Shopping for the perfect wedding dress can be one of the easiest tasks you ever undertake, or it can be a time-consuming, nail-biting experience. Most brides find that their experience lands somewhere in the middle. It helps to have some idea of the kind of dress you're looking for before you leave the house. In order to know this, you need to know where your wedding is going to take place; so until you book your ceremony, the dress will have to wait.

Where is the best place to shop for a dress? Do people still go to bridal salons when the Internet has made everything so convenient? What kinds of things do you need to look out for when making a purchase of this magnitude? This section will give you all the information you need to have in order to be an educated bride in search of the perfect dress.

Church Bells or Sea Shells?

Before you can even think about making appointments at dress shops and trying on gowns, you have to know where you're headed for the ceremony. Your destination is the number one factor in deciding which kind of dress you'll wear.

“Well, that's just silly!” you say. “I can wear whatever I want! It's my wedding!” In theory, this is true. It also might make sense to you to go looking for a dress before you finalize any other plans, especially if your mom is only in town for one weekend, or if you know it will take you months to find the right look. Your destination is part of the look, however, and you have to make sure the dress suits the setting. You just cannot wear a brocade gown with a twenty-foot train to your beach wedding. Not only will you be way overdressed, but you'll also probably faint from the heat. If that particular kind of dress has always been your dream and is the one thing you can't do without, then choose a more appropriate location (like a grand cathedral), where it will blend in with the setting.

If you're choosing a very long or large dress, really give some thought as to how well you'll be able to deal with shipping the dress ahead of you. If you just know that you would be a nervous wreck waiting to see if the dress makes it to your wedding on time, go with something simpler that you can pack in your suitcase.

Bridal Salons

You'll probably be pleasantly surprised to learn that many labels are embracing the destination wedding trend and designing less formal gowns that pack and travel well. It's best to call a bridal salon before stopping by. These shops usually have a fairly small staff, and you want to make sure that someone will be available to hunt through all of the dresses and narrow down your choices for you. The dress consultant will ask about your wedding so that she knows which dresses to bring to you, so again, before you go dress shopping, know where you're headed for your wedding!

What do you need to watch out for in a salon? Price gouging. Some salons will remove the tags from gowns for two reasons: first, so that you can't go down the street to another salon and compare prices; and second, so you don't know what size you're trying on. In a very worst-case scenario, a salon may try to increase its profit margin by convincing a woman that a certain dress tends to run small, so the bride should order it two sizes larger than she would normally wear. When the dress arrives and is falling off the bride, she has no choice but to pay for extensive (and ultra-expensive) alterations.

Full-service bridal salons tend to be more expensive than their cut-rate counterparts. Yes, it's nice to sit on a plush settee and sip champagne and eat pastries while you're talking to your mom and sister about which dress is prettiest, but you're paying for all of the niceties in the dress markups. That's not to say it's a good thing or a bad thing; it's just the way it is.

Before you sign a contract for the dress, read through it carefully.

Take special note of the following information:

• Deposit and balance. How much did you put down, how much do you owe, and when do you need to pay the balance? It should be there in black and white.

• Delivery information. When will this dress be delivered? The date should be on the contract.

• Shipping address. The dress should be shipped to the shop, not to you. If it arrives at your home damaged, you're going to have a heck of a time getting a replacement or refund. If it arrives damaged at the shop, it's their problem.

• The size. Make sure the correct size is on the contract! You don't want to end up paying for alterations because a too-big dress was ordered. Likewise, if a too-small dress arrives and your signature is on that contract, that dress belongs to you.

It's advisable to use your credit card when paying for your dress. If something goes awry, you've got added protection in the form of your credit card company, which will help fight a monetary dispute for you (at least to some extent).

Discount Shops and Department Stores

Discount bridal shops are a booming industry. Brides have come to their senses and now ask themselves, “Why am I paying so much money for a dress I'm going to wear once?” The dresses in these shops tend to be last season's models or dresses with slight imperfections. They still look great; they just cost less. The drawback here is that you may not find exactly what you're looking for. You may be tempted to go with a dress because of its low price and not because it's particularly flattering. We'll talk more about choosing a dress that suits you well later in this chapter.

If you're looking for a fairly simple dress, you may also be able to find one in a nice department store. The downside here is that unless the dress fits you perfectly, you may have to hunt down your own seamstress and pay for alterations, which will pretty much offset any money you've saved by shopping in the mall. Chances are, though, that you're going to have to pay for alterations on any dress, so it's a wash.

Internet Shopping

When you buy a sweater online, do you wonder if it's going to look as good when it arrives as it does online? You can't really tell if it fits until you get it, and even if it does fit, the fabric might just be a little chintzy.

Some brides are so brave that they shoot right past the sweater shopping and order their wedding gowns on the Internet! While this may seem like a good way to save time and money, you really shouldn't take this kind of chance unless you've already done a good amount of research and you know the exact brand, style number, and size of the dress you're after. You really need to try on dresses to make sure the sizes run true, which means you probably have already invested some serious time in this venture. Therefore, the theory of saving time is out.

If the dress you've ordered online arrives damaged (or is the wrong size or style), you might have some serious problems on your hands, depending on the Web site's shipping and return policies, so make sure you check them out extremely carefully before ordering a dress in cyberspace. At the very least, if you need to make a return, you'll probably be out some shipping charges, which can be very expensive when you're talking about insured, weighty packages.

Bottom line: This is not the best way to buy something as significant as your wedding dress. If you do decide to go this route, find out which state the business is based in and then do another Internet search for that state's Better Business Bureau. Type the company's name into the search box and see what pops up.

Dressmakers

For that one-of-a-kind dress that you design yourself, look for a reputable dressmaker in your area — but look early. A good dressmaker may be booked a year (or more) in advance. Make sure she knows that your dress will travel with you so that the two of you can choose the best style and fabric for your gown.