Style Trend - Reception Dresses

More and more brides are opting out of wearing their wedding dress throughout the entire wedding and instead changing into a "reception dress" or "2nd dress". For brides who are wearing large ball gowns or fitted mermaid gowns which somewhat restrict their movement, this is a great alternative if they want something comfortable and lightweight to wear during the dancing portion of their reception while still getting to wear their dream dress for the ceremony. Some brides choose to change right after the ceremony, while others wait until later on in the reception when the partying really gets underway. Others choose to utilize a 2nd dress just for an after-party. Some brides choose long gowns that are still formal but less material and therefore less restricting, while others choose fun, short cocktail dresses. It is all about personal preference.

I was recently trying to help one of our clients to find a reception dress for her September wedding. Since she's only a few months out, I suggested looking at alternatives to bridal shops so she didn't have to worry about it coming in on time. We found a lot of great options so I decided to make a blog post about it and share some of our finds.

After spending a lot of money on your beautiful wedding dress, you may not want to spend another chunk of change on a wedding dress, so all of my reception dress finds are under $300.
Of course you can go to your local bridal shop and choose a sheath wedding dress, but if you want something a little more budget friendly, consider checking out department stores and boutiques. Here are a few great finds for reception dresses (my personal favorites are the first one and last one!)-




























































































Dress #1 - JS Boutique -- $178 from Nordstroms; Dress #2 - Sean Collection -- $258 from Nordstroms; Dress #3 - Jcrew, $295; Dress #4 - Max and Cleo -- Dillards, $138; Dress #5 - Oleg Cassini -- Dillards, $160; Dress #6 - Betsy and Adam -- Dillards, $160; Dress #7 - Jessica McClintock, $126; Dress#8 - Maggy London -- Nordstrom, $178 (on sale for $88)