The Ultimate Bridal Party Dress Shopping Timeline

12-Month Bridal Party Dress Shopping Timeline

12+ Months From The Wedding Day

Create a wedding day fashion inspiration board.
If you’re more than a year away from the wedding day, then use the time to gather inspiration and photos of what you want your wedding dress and your bridal party dresses to look like. The goal at this point should be to capture a vibe or an overall aesthetic (not necessarily to find the one). So look for photos of dresses for weddings online, on social media, in magazines and really anywhere you can find them. As you save photos of wedding dresses, bridesmaid dresses, dresses for mom and flower girl dresses, you should start to see a style take shape. Don’t worry about the price or where to find the actual dresses. That’ll come later!

+10-12 Months From The Wedding Day

Create a wedding day fashion inspiration board.
This is where the bulk of the wedding dress shopping comes into play. Look online (the Kleinfeld Bridal Party wedding dress gallery has 100s of gorgeous dresses!) and make appointments at bridal salons. Once you’ve found the one, buy it. You’ll use your wedding dress as a source of inspiration for the rest of your bridal party’s dresses (ie, everyone else’s dresses should coordinate with yours!).

9-10 Months From The Wedding Day

Shop for and buy your accessories.
Now that you have your dress, you’ll want to think about the rest of your day-of look. That includes a veil, hair piece, shoes and any accessories you think you might want to wear. Shop for and buy those early so that they arrive in time for your alterations. (You’ll want to have the right heel height in order for your seamstress to hem your dress.)

Shop for bridesmaid dresses.
Once you’ve bought your dress and accessories, it’s time to move on to your bridesmaid dresses. Before you start bridal party shopping though, take a look back through those photos you saved to your inspiration board. Look for patterns and similarities between the photos you picked and ask yourself what specifically you like about each of those photos. Maybe it’s that they’re all long bridal party dresses or maybe you saved a lot of laid-back looks with mixed-and-matched necklines. Once you have an idea as to what you’re really going for, then you can get started bridal party dress shopping. Inspiration in hand, start your search online. Shameless plug: Start right here on Kleinfeld Bridal Party! We have 100s of bridesmaid dresses, colors and patterns to shop from and you’d be hard-pressed to find prettier dresses at a more reasonable price point.

+6-8 Months From The Wedding Day

Buy your bridesmaid dresses.
This is the time to narrow it down your favorite bridesmaid dresses and make your decision. One of the easiest ways to narrow it down is to create an online bridal party showroom! (Showrooms help you organize your favorite dresses and let your bridal party members weigh in on each one!) Generally speaking (and there are exceptions to this) so long as you order your bridesmaid dresses within 6 months of the wedding day, you should have plenty of time to get them shipped to your bridal party, and altered. PS There’s a lot less pressure to get them ordered if you buy a bridesmaid dress on KleinfeldBridalParty.com. Why? Most of our dresses ship the same day you order them! (Read all about it right here.)

Shop dresses for moms.
Now that you have your dress and your bridesmaid dresses, you’ll want to start looking for mom. Have her start by searching our mother-of-the-bride/groom dress gallery. There are nearly 100 styles for her to choose from several of which are under $200!

+3-5 Months From The Wedding Day

Buy a dress for mom.
Having searched around and narrowed in on a style and color, your moms should buy their dresses. Ordering them at this point should give them plenty of time to receive their dresses and then have them altered if need be.

Shop for and buy the flower girl(s) dresses.
With all of the adult dresses taken care of, it’s time to dress your littlest bridal party members. Start your search online right here in our flower girl dress gallery and once you’ve found the right one, buy it!

Confirm all bridal party dresses are in hand.
During this time, everyone should be receiving their dresses. Ask your bridal party to let you know when their dresses arrive so that you can keep track. Once they’re all confirmed, have them send you a photo of themselves in the dress. That way, you can decide together whether the dress needs alterations.

Buy all bridal party accessories.
This is also the time to think about shoes and accessories for your bridesmaids: Set a goal to have your bridesmaids order accessories by at least 3 months from the wedding day. If mom or your flower girl still need shoes or accessories, this is the time to make sure they’ve ordered those.

Make alterations appointments.
Dresses in hand, you should each start to schedule your alterations appointments. Your bridesmaids and moms will probably only need 1 appointment, but you will likely need 2 to 4 depending on how your dress is constructed. Ask your seamstress to guide you on what’s necessary for each dress and then get those appointments scheduled.

+1-2 Months From The Wedding Day

Confirm your bridal party’s final looks.
As the wedding date nears, you’ll want to make sure your bridesmaids, moms, and flower girls have all made their alterations appointments and bought their shoes and accessories. Once they’ve accomplished those tasks, ask them to send you another photo of themselves dressed from head to toe in their final looks!

1 Month or Less from the Wedding Day

Create a day-of fashion emergency kit.
At this point, you should be all set. The only thing left to do is to prepare for the wedding day. We recommend putting together a fashion emergency kit to have on hand just in case. Include safety pins (in small, medium and large sizes), a needle and thread, fashion tape, wipes, and anything else you think might come in handy.

Express Bridal Party Shopping Timeline.
It used to be that without at least 6 months, your bridal party dresses may not have been shipped in time for you to make alterations. All of that has changed thanks to the fact that most of the dresses (yes, including wedding dresses!) on KleinfeldBridalParty.com are ready to ship the same day. (See all the shipping details on our dresses right here.) So for those of you with just 6 months to go, take note below!

+5-6 Months to the Wedding Day

Shop for and buy your wedding dress.
Shop for and buy your bridesmaid dresses.

+3-4 Months to the Wedding Day

Buy your accessories.
Buy bridesmaid accessories.
Shop for and buy dresses for moms.
Shop for and buy flower girl dresses.

+1-2 Months to the Wedding Day

Confirm all dresses.
Schedule alterations appointments.

Less Than 1 Month to the Wedding Day

Create a wedding day fashion emergency kit.