Are wedding dress samples FREE for bridal salons?

Most certainly NOT!

Every wedding dress you see hanging in a bridal salon has been paid for in full by the store. Most shops hang at least 100 samples and so even a middle price store (retails from $699 - $1199) has at least $40,000 invested in those dresses! And 100 samples is really a small store!

Now consider that the store is required by each designer they carry to purchase new styles twice a year. Depending on the manufacturer, that can be as few as 6 per season = 12 a year or as many as 24 per season = 48 a year. A store carrying 6 different designers (and that is a fraction of what is out there...just look at the designer list on The Knot) needs to purchase between 72 and 288 new styles. Many times this is as much or more than the store offers altogether!

And it is complicated by the fact that most bridal gowns only last 6-12 months before the designer discontinues them and the store is left trying to reduce the price and move the sample to make room, to get something back on their investment.

So, you say, a savvy bridal shop owner will recognize this dilemna and just NOT purchase all those new dresses. I refer you back to the paragraph with the bold word "required". If a store does NOT place their required number of samples, the designer will close their account.

Maybe you think that is OK because if the store loved the line, of course they would like to buy more styles. But for you, the BRIDE, it is not OK because when the designer closes the account, they will no longer accept any orders from that bridal shop on the styles they do own and more importantly for BRIDES, they will hold your ordered gown hostage until the store comes up with the order and the MONEY to buy the required samples.

And you all thought this was a glamour business and so much fun! No one can survive in bridal unless they are a skilled business person. No one.

The website says you have the dresses...but you don't - WHY?

Bridal salons hear this all the time because brides search on the Internet first these days and take everything they find as FACT!

Designers WANT you to be in stores looking at their dresses in person! So even if a store bought 4 samples, they will list the store on their designer site as having the line. And brides tend to interpret that as having it ALL.

Most large designers have at least 100 gowns that they are producing. I can think of one that has over 300! Stores just don't have the space to hang all the styles from all the designers they carry so they pick and choose what suits their bridal shoppers the most. Yes, they PAY ATTENTION to what you try on and even more, to what you buy.

And in case you didn't realize it, stores PAY for all those pretty dresses. Since the markup is usually double the wholesale cost, that means a store owning 100 dresses in the moderate price range (which is $700-$1500 at retail) has about $50,000 invested in dresss for you to try on!

Well, you say, that's the cost of doing business. Ah, but consider this, a bridal dress has a shelf life of 6-12 months at the most. Maybe 1 in 100 styles will last longer. So a return on the investment had better be quick!

Even more stressful to shopowners is the fact that the designers require them to buy NEW styles twice a year and they must purchase a required number of new styles. The least I dealt with was 4 per season or 8 per year. The most was 24 styles, twice a year or 48 new dresses! That's enough to fill a small shop so they are not likely to go over the required number.

My best advice to brides is NOT to take the internet listing as gospel. If you have found a style you just have to see, CALL first! The store may have had it and sold it out to someone with less than 6 months to her wedding. They may not have bought it at all.

Save yourself time and disappointment by simply checking before you make the trip.

How we can offer 20% off special order wedding gowns

Many brides ask us about our discount policy as it is unique to The Bridal Mall...I think!

The first reason we can afford to offer it is simply that we pay less for gowns that small salons because we buy so many! It pays to be important to a designer.

When a gown is priced, the store figures in the average time that will be spent in helping a bride select her gown. So if you are decisive, our cost in selling the dress goes down and we can give you a price break!

We decided to offer this program because we know how hard it is for brides to afford their dream wedding.