If you’ve already started the planning process, you may be discovering that it is more stressful than you had imagined. You may be finding it difficult to truly enjoy the process. And for many brides, the biggest stress of all is the gown. At some point before the wedding, you are going to select the most important dress that you will ever wear. But no pressure! Every bride has a unique journey to find the dress. It’s all part of the experience of getting married.

Each bride has a different experience when finding her gown, and the hunt has to start somewhere. Getting started, maybe you have run into one (or many) of the following issues:

     ·         Perusing your Pinterest, you realize you’re in love with the pricey styles by Monique Lhullier, Reem Acra, and Alexander McQueen, and the dresses of lesser quality really aren’t doing it for you.
     ·         You feel your style changes so frequently that it would be impossible to purchase a gown you may not love in a year.
    ·         Crunching your budget, you find there’s no way you could afford a dress that’s going to run you $1,000 per hour on your wedding day.
     ·         You’re a curvy girl (and proud of it), but the shop can’t show you a gown in your size, so they promise it will look perfect on you when it comes in six months down the road in your size.
     ·         Checking your calendar you realize that your window in which to order a dress has closed.
     ·         Looking through pictures of your favorite, you realize the one you love the most is from a few years ago and is no longer in production.
     ·         You’ve got a baby on the way, and the wedding is during your pregnancy.
     ·         You’ve had the terrible misfortune of ordering your dream gown, and it arrived with issues (whatever they may be).

Finding a gown should be an enjoyable process. If any of these situations has been yours since you started planning, you may be feeling like the journey has been far from pleasant. However, don’t stress. You can get a designer dress, you can spend less than your entire year’s earnings, and you can have it in time for your wedding day. Most importantly, whatever issues you may have run into, you can find a dress that you love. Enter: the sample gown.

Ever wonder what becomes of the dresses that brides try on at the shops when stock changes over, the gowns that cross the runways or grace the magazine pages, and the ones that brides cancel due to a change of heart? Those are the dresses (whatever size, shape, or style they may be) that become samples. These gowns cannot be sold as brand new if another person has put them on or if they have been ordered for another bride. This doesn’t render these gowns useless; it gives them a whole new purpose.

For many brides, the designer is important. Some brides really appreciate the hours that go into the beadwork, the Alencon lace, the dupioni silk, and the expert craftsmanship. What is important about the dress varies from bride to bride, and being in one of the aforementioned situations does not limit you from getting the designer gown of your dreams. If the designer is important to you, then it is a valid factor to consider when making your purchase.

Back to budget issues, and this time with good news. Loving designer details can be of concern when it comes to the budget, but don’t fret. Those previously described gowns from the discontinuations, fashion shows, etc., cannot be sold for the same price as they cost to order from a shop, but they are still so valuable for their luxurious fabrics and superior construction. Sample gowns sell for a fraction of the price for which they retail when ordered. Purchasing a sample makes for a great way to express your expensive taste without paying as much for it.

As for the time crunch issue, it’s less of one in the case of getting a sample gown. With samples, what you see is what you get. There is no ordering, and there is no waiting for months to see your gown. This is great for the bride who waited till the last minute, was too afraid of her changing taste to order months out, the expecting bride, or the one who got engaged last month and is getting married next month.

Taking a “traditional” route and ordering a $5,000 dress eight months before the wedding is only one of the options in finding a wedding dress, but many natural life occurrences may make this method simply not an option, and that’s okay. Embrace it, don’t stress, and make it all part of the journey. Purchasing a sample gown is a great way to get a fabulous designer gown at a price that won’t break the bank. You don’t have to compromise your expensive taste, and you don’t have to order months in advance. You could end up with an $8,000 designer gown one month before your wedding that you only paid $900 for… and no one has to know that besides you!