Wedding Gowns & Bridal Gowns

That designer wedding dress from the latest collections of Vera Wang or Monique Lhuillier could be yours – if you know where to look. Sample sales are when fashion designers sell the production samples they used to show fashion buyers. Sample items are essentially overstocks, and are sold at huge discounts. So not only will you get to wear the designer wedding dress of your dreams without breaking your budget – you’ll be right in fashion when you do it! Read on to find out how to buy a wedding dress at a sample sale.

Before anything else, you need to know when and where the sample sales are going to take place! Sign up for mailing lists like DailyCandy.Com, Top Button, or New York Magazine to receive listings and schedules of sample sales.

Sample sales are usually held in season. For instance, sales on fall and winter wedding collections are generally held from September to November, which means you can wear your fall and winter wedding dress right when the season rolls in.

Although some sample sales will ask you to make an appointment, very few sample sales are private. Once you’ve selected which sale to go to, make the right calls to get added to the guest list, if there are any.

You can either go early in the morning or towards the end of the sale – both have their advantages and disadvantages. If you show up early, you’re going to have the best picks and get to have first dibs. Towards the end of the day, discounts increase because manufacturers don’t want any leftover merchandise after the sale. Personally, I wouldn’t mind waking up early and paying a little extra if it means I have a wider selection and a higher chance of finding my dream designer dress.

Whatever time you decide to go, do NOT go during lunch hour (11:30 til 2 pm). This is when sample sales are at their most crowded, with New York office workers on lunch break trying to get the best deals.

You’ll be spending a whole lot of time on your feet, so it’s best to wear comfortable shoes. Wear an outfit you can easily change in and out of, such as a t-shirt dress, so you don’t spend too much time unbuckling buckles, zipping down zippers, and undoing buttons. Some sample sales don’t have dressing rooms, so if you’re a little shy about having strangers see your underclothes, you might want to wear a leotard underneath.

Make sure you bring cash! Although some sample sales accept credit cards and checks, most like cash transactions.

All sales are final, so make sure you inspect your wedding dress for any loose beadwork or defective zippers before taking it to the cash register.

Good luck, and happy shopping!

Photo credit

Don’t you just hate it when you can’t find any decent photos of celebrities in their wedding dresses? They’re among the very few who can afford to wear designer wedding dresses beyond the catwalk, and I’m sure I’m not the only one who’d like to see their favorite stars all dressed in white. Then again, weddings are private, personal affairs and I’m sure anyone would hate to have paparazzi flashing bulbs all throughout the ceremony.

Last weekend, actress Salma Hayek tied the knot with her French billionaire husband François-Henri Pinault for the second time – the first one being a civil ceremony in Paris on Valentine’s Day. The second ceremony was a 150-guest, star-studded affair held at Venice, Italy. Among the guests were Penelope Cruz, Gael Garcia Bernal, Ziyi Zhang, Edward Norton, and former French President Jacques Chirac. Everyone wore black and gold masks as they arrived for the wedding, and the bride herself walked down the aisle in a Balenciaga wedding gown by Nicholas Ghesquiere. Salma’s hair was done in an elaborate up-do and adorned with a long veil, and she carried a bouquet of stephanotis and orchids with crystals to the aisle. This was the best photo I could find of Salma Hayek’s wedding dress, and it looks like the bodice has some elaborate beadwork. Such a shame you can’t really see much of the details on the dress!

Photo credit

New York based wedding dress designer Romona Keveza is well known for her classic cuts and elegant silhouettes. She takes inspiration from style icons like Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, Princes Diana of Wales, and Princess Grace of Monaco, and mixes these elements with today’s trends, creating wedding dresses that are timeless but never dated. For her Spring 2010 wedding collection, Romana Keveza does something different: she placed modern twists on classic wedding gowns, creating an out-of-the-box look that’s not too avant-garde. Ideal for a reception in a modern loft. Look under the cut to see my favorite picks from Romona Keveza’s Spring 2010 wedding collection!

Romana Keveza does something new to the classic ballgown skirt and divides it in two lacy tiers. The sweetheart neckline is a lovely touch too.

(more…)

Carolina Herrera’s Spring 2010 wedding collection is out, and I am speechless at how exquisite each dress is. You can tell that so much attention was paid to every tuck, ruffle, and hem. But more importantly, there’s a wedding dress style for all sorts of brides – romantic, modern, casual, retro, and extravagant. I can’t imagine a single setting where one of these dresses would be considered inappropriate! Check out the cut to see my picks from Carolina Herrera’s spring 2010 wedding collection.

I love how the floral prints of this wedding dress pops out and the delicious contrast made by the bouquet of red roses.

(more…)

Is the first item on your wedding to-do list, “shop for a wedding dress”? Not so fast! In the Spring 2009 issue of InStyle Weddings, celebrity wedding gown designer Vera Wang advices against making your wedding dress your first purchase. According to her, you can’t choose a dress properly unless you’ve decided on a venue and how many guests you’ll be having. Why not, you say? A casual tea-length dress will look small and out of place in a huge wedding with 400 guests, whereas a ball gown will overwhelm a small venue with less than a hundred guests.

With years of experience in the fashion industry and several happy celebrity clients backing up that statement, Vera Wang’s advice makes perfect sense. Look under the jump to see Vera Wang’s wedding dresses for all occasions and all brides (oh, if only we all had thousands of dollars to spare for one of her dreamy dresses!).

A wedding at city hall calls for a short chic wedding dress, such as this ivory silk crepe shirt-dress with an ivory-colored tweed waistband. Made to order at verawang.com.

(more…)