When to buy wedding dress

I am only going about 9 months in advance, my mom and sister both live in another province and that is the only time that worked for them to come.

Hi Alyssa! To give yourself ample time for the dress to come in and get all of your alterations done, I always recommend buying your dress at least 9 months before your wedding day. Depending on how long you think you'll need (or want) for dress shopping, I'd say start looking at and trying on dresses 10-12 months in advance!

If you want more expert dress shopping information, check out our guides: Why You Should Shop For Your Wedding Dress Early , Everything You Need to Know About Wedding Dress Shopping , and How to Find the Right Wedding Dress Store .

I’m getting married this August and purchased my dress last September so 11 months prior. My dress came in April and I have my first fitting beginning of June. Could have done May but I wanted a little more time to loose weight haha

Everyone says to start looking at the one year mark. I purchased mine in November of 2016 and get married in June this year.

I've been told shopping/purchase around 12 months before the wedding. depending on the dress/company can take 4-9 months to come in. and your seamstress may require a certain amount of time for alterations (mine requires 3 months).
I've done some shopping on my own/with a friend or two in order to get ideas/narrow things down. I then have an "official" day booked with my aunt and chosen momma almost one year to my wedding date.

Depends what you want but usually they say 6-8 months out you want it ordered as they can take upto 6 months to arrive once it's ordered.

A few things to keep in mind as I ran into these issues:
- If you have your heart set on trying on a specific dress you may want to see if its one that travels with trunk shows or if samples are carried in shops. Most bridal salons will have trunk shows for the new seasons collections for their designers that come for a short period time so if you have a specific designer you like might good to find out when they have one near you
- if you have a specific style you want to try on then call shops ahead of time to see if they carry anything like it. This can take some time and may require traveling to try on that specific look
- when can you get the couple of people you want there together
- sample sales and blowout sales can save you hundreds (or even thousands) on a dress if you know when those are and already have an idea of the kind of dress you want

I was told to start looking for a wedding dress around the 1 year mark. If you consider that a graduation dress takes about 4-6 months to come in, and the alterations another 1-2 months you rather be safe than sorry. (Again, this is what I have been told - So for me I won't start looking until September - unless others on this site tell me otherwise??)