment of doubt when I hadn't seen my dress in like a year and a half at one point, and a lot of the pictures on models were either different colors than my dress or emphasized areas that I'd had changed, but when I saw a video of the dress in the color I'd ordered and everything, it completely put me at ease. I'm about a month away from the big day, and I am so excited to wear my dress!

A lot of this sounds like buyer's remorse, which it totally normal, but don't let it get in your head and talk you out of a dress that you really love

Thank you guys for the support and feedback! I think it is a great idea to put it away and wait before making any big choices. I could very well be overreacting and just need time to let it sink in that I am off the dress market for now (or maybe ever) and that's okay! It is also helpful to hear that other brides have gone over budget too.