You might think that you can never buy your wedding dress to early, but it’s very easy to wait too long. You also may think that a bridal consultant is trying to pressure you into buying too many months in advance. But the average time to order a dress is from most manufacturers is 12 – 17 weeks. Let me explain the process. Almost all wedding gowns are manufactured in China. When a bridal shop sells a dress they call the manufacturer with the order. The manufacturers accumulate orders during the week through Friday. The orders are then faxed or sometimes emailed to the actual manufacturing plant in China. The gown is then put into the production schedule. The cutting, sewing, embroidery, beading etc. is then done. This whole process can take several weeks.
Once the dress is completed at the manufacturing plant in China it is packaged and shipped by container to the U.S. When it arrives in the U.S. it must first go to customs. It must clear customs. This part of the process can take place quickly or take several days. (Sometimes the custom officials take extra time to inspect shipments looking for contraband) After the dress goes throught this process it is shipped to the manufacturer’s warehouse, it is checked in and then repackaged ready to ship to the bridal store. Dresses are usually shipped regular UPS which can take 3-7 days depending on the distance from the warehouse to the bridal store.
One more thing that can cause a delay is Chinese New Year. This is a 15 day celebration in China and the dress manufacturers close down for it. That can mean an additional 2 weeks for delivery of your dress.
Most bridal manufacturers actually come out with new styles twice each year, Spring and Fall. That means they discontinue dress styles twice a year. The bridal shop owners never knows which dresses will be discontinued and which will be held over to the next season.
If you put off ordering your wedding dress it could be discontinued when you actually decide to buy. This obviously could be a big disappointment for you. By ordering your dress early you provide adequate time for the manufacturing process, alterations and for any other problems that could arise.
Alterations are usually done 6 – 8 weeks prior to the wedding. It is always best to schedule your appointment with the seamstress well in advance. This means 12-17 weeks for ordering the dress and another 6-8 weeks for alterations. So you can see that 5-6 months prior to the wedding is not too early to order.
Mistakes happen, fortunately in the bridal industry they are few and far between. Sometimes the manufacturer can make an error, anything from the wrong color fabric to sending the wrong size dress. Sometimes the bridal shop can make an error in ordering. This isn’t to scare you. Both the manufacturer and the bridal shop owners are very careful with each detail and use several checks to make sure there isn’t any error. But on the remote chance something doesn’t go exactly as planned it is so much better to have ordered your dress well in advance so if a correction needs to be made there will be time.