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tailored for you shopping experience

We’ve got over a decade of bridal styling experience to guide you through wedding dress shopping for your dream dress. Even after 11 years, we live to source the most sought-after, quality, and unforgettable bridal designers and dresses for our brides. We don’t believe in boring, we want timeless with a twist. Something special, something different. All in our award-winning relaxed, warm, and personalized environment. It’s where the best of bridal fashion meets your personal style.

Interested in working with us?

Our designer Price ranges

$2000-$3000

Scout Bridal, Before by Sarah Seven and Theia.
Select discounted designer sample dresses can be sold-off-the-rack upon approval.

$3000-$6000

Sarah Seven, Bride by Sarah Seven, Flora Bride, Danielle Frankel, Rue de Seine, Rime Arodaky, Saint Bridal, Alexandra Grecco, Lola Varma, Dany Tabet, A La Robe.

$6000+

Dana Harel, Danielle Frankel, Sept Bride, GALA, Galia Lahav Couture, Lela Rose, Liz Martinez.

Price range

The bulk of our collection is priced between $3000-$6000 currently. We do have dresses starting at $1600, but the selection is limited. Our dresses go up to approximately $12,000 at this time. If you want to know the specific price of a dress, we are happy to help! Call or email the location (our Nashville, San Diego, or Seattle bridal shop) you plan to shop at with your inquiry.

Our tried and true Styling process

Featured Clients

Recent real brides & Weddings we’re obsessing over

Marissa in GALA

Danica in Alexandra Grecco

Be Curious

We’re here to answer all of your questions

  • Each trunk show features one designer for a limited time with an extended collection and usually a discount. This can be an annual or bi-annual event, depending on the designer. Some designers send all their top sellers and/or their entire new collection. If you are booking for a trunk show and unsure about which dresses will be there, please email us and we can provide a show inventory list.

    These special events are an opportunity for exclusive, first access to a designer’s new or extended collection for fashion-forward and trendsetting brides. If you purchase a dress that is visiting the store for the event only, you will be one of the few, if not only, brides to wear the dress in our region.

    We recommend booking a trunk show appointment if you are pretty sure you want a dress by the featured designer. You can see more dresses and save 10% for most of the shows. If you have specific questions about the one you are booking for, please reach out!

    To see our upcoming trunk shows, look for the event schedule under the about and location tab. If you can’t make it, have no fear. We always carry great selections of all of the bridal designers we stock and we can often arrange loans to borrow select gowns if there is something at the trunk show you wanted to try but cannot make it. The trunk show discounts are only in effect the dates of the trunk show.

  • Anytime you are ready to make a decision! For many brides that is ideally 7-10 months before their wedding date and after they have booked their venue. Brides that shop 8-10 months before their wedding date generally seem to be most relaxed with the timeline and process. They have plenty of time for the dress to arrive, time for anything that may come up, and they also don’t feel like they are deciding “too soon”.

    However, we absolutely encourage deciding early if you can! Ordering 10-14 months before is totally common too. We promise having a major piece of the style and aesthetic chosen for your wedding day early on (like your wedding dress), will actually make everything else easier to decide and more cohesive. Since many of our brides are dress-focused, they might shop earlier if they feel ready. We love that! The more time, the better.

    We do know many brides set a date with less than 6 months of planning time. We have rush options or off-the-rack sample dress options. Contact us before your appointment if you have less than 6 months so we can talk through options and the process. Quick turnaround weddings are more common than you might think, so we are ready to help! Rush orders usually require a rush charge, and it might also require rush alteration charges by your chosen seamstress depending on time of year and location.

  • With made-to-order gowns, you would try on a sample size in-store and then have your measurements taken. Your bridal stylist would then have a made-to-order gown ordered for you in your size. Made-to-order wedding dresses are a sustainable, ethical way to shop as they are not produced unless they are ordered by a client. It also gives you a chance to customize dresses. Some of our designers allow for customizations and changes, or even split sizing or customized sizing as the dress is being made just for you! This is why most of our gowns take 4-7 months to be produced (rush orders can have shorter timelines).

    A sample or off-the-rack wedding dress is a gown that has been tried on by brides but never actually altered or purchased. This is how most bridal shop brides order off of the samples in the color and size of their choosing. However, we occasionally have sample sales or sell samples off-the-rack during regular appointments at a discounted price by approval and necessity. This means the dress is sold as-is and final sale.

  • Short answer - We think 1-4 guests is best for the bride and our space/seating, but we see brides who love shopping solo too. If you plan to bring more than 4-5 guests, please call us first so we can plan accordingly.

    Long Answer - Some brides shop solo, some come with a crowd. We think less is more in this scenario, but ultimately we try to be as flexible as we possibly can to make sure it’s the day YOU have been dreaming of. We think it’s usually best with 1-4 guests, but we see brides have a great time solo or with bigger parties. We also see brides struggle either way with group emotions, involvement or lack-of, opinions, and overwhelm. We are here to support you and do our very best to make sure the focus is on you and the energy is positive, we are on your side. However, we can’t always control every situation so we ultimately think it’s best that you carefully consider who joins you for the process and make sure you protect yourself and feel prepared to let anyone else’s opinions or behavior not impact this special day of shopping. Ultimately we think less is more, bring who you need to feel like you can make a decision if you feel you need anyone there, and use your best discretion. Don’t feel bad if you can’t invite everyone in your family or bridal party, there are other ways to involve them in the process like accessory appointments or your dress pick-up appointment.

    If you want to bring a larger group, please call us in advance so we can go through options and do our best to comfortably accommodate the group, and prepare the rest of the shop. Again, we just want all our brides to be happy and have a great experience wedding dress shopping. We can’t tell you what that number looks like specifically for you, but generally we do think 2-3 is the magic number… 2-3 bridal shops (or less) and 2-3 guests (or less) based on our decade plus years of industry experience.

  • Yes, and we’d love to help you get scheduled over the phone if needed. Otherwise we recommend booking online so you can see all available appointments at once for our bridal showrooms. Appointments allow us to give each bride personalized attention in a relaxed, welcoming, private environment.

  • Most of our dresses can be ordered size 00-18, some to 22. Our samples (the gowns you try on), are usually size 6-14.

    We purchase our samples in a range of sizes whenever possible. A sample is the dress brides try on while shopping and then order a new one in their size based off of that sample. We usually only have one size of each dress, with a few exceptions. The sample dress sizes are usually a 6, 8, 10, 12, or 14. The sizing is sometimes street sizing and sometimes bridal sizing. Just like regular clothing, each designer has their own sizing chart. Ultimately, dresses will be too big or too small during their first fitting appointment for most of our clients. It’s not ideal, but we are trained and experienced in the industry process. We are quipped with bridal clips and modesty panels to help create the look/fit your dress would be ordered in.

    Some of our designers do customized sizing, this can be included or an extra charge depending on the designer. Many of our brides order split sizing which is offered for brides falling into more than one size on the size chart and can be beneficial for certain cases. Most dresses can be ordered in a size 00-18 approximately. Custom or extended hollow-to-hem dresses can be ordered for petite or tall bridal clients.

    If you are concerned, curious, anxious or feeling ANYTHING except prepared and excited to go dress shopping, especially for sizing reason, please call one of our stylists directly. We love you and want all our brides to feel prepared, welcome, as comfortable as possible. We can walk you through the process, talk about options, and schedule a time and room that is most private, anything that we can possibly do to help and also manage expectations. We know trying on sample wedding dresses isn’t a perfect system or process for brides that feel the sizing does not work well for them due to height, sizing, confidence, skin conditions, medical and health issues, or whatever else you’re working with. We also have years of experience sizing pregnant brides for pregnancy and maternity friendly brides and pre and postnatal body changes and fluctuations.

    If you are concerned about fluctuating in size after wedding dress shopping and before your wedding day, don’t worry! Not many people stay the same measurements year round, especially brides due to stress and schedule changes. We’ve worked with many brides postpartum, undergoing medical treatments, choosing or needing plastic or any type of surgery, changing their eating or activity habits, feeling stressed by a variety of pressures, and many more sitiuations. We are sensitive, understanding, and experienced with all of these scenarios. In fact they are pretty normal and just a regular day at work to us! If you think you are the only bride on a weight loss journey, feeling different with stress of wedding planning some feel, or building muscle in new places from a new workout regimen, you are not alone! Whatever the concern or change is, please communicate directly with us, even if it comes up after purchasing. We will move any mountains for you that we can, and guide you to the best options and choices with our experience and expertise. We promise you, we’ve most likely heard it before! You can’t surprise or shock us, and we honestly want to help all of our brides so they feel ready to go and beautiful on their wedding day!

    We have limited samples in store in a 16, 18, or 20, but we are not a plus-size speciality store at this time. We are always trying to improve our size options as best as we can as a small, local business. We know wedding dress shopping is not as equitable and accessible as it could be. We want to help brides try on a variety of samples and visualize the fit in the perfect size to the best of our ability and the bride’s personal comfort level. We’ve worked with brides that fine and successful with the process, and we’ve talked with brides who are ultimately more comfortable with a shop that specializes in sizing that works best for them. We support you and can talk with you to help you make that decision, whatever it is that is best for you!

    Some of our designers size charts go from 0-22/24, and some can do custom measurements for sizing beyond 24. Our samples are generally only one size, and we do have some samples in 16 and 18. The bulk of our samples are size 6-14. We will assist you in the process no matter the number, if the bride is comfortable and open to working together on bringing their bridal style vision to life to the very best of our ability.

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No matter your question or concern, we're here for you. Check out the contact info below and contact your local boutique first.  Or use our contact form below for general requests/everything else you might need:

Nashville, nashville@thedresstheory.com, (615) 440-7948
San Diego, sandiego@thedresstheory.com, (619) 876-5018
Seattle, seattle@thedresstheory.com, (206) 550-7948