Dress for success. The wedding attire can take a huge chunk out of the budget. The bride wants to be her most beautiful and has grown up with images of the perfect dress. An entire industry is devoted to making bridal dreams come true. But, we found many ways to bypass the price tag attached to the perfect dress. We began with magazine pictures and trips to several bridal shops to determine what we liked and wanted. We found poor quality fabrics and workmanship with exorbitant prices, and undergarments and accessories which, when labeled “bridal” were three times what they would have costs as “evening wear.”

Perspective is a vital ingredient to dress shopping. The dress is worn once for a few hours. Then, relegated to a box or trunk or consignment shelf. The investment can be major and will never be recouped. Most are very uncomfortable, weighing more than any other dress she will ever wear, with several layers underneath than scratch, rustle and heat up. Keep comfort in mind. A form-fitting dress, multiple layers of petticoat, empty stomach and pre-wedding jitters are the recipe for disaster as many a bride can testify.

My mother, an experienced seamstress offered to make the dress. She combined several patterns to come up with the features my daughter wanted. The fabric was relatively inexpensive, but the lace and trims added significantly to the cost. My daughter hand-sewed five thousand sequins and seed pearls to the lace on the sleeves, bodice and train. Her dress was customized, exquisite and cost less than three hundred dollars. She used a crinoline hoop petticoat she had purchased several years before for a prom and ordered a strapless, longline bra from a department store catalogue.

We experimented with several options for a veil. Rather than pay a hundred dollars or more, we decided to make one. The netting is available, already cut to the right lengths from craft stores. We tried making a tiara from silk flowers and pearls but were not completely satisfied with the results. For about $45 the florist offered a headpiece of fresh roses, with veil. In one of the consignment shops we checked, my daughter found a new veil with a headpiece that matched the lace of her dress, and it cost less than all the other choices.