big cultural shift from just a few years ago, when women often spent more than they could afford on their dream dresses.
Call it the H&M effect. Today's brides are expecting high-design wedding dresses for a fraction of the cost of a designer dress.
Affordable wedding dresses
When Rebecca Selvenis, who works in Human Resources in Google's New York office, set out looking for a dress for her upcoming wedding, she had three goals in mind--to find something beautiful, romantic and, most importantly, inexpensive. It's a sentiment echoed by brides-to-be across the country. Sure, they want a knockout dress for their wedding, but these days many don't consider it an expense worth maxing out a credit card or becoming indebted to a family member. This comes as a
big cultural shift from just a few years ago, when women often spent more than they could afford on their dream dresses.
Call it the H&M effect. Today's brides are expecting high-design wedding dresses for a fraction of the cost of a designer dress.
According the Knot's 2009 Real Weddings Survey, the average price paid for a wedding dress in 2009 was $1,134, a drop from the 2007 high, when women spent $1,317 on average for a wedding dress. Perhaps more telling, according to a study released by David's Bridal this year--50% of brides to be consider it a priority to spend less than $800 on their dress, and 54% of those surveyed said getting a designer dress wasn't important to them.
big cultural shift from just a few years ago, when women often spent more than they could afford on their dream dresses.
Call it the H&M effect. Today's brides are expecting high-design wedding dresses for a fraction of the cost of a designer dress.
