Wedding Dress out of budget.

How over budget is it?

Here's the back. I could just stare at it all day. It's perfect.

About $500. But that's a lot of money as my FH and I are starving college kids. Haha

I say go for it! What's a few hundred dollars for a lifetime of happiness? Your friends and family should understand!

For $500 more I say go for it. If you're absolutely in love with it, anything else will just be settling & this dress will always be in your mind. Weddings are meant to go over budget right?! Lol

If you haven't found another dress that you love I say go for it. I don't recommend going over budget often but the last thing you want to do is look back and regret the dress. Maybe keep trying on dresses in your budget range and see if you fall in love with one? My sister went about 1,000 over her wedding budget and then sold her used dress on tradesy I believe.

Sweetie, I'm going to be honest. I don't know your budget, but that gown, although lovely on you, is available in multiple incarnations. I'm the kind of person who, once in rare moment, will break the bank if something really connects with me. If this dress actually alters the way you feel when you wear it, then you have my permission to buy it, lol. I would suggest, however, that you try to sell it post-wedding so that you can recoup some of your investment, and, more importantly, look at wedding gown sites featuring pre-owned gowns. You'll be able to purchase a very similar gown for a fraction of its original retail price.

If $500 means you cut cable and stop eating out, and maybe forgo birthday and Christmas presents between you and your fiancee this year then yes, do it. But if $500 means you can't pay your bills or you have to charge it and pay interest, then perhaps not.

I went over budget on my dress by double...oops. Anyway, we just made up for it by having our ceremony and reception in the same place and the food is included in the price. Also we saved money by opting for assorted flavored cupcakes instead of a wedding cake.

I also found THE dress that is $500 more than I wanted to spend. I decided to go for it because, although it's over what I *wanted* to spend, it's not going to put us into debt or be that much money in the grand scheme of things. Yes, it's a lot of money to spend on a dress that I'm only going to wear for a day, but it's also *just* money, which isn't as important to me as the way I feel.

What really clinched the deal for me was when I realized that if I didn't lose another pound or never changed a thing about the way that I look, I would be over the moon to wear that dress on the big day and feel the way I felt. That pressure taken off of me to "look better" so I felt good in a dress that wasn't 100% what I wanted is worth $500 and more. It's kinda silly to think a dress could make me feel so good, but I just feel like a bride and I had that feeling with one dress and one dress only.

I say buy it! Make some cuts somewhere else (I mean, I honestly just don't care that much about flowers or favors or shoes, so it's pretty easy to find money in other places when you look at what's most important to you) and save your change, pick up a few extra hours at work, save birthday money from your grandma, etc. In the end, a wedding isn't worth going into debt over, but it IS just money and if it's a doable goal, you will be happy you splurged on the things that you'll remember forever.

Have you factored in alterations? That 500 may bite you in the ass later if you haven't planned for it.

500 doesn't seem like lot but it depends on what your budget is. Maybe there are similar alternatives?

I tried this dress on - its soooo dreamy and looks like you're on a cloud

have you considered looking on preownedweddingdresses.com to see if someone happeens to have it unaltered for sale?

Have you looked to see if you can find that same dress preowned? It may save up to 75% of the cost of the dress.

As others have said don't forget to factor in alterations. I paid $225 but I've seen people pay up to $750.

I say settle-- it's a dress you're going to wear one day, then sell, donate, or leave to languish in your attic for your kids to sell or donate.

I would say get it and cut down some nights out. You'll be surprised how easy it can be to save that between date nights/movies/bars, etc.

What about alterations?

If you are in love with it, go for it. You'll only get married once. It's beautiful by the way.

I second trying to find it on tradesy or preownedweddingdress . I've heard many success stories of brides being able to afford their dream gown because they found it on one of those two sites!

Remember that there is alterations and accessories to buy too. $500 over can turn out to be a lot more money in the end.

I really shouldn't give advice here because my budget was $1,000 and my dress was about $1,800 plus tax and alterations... it wasn't something I wanted to compromise on and I knew we could handle the price increase.