Rush Ordering Wedding Dress. Help!

They told me 5 months and it came in 4.
Could go to trunk shows and sample sales? That way you dont have to wait for it to come in and you can leave dress in handmade

They told me 7 months and it took 7 months. But there are dresses you can buy off the rack or can be rushed. Also David’s Bridal and BHLDN dresses come within weeks I’ve heard.

Mine took four months and then a month for alterations

Lead time for a dress depends on designer. Berta, for example, is coming from Israel & is made one dress at a time & it does really take 6-8 months. Provonias, Rosa Clara, Vera Wang, Monique Lhuiller etc. will take 4 months.

If you have a frank & direct conversation with bridal store consultant they will usually tell you what the real deal with timeline is. And if you say that you really want to buy a dress & you give them your date, they will not sell you a dress they can’t deliver on time (it’s liability for them). If you want to do rush order tell them right away. I’m not sure you can rush it later after the purchase & why would you (they’ll give you the timeline before you pay for the dress)?

But if you want dress quickly go to trunk shows (designer is typically present & can give you the best possible timeline plus a discount), sample sales or off the rack purchases (if you find your dress, you’ll get to take it home the same day & with a big discount too). I got my dress off the rack from a designer showroom directly & it’s absolutely perfect ☺️

I would call various bridal shops and get their opinion. I'm in a similar position where I don't have my dress and wont be looking for another month for health reasons. I would maybe read responses from my thread about buying in a short time frame. I hope this helps:

https://www.weddingwire.com/wedding-forums/losing-weight-before-dress-shopping/607937de19fb133a.html

My dress came in, in 30 days and plus they do have the rush shipping. I honestly think they say that just to get people to hurry up and buy. I went and looked at dresses in nov, and they were like you need to decided you know 6 months. But I wasn't ready to say yes I went back in dec and looked at the dress again still wasn't ready to say yes. I went back the end of January and they were like are you purchasing this time I said yup. They said you are cutting it close and when they put everything in the system it said 30 days for delivery....

Here's how it works. Unlike buying a pair of shoes which were made and shipped months in advance, most bridal boutiques stock samples and purchase your actual dress from the designer/factory. (The 5-6 months they quote you is production time. They make runs of dresses at a time, not 1 by 1, plus a 1 month journey on a container ship to arrive in the US). You can probably pay to rush production (bump yourself to the front of the line) or to airfreight it from the factory. A bridal boutique can let you know what's cutting it too close.

Other option is to find a store which stocks inventory. Nordstrom and BHLDN actually purchase their own inventory, so dresses are in their warehouse and only take 7-10 days to ship from their warehouse to you. I really don't think there's a downside to going that route unless there's some designer you have your heart set on.

I’d buy used, off the rack, or a china site like azazie or something. My dress is arriving today, ordered from DH gate(gamble I know.) I ordered it 12/28.
It depends on how flexible you are in your choices.

I got my dress at David's Bridal. They told me it would take 2 months, and EXACTLY 2 months later, I got the call that it was in.

But I have heard that a lot of designer dresses take longer. You just have to ask questions, and make sure you know what the timeline is for any dress you are considering.

David's Bridal dresses come in less than a month!!!

I was originally going to have my wedding in May. I went to David's Bridal to look for dresses on January 19 and bought one that same day and I actually got an email 2 days ago saying my dress is ready for pickup.

When I spoke to the consultant about alterations she said they prefer 2 months in advance AT LEAST but she let me make an alterations appointment at the end of March and said my dress would be done by the end of April just in time for my wedding Mid May.

(We ended up changing the day due to my future father in law being out of the country in the month of May so now our wedding will be in September)

I would definitely not stop looking!!! Go in and ask what the turn around time for the dresses are and you'll get one! I got one and had everything planned and scheduled for May which was a lot less time than you have!!!

EDIT: My dress was David's Bridal design not like Vera Wang or something not sure if that makes a difference or not.