David's Bridal and Alfred Angelo have great dresses for a bride on a budget. Just remember all the accessories. I basically had two budgets in mind. One specifically for the dress and alterations and then one for undergarments, veil/headpiece, even jewlery and shoes. This just helped me to keep better perspective. I had a budget of about $1500 for my dress.
My dress was a dress from Svetlana Bridal Couture in Larchmont, NY a very unique bridal boutique. I paid $3,200 its super high end and if you love Galia Lahav or Pnina Tournai styles for much less money, you will love Svetlana Bridal Couture, they make dresses to order by measurements which has a unique fit for only the bride who purchases the dress. I am so excited to get my dress soon.I can't wait!!!!
$100. After alterations less than 300. All what I need for alterations is a corset back put in from a zipper and the bustle. I could not pay an enormous amount for a dress that won't even be worn an entire day.
$900 after alterations. My dress was from David's bridal and a seamstress friend did all of my alterations for dirt cheap (and I swear she did better than the alterations department at David's, who wanted to charge an arm and a leg)
I bought 2 dresses. My first one was $600 and then $120 for alterations, but I ended up going with a $160 dress at the last minute and I loved it! Now if only I could sell the first one...
$1000 from David's Bridal. I believe it was just their brand. I'm not real sure and didn't really care because I loved it. My veil was $200 but I had a discount coupon for it. Alterations were $276.
My Essence of Australia Dress was $1800. My veil was discounted to $160. I'm not sure what alterations will look like...I'm planning on $300ish.