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February 10 2010: Extravagant Wedding Expenses

Filed under Style

A local radio station here are holding a wedding dress party, to give women a chance to wear their wedding dress more than once. Fantastic idea when you think about it – why have a dress you can only wear once? Each day, they have different ways of giving listeners a chance to win tickets to the party – whether it be getting people to call in if they have the most expensive wedding dress, the strangest themed wedding, etc.

A woman called into the show yesterday, telling of her $25,000AUD wedding dress which was made in Italy. That is just obscene! $25,000AUD could be a third of a deposit on a house! It could buy a new car with change left over! There’s extravagant, then there’s pointless expenditure – $25,000AUD for a dress to be worn once? Ridiculous. I wouldn’t even spend $25,000AUD on a whole wedding.

Personally, I already have a plan for my own wedding dress. Because the style I want is so specific, there’s no way I can buy off a rack – the dress will have to be custom-made. So the idea is to:

  1. Purchase luxury bridal silk and lace fabrics at Clegs, which is a luxury fabric store in Melbourne.
  2. Take base pattern ($30AUD for a strapless dress pattern from Spotlight) to Shanghai when I’m on a family visit home
  3. Get a local Chinese made-to-measure dressmaker to create my dream dress for a fraction of the price

So, rather than forking out $8,000AUD-$10,000AUD for a dressmaker to make a dress for me here in Australia, I’d fork out about $700AUD for materials purchased in Australia, and a dressmaker in China to create a dress perfectly fitted to my body, with an extra $2,000AUD in a holiday back home to see family before I get married (as they’re unlikely to be able to come to the wedding). That’s less than a quarter of the price of getting a custom-made dress in Australia, and less than a tenth of the cost of this woman’s $25,000AUD dress!

18 Responses to “Extravagant Wedding Expenses”

  1. That is a good plan.

    I approve.

    I’ll never understand why people spend a huge amount of money on a one-day event like a wedding ~_~;;

    Tara on February 10 2010 #

  2. That’s an awesome plan! It sounds like it would be an absolutely beautiful dress, too.

    My own plan is similar – I’ve always wanted a Shakespearean themed wedding with dress to match, and I know a lot of specialty-themed fabric stores. I’ve also got the advantage of being teeny-weeny and thus necessitating much less fabric XD I could get the pattern, fabric, and sew it myself and have an awesome gown for $500USD or less if I play it right!

    Ashley on February 10 2010 #

  3. I can’t really say anything about the woman with the 25k dress. If I had an obscene amount of money to spend on my wedding, I probably would. Ridiculous but it’d be my one guilty pleasure. Your plan to have your dress made in China is clever. Too bad I can’t speak Chinese.

    Chantelle on February 10 2010 #

  4. Lucky you have a good excuse to go to China to get it done there anyway.

    I can’t imagine having a wedding, let alone a wedding dress, so the prices people pay for these things… simply astound me.

    Stephanie on February 10 2010 #

  5. What a great idea! They should totally do something like that here. :)

    Kristin on February 10 2010 #

  6. $25k AUD for a wedding sounds average. I hear it’s $30,000 CAD here.

    Still, that is a LOT of dough!

    Reply: That’s $25K for a single dress though, not a whole wedding!

    FB @ FabulouslyBroke.com on February 10 2010 #

  7. GREAT idea! My mom made my dress so I had it easy. That said, I didn’t even SEE It until the week before my wedding, so that was a little nervewracking, but it all turned out fine in the end. :)

    And anyway, I say spend less on the wedding (it’s ONE DAY) and more on the honeymoon!

    Meggan on February 11 2010 #

  8. Aww that is an awesome plan. I agree that is a crazy amount to spend on just a dress. Mine was a couple hundred dollars plus some minor alterations and my entire wedding cost about $10,000 USD.

    Caity on February 11 2010 #

  9. That’s an awesome plan. I’ve always thought I would have two weddings – one traditional Chinese one in Hong Kong with my family, and then a traditional Western one complete with the white dress. For the Chinese ceremony, I’m definitely going to get the traditional dress made for me in Hong Kong!

    Manda on February 11 2010 #

  10. Honestly, for me, my (hypothetical) wedding will not be about my dress. That’s not the important part for me. I would rather buy a cheap off-the-rack dress and spend the extra money on delicious food, or a beautiful venue, or an extra guest or two.

    That’s not to say that I don’t want to look good, but having a unique/expensive dress wouldn’t be my priority.

    Clem on February 11 2010 #

  11. I don’t think I’d ever be able to spend that much on a dress. I would be too busy thinking about all the other things I could buy with the money!

    Kaylee on February 11 2010 #

  12. If and when the time comes I’d be considering my mum’s dress because it’s near enough what I’d like and would be free, excluding any sizing changes. Even if I didn’t I could never spend much on it, there are too many other things more important to go all out. I can understand people spending a lot of money on the whole day but on a dress?! The mind boggles.

    Charlie on February 11 2010 #

  13. I could never spend that amount of money on a wedding dress. I grew up with the stories of my parents wedding and especially the ones about my moms dress. She actually crocheted the entire thing herself. Yes. Crocheted. I kid you not.

    My sister had her wedding dress made by her mother in law (which caused some troubles). She bought the fabric and that was about it. I don’t think it was more than a couple of 100 euros.

    So I don’t really think I’ll actually end up buying a dress anyway if I come from this kind of family in which hand-made dresses are the norm. ;)

    Kathleen on February 12 2010 #

  14. $25,000 is absolute extortion, but not uncommon. I keep seeing stories of women who host weddings well outside their means. Mike told me about a woman who spent £15,000 on her wedding so that it was extravagant, when another couple who spent £700 were able to produce a wedding of the same calibre. All it takes is a little research, networking and planing.

    Lilian on February 12 2010 #

  15. Wow, that lady spent an absolutely ridiculous amount on her wedding dress… Your plan is quite smart :)

    Regina on February 12 2010 #

  16. That’s what I’m going to do too.. getting my dress made in Asia. I’ll just have to pay for the plane ticket but it’s just going to be another vacation. ;)

    Katy on February 13 2010 #

  17. That sounds like such a pretty dress!

    I think I’ll probably be having my dress made… in yards and yards and yards of silk. But I’ll probably also wear it whenever I want! (“you’re wearing your wedding dress to work?!” “why not?”)
    I have this dream of holding a wedding on a transatlantic voyage. Mostly because then I won’t have to worry about inviting anyone since it’s super expensive on a per person rate. That way, I can avoid all the stress of invitations, decor, venue… just about everything really!

    Shiying on February 13 2010 #

  18. I could honestly see myself buying a dress from Windsor or Anthropologie. Or possibly getting mine made by this lady who charges, like, $100 plus the cost of materials.

    I also saw a blog where a girl hemmed and dyed her wedding dress so she could wear it again. I think that’s brilliant.

    Arielle on February 16 2010 #

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