Costly Wedding Fashion Mistakes and How to Avoid Them

We’ve seen many brides (and grooms) overspend on their wedding fashion and then ‘manage’ or squeeze on the remaining funds to plan a meager wedding reception where everything but their outfits is horrible.  It’s easy to make this type of mistake because the time of shopping for wedding fashion (outfits) is one of those times that common-sense flies out of the window for most brides.  In this post, you’ll learn about the costly wedding fashion mistakes that many Nigerian brides make and how to avoid them.  You’ll also find out how to stay within your budget when shopping for your wedding outfits.

Impulse-buying takes over and there’s no care for how deep the cost of the wedding attire will cut into the overall budget.  Most brides later regret over-spending on their wedding attire while others believe that other things would fall in place once they have bought the shiny expensive white wedding dress or traditional bridal attire.  We always advise brides to make a budget breakdown and wedding shopping list before spending any money.  Read on for tips on how to avoid making common wedding fashion budget mistakes.

In part 1 of the ‘top wedding mistakes’ series, we covered the costly wedding cake mistakes Nigerian newlyweds confessed they made. In that post, we also provided many different ways to have an impressive but low-cost wedding cake without looking cheap. In case you missed that post, you can find it how to avoid costly wedding cakes mistakes.  In this post, you’ll learn about the second pre-wedding mistake newlyweds often make, as well as hear the wedding day regrets newlyweds confessed they have.

MISTAKE #2: Blowing Your Entire Wedding Budget on Fashion (Outfits)

With the excitement of being newly engaged and getting married soon, one of the first things brides-to-be start doing is to hit the bridal shops in search of that ‘it dress’ and the latest traditional wedding attires. After a while, they are shocked to realize that they’ve already blown nearly all their money and yet don’t have half of what they need for the wedding day.

• 5 Things You Should Know Before Buying Your Wedding Attire
• 17 Wedding Gown Shopping Tips That Will Save You Time and Money

Did that sound familiar?

To give you an idea of the remorse real-life newlyweds felt right after overspending on their wedding fashion, here’s what different brides said a couple of weeks after tying the knot…

BRIDE #1: My N220k Allure wedding gown was beautiful, but now when I look back I feel I should have bought a less expensive dress that is equally beautiful at half that price or less.

BRIDE #2: If I had one piece of advice it would be for a bride-to-be to ask a lot of questions before buying her wedding dress, especially if looking to have it adjusted to better fit your size. The store where I bought mine encouraged me to buy a size larger because ‘you can always make it smaller’, but it turned out that I couldn’t adjust it as I later discovered that lace wedding dresses don’t come with extra side seams!

BRIDE #3: I regret not investing some of my lavish wedding expenses into our futures. I could have used it to buy a house, a car, invested in my children’s future. I was too excited and wanted a fairy-tale wedding. Now that it’s all come and gone, I realized that it wasn’t all worth it – I should have had a small wedding with fewer guests.

BRIDE #4: I should have made only one dress change at my reception, but I bought outfits for three dress changes. Now I wonder, why didn’t I reason? I regretted spending so much money, if i could turn back the hands of time, I would not have changed more than once.

How Not To Over-Spend on Your Wedding Fashion (Money-Saving Tips For Brides)

1. SET A FASHION BUDGET: Your wedding day is not only about the dress. You should have your fashion budget separate, as part of your overall wedding cost. Remember, you have to feed the guests, you have to hire a venue, provide music and lots more. For a full list of things to budget when planning your wedding, click here to download our free wedding budget worksheet.
2. SET A BUDGET FOR OTHER EXPENSES: Agreed, the wedding gown is one of the most important things for you as the bride, but it is NOT the only important thing required to organize your wedding – you have to feed your guests, entertain them; pay for your makeup, hair, shoes, jewelry and more. You certainly don’t want to get a glam dress and not be able to complete the fab “look” that you have in mind.
3. DO NOT SPEND BEYOND YOUR BUDGET: Before buying or paying for anything, set a budget for your wedding shopping – item by item. For example, let’s say you have a traditional wedding attire budget of N180,00;  this doesn’t mean you should spend it all on just your attire. In case you want an example to guide you in making your own wedding budget, click here to see sample costing and budget list for common expenses in 5 different Nigerian weddings.

Resist starting wedding shopping until you have an idea of how much you have and can afford to spend on the entire wedding event, as well as on specifics such as the wedding cake, the decoration, reception, and others.

Stick to Your Wedding Budget

And when you start visiting the bridal shops, be a savvy bride-to-be and take your shopping list along. Hold tight to your set wedding budget and don’t allow any slick-talking salesperson or even ‘your own head’ to make you buy shiny things that cost more than your budget.

Finally, keep track of your expenses – always write down what you have bought, and know how much you have left unspent.  Our free wedding budget template provides a way for you to record and track your wedding expenses – download it here.

Wedding Planning Takeaway

No matter how small your budget is, with careful planning and savvy spending, you can have a glam wedding that looks like it’s done with a million bucks.
That’s is on the wedding mistake #2. Be sure to come back in a few days for part 3 of this series,

Your Turn Now

So, tell me, have you made any of the above mistakes already or know anyone who did? Leave me a comment down below and be sure to Facebook or tweet this article, if you enjoyed reading it.