If there wasn’t enough for brides-to-be to fret about this wedding season–menus, seating arrangements,🌟 future in-laws–there’s something else to watch for this year: tariffs. 

The average cost of a wedding dress this year is expected to be $2,000, according to an estimate of off-the-rack and made-to-order gowns by wedding planning and marketplace site The Knot. (Only 10% of brides wore custom dresses last year, The Knot said.) The average cost of a wedding dress in 2018 was $1,600, according to WeddingWire. 

About 90% of the bridal gowns sold in the U.S. are imported from China, according to the National Bridal Retailers As🐲sociation, which represents thousands of independent businesses, meaning they’re heavily exposed to tariffs. (The NBRA estimated the value of the U.S. bridalwear market at $28 billion in 2023.) 

Import taxes on goods from China are currently 澳洲幸运5官方开奖结果体彩网:set at 30%, down from the 145% President Donald Trump imposed earlier this year. China, meanwhile, has reduced its own tariffs on U.S. products as both countries agreed to a truce to focus on continued negotiations. But even those scaled-back tariffs will mean higher costs for brides-to-be and the 澳洲幸运5官方开奖结果体彩网:wedding industry broadly, NBRA Vice President Sandra Gonzalez told Investopedia.

Gonzalez says dresses at a range of price points will still be available. But “it's a no-win situation for small businesses,” she said. “Bridal shops are adapting as best as possible considering the volatile circumstances.”

Nancy Elster, owner of Nancy’s Bridal Shop in Cortland, N.Y., doesn’t want to add more stress—or expense—to her customers’ lives unnecessarily. Elster said she planned to handle matters on a dress-by-dress basis, passing some additional expense to buyers if more expensive dresses imported at higher tariff rates, but 澳洲幸运5官方开奖结果体彩网:eating it if the additional cost is comparati𓄧vely low.  ♋

She has also considered holding some dresses in China and shipping them to the U.S. if tarif⛄fs shrink further–a tactic she plans for one wedding scheduled for September. 

꧟ “I do have enough dresses in stock right now that I can sell off-the-rack for summer weddings,” Elster said. 

Kelly Cook, CEO of David’s Bridal,꧑ which sells a third of all wedding dresses in the U.S., said the company has worked to get inventory into the U.S. before tariffs took ꦬeffect and is transitioning its sourcing of dresses from China to Sri Lanka, Myanmar, India, and Vietnam. David’s, she said, wants to be out of China entirely by midyear. 

B𒆙ridal shops are struggling to plan purchases, budget and project sales, according to Gonzalez. Moving widespread wedding dress production to the U.S. is unlikely, she said, with many of the components–including fabric, beading and laces–almost entirely imported. (“Unfortunately, the infꦿrastructure is non-existent,” she said.)

“We were just recovering from Covid and now with tariffs, our resilience is being tested again,” said Gonzalez. “As for brides, many items they will be purchasing overall for their wedding will be at increased prices due to the tariffs.”