Wedding Dress Industry Statistics

The wedding dress industry has become a mobile first, social driven treasure hunt where 90% of planning happens on phones, 82% of brides turn to Instagram and 67% use Pinterest for mood boards while TikTok’s #WeddingDress racks up over eight billion views, 75% of salons maintain a social presence and 64% of brides follow designers online, yet the final sale remains mostly delightfully analog with 85% of purchases happening in boutiques and 30% of salons still offering virtual appointments, as DTC and Etsy sellers surge, department stores fade and omnichannel retailers who convert local searches and viral buzz into in person experiences capture significantly higher lifetime value.

Shopping for a wedding dress in the U.S. is a study in practical romance: brides research online but 92% still buy in-store after trying on four to seven gowns across about three salons, usually with Mom and eight to twelve months of lead time, spending an average of $1,900 plus $300 to $800 for alterations and about $500 for accessories, with half spending $1,000 to $2,500, one in five splurging over $3,000, 32% going over budget, Gen Zs holding tighter to budgets than millennials, comfort and inclusive sizing climbing the priority list, and a modest slice choosing second dresses, custom tweaks, or sample-sale steals.

Like something old, something new, and something borrowed from overseas, the roughly $61 billion bridal industry is a quietly dominant economic force—led by North American spending, supplied largely by China, buoyed by a post-pandemic and millennial-driven surge toward personalization and online buying, and balanced between high-volume ready-to-wear and a growing luxury and custom market that together sustain hundreds of thousands of jobs.

Bridal fashion is waltzing between tradition and rebellion: lace still leads at 35 percent; corset bodices appeared in 85 percent of major designer collections and boat neck searches jumped 400 percent after the Meghan Markle moment; meanwhile short and black dresses saw searches surge 170 percent and 140 percent respectively, pantsuits and pockets are on the rise, sustainable fabrics are up 30 percent, 15 percent of brides choose nonwhite hues, pearls and 3D florals are blooming, detachable skirts and cathedral veils reflect demand for versatility, and square and high necklines are trending with square necklines up 45 percent and high necklines appearing in 40 percent of runway collections.

The bridal world is quietly swapping "something new" for something saved: a $1.5 billion rental market that’s on track to hit $2.1 billion by 2027, peer-to-peer inventories doubling year over year, Stillwhite selling a dress every five minutes and TikTok searches for thrifted gowns surging reflect a Gen Z- and sustainability-led shift toward rentals and resale that cost only 10 to 15 percent of retail, typically retain 50 to 60 percent of value, save about $1,200 and roughly 9,000 liters of water per dress, and yet still wrestles with practical barriers like alteration limits even as UK brides, resale sellers with new-with-tags dresses, and charity donations all signal this trend is becoming mainstream.