How long does it really take to put on a dress?

So I used to dress up as princesses for parties/events, and we allotted 15-20 minutes to put on the hoop skirts, gown (which all had lace up backs, so that takes longer), wig, and any jewelry, and shoes. I'd say on average it took about 10 minutes, but 20 was good for when we had multiple princesses working around each other, and if we had to redo any of the lace-ups or wigs. With just 4 additional people getting dressed I'd say that 20-30 minutes MAX is plenty of time. Honestly them getting dressed and putting on jewelry and shoes would take 10 minutes.

I think you getting dressed at 1:00 is perfect (take time to soak it in and take pictures!) But I wouldn't start the others until 12:30 at the earliest

View Quoted Comment Thank you—this makes me feel much better. The most complex thing we’ll need to do is some fashion taping, but I already have a good idea of who will need that.


This reminds me of my theatre days—you’re so right! I used to work on the wardrobe team & helped with quick changes. Toughest one I did we had someone go from a long hopeless dress into a full hoop skirt between scenes!

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Haha! Loved the theater days too! Hoop skirts are always funny.

My favourite princess quick change was the time I went from Poppy from Trolls (pink body suit, felt dress, and ALL pink face and neck makeup) to Rapunzel and I only had about 15 minutes to do it. I definitely still has pink undertones for that rapunzel party lmao

Good luck with your timeline!

So much of that depends on the dress. Does it have a corset back or a lot of buttons? The last two weddings that I was in the bride's dress had a zipper so it took like one minute? My dress had a ton of buttons...so it obviously took longer.

You might ask your hair / makeup team about going second to last rather than last. That way if hair and makeup gets behind they're not rushing to get yours done.

It took about 15-20 minutes for me to put on my dress and when I was a bridesmaid it took us all about 15/20 minutes as well.

Around 10-15 minutes depending on your shoes and what type of dress