He finally proposed, you said yes, and now all conversations start with “Have you set a date?”  Now that it’s socially acceptable for you to start buying the wedding planning books and registering at The Knot (it’s okay – we know you already had an account), your journey will be easier if you have good resources along the way.

 
One of the biggest savings in planning my wedding was my wedding dress.  I spent an amazing $219 (including shipping) to have my dress custom made in Hong Kong, China.  It sounds crazy, and I will admit it took a leap of faith, but it was a great experience.  I had found two dresses that I loved at a local bridal salon, but both were priced over $1,000, and of course they were private labels which made finding a duplicate impossible.  I went online and found this website, www.1koo.com, a store in China that sold wedding gowns super cheap.  None of their designs had all the elements I was looking for, so I sent an e-mail with my favorite pictures of a top, bottom and back and asked if they could make a dress combining all three pictures.  I had a response back in less than 24 hours:  yes,  $219 please, and you’ll have it in two weeks.  TWO WEEKS?  Wow.

Now if you go this route, I have two additional pieces of advice.  First, make sure your friend or hubby-to-be or seamstress measures correctly.  I went to a seamstress to be measured so I could e-mail all the correct measurements, and I still ended needing it altered.  Nothing short of ZZZ boobs would have held up this dress.  The length was perfect however, and if you are short like me, you’ll save big money not having to shorten all that material.

Second,  don’t be alarmed when you get the package.  When I picked up my package from the post office, it was the size of a shoe box.  I asked the man if this was the right package or if there was another box.  Surely, my super-sized puffy princess-style wedding gown with full train did not fit in this box.  But it did!

So do your research, drink a couple glasses of wine, and go for it.  If it turns out beautiful which mine did, you’ll have saved hundreds of dollars, maybe more.  If it turns out horrible, you can always sell it on E-bay and start over!