The fabric swatch a bride brings with her to your next wedding consultation may have an unexpected origin: Target.

In May, the superstore announced it would begin offering Isaac Mizrahi-designed wedding dresses on its Web site, priced from $89.99 to $159.99. While Target certainly isn't the first company to venture into inexpensive wedding dress territory -- we've all seen footage of women toppling over one another to get discounted designer dresses in the basement of a department store -- the very low price points have sparked conversation/debate among wedding experts and industry analysts.

"There aren't wedding gowns at that price point anywhere, period," Julie Raimondi, editor and chief of Brides Chicago, said recently in an article for the Chicago Tribune. "It doesn't exist."

The Bridal Association of America estimated the average 2007 wedding will cost $27,710, and the typical bride spent $1,505 on a dress in 2006. This is on top of $274 for a veil, another $333 on various accessories, and $1,970 on flowers.

Reactions so far have been mixed, with some women calling the dresses "disappointing" and others praising them as "gorgeous." Either way, some experts are saying Target's emergence in the market could change how brides shop.

"It's a completely different model," Raimondi says. "If it helps people from going into debt, I think it's a great thing."

Does a lower dress budget open up more money for flowers? Probably not, suspects Kathy Dudley of The Bloomery, Inc., in Butler, Pa., who was featured in the cover story of Floral Management's annual wedding issue, in March.

"We generally see the bride's dress price as proportional to the rest of the total budget, including flowers," Dudley says. The "give-and-take relationship," Dudley says, happens more between the budget for the flowers, cake, invitations, entertainment, and to some extent the food.

"Let's face it -- if the bride is choosing to buy her dress at Target, it sets the tone for how important a wedding is to her -- to even be shopping for such an important item at Target sends a message that the wedding is a budget affair, and will probably hold true throughout the wedding process."  

Dudley says there's always been the bride on the lookout for a good deal and now the industry is really seeing two types brides-to-be walking into the store.

"There are those that see flowers as a main priority, who are willing to spend the money to have a fantastic floral presence at their wedding and those that are one step up from the doing-it-yourselfers," Dudley said. "We're not seeing as many brides who want a florist to do everything."

--Kori Kamradt
kkamradt@safnow.org

 

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