Everything You Need to Know About Off The Rack Wedding Dresses

Owner of The Bridal Finery, Tali Gallo shares everything you need to know about off the rack wedding dresses. After styling brides for nearly two decades, she shares the benefits of purchasing an off the rack dress, especially if you have a short engagement.

When I got engaged, I knew right away I didn’t want a long engagement. I was so excited to get married, I couldn’t wait! My fiancé proposed out of the country in February and we got married on August 9, 2014. On our flight back, we planned the whole wedding. Well as much as we could without the best internet connection.

Having spent years dressing brides, I quickly learned the perks of a shorter engagement. Less time to change your mind on decor ideas and less time to get overwhelmed with a month of planning. There are certainly challenges when it comes to a shorter engagement, one of the top challenges was having a wedding dress made in time.

My wedding dress was special ordered and arrived on the week before my wedding. (wedding dresses can take up to 9 months to be ordered so even with a rush, my dress arrived only days before my wedding). Being a bridal stylist, I was fine with a one-week turn around for alterations, but it is not ideal for so many reasons. Here are the top things to know when shopping for off the rack wedding dresses.

- Tali Gallo

Difference Between Ordering a Wedding Dress and Purchasing Off the Rack

Sizing

The traditional way to purchase a wedding dress is to find the style and place an order the size you would like. The Bridal Stylist will measure your bust, waist, hip. Those measurements are used to determine the best size on a designer’s size chart. The designer never sees the measurements, they make the dress based on their size chart. Depending on the designer, the dress will take 5-9 months to be made. A special order wedding dress can be made quicker with a rush fee.

With off the rack wedding dresses, the dress you try on is the dress you will wear down the aisle. You skip the measurements, not everyone’s favorite part! If the dress is brand new, you take it home that day. In our bridal shop, we have brand new wedding dresses as well as samples. The samples are showroom pieces, runway samples, and production pieces. They are all in perfect condition. If the dress has been tried on before, then we cover the dry cleaning. Dry cleaning can be done in a rush for a two week turn around or the standard processing time is eight weeks.

Wedding Dress Alterations

There is a common misconception that altering a wedding dress purchased off the rack will be more expensive than special ordering a wedding dress. In most cases, pricing is similar. The more time the seamstress has to alter a wedding dress, the less expensive it will be. Keep into account when the dress will be arriving from the designer.

When you special order a dress, it will still need alterations. A size is ordered for the wedding dress. If you are a size 4 in the bust, size 6 in the waist, and a size 8 in the hip, the recommended size to order would be a size 8. If a size 8 is ordered, you would need to take it in 2-3 inches in the bust for it to fit.

There are certainly times where a special order dress makes sense. A bridal stylist will be able to guide you in the right direction on special ordering over purchase a wedding dress off the rack. The perk of purchase an off the rack wedding dress is the seamstress can start altering the gown sooner. Also, it’s easier to receive an alterations quote before you purchase the gown because it’s easy to see what will need to be altered.

Savings & Purchasing Perks

When you purchase a dress off the rack, typically a 10% -60% off is standard. One of the biggest challenges of a shorter engagement is paying for all the vendors at once. The venue needs their deposit, you are trying to hire a photographer before they get booked. The savings with an off the rack gown is incredibly helpful. Often times, what you save in an off the rack purchase can help pay for the alterations or your bridal accessories. At our bridal shop, we require 60% down to purchase. The balance is due when the dress arrives back from dry cleaning.

You Can Find More Unique Options

The special order gowns are reordered 10-15 times depending on the popularity of the dress. When I worked in special order bridal years ago, we ran into situations where three brides would be doing alterations all in the same dress. For some brides, this isn’t a big deal, but with social media these days, it is more and more important to have something that feels like a one of a kind piece. The great thing about an off the rack dress is you don’t have to worry about tons of other brides wearing your dress. At our bridal shop, we are looking for one special bride to wear a particular gown. We don’t really want anyone else to wear that gown. There are a few instances where we have two samples of the same dress; however, most of our dresses we only have one of.

Whether you are planning a short engagement or you have been dragging your feet on dress shopping, we would love to style you. When you are working within a tighter timeframe it is important to work with experts. There is no room for error. Visit here to see our current availability. We look forward to styling you!