HOW DO I FIND A WEDDING DRESS IN ISRAEL?
Finding your wedding dress is a high pressure part of the wedding planning process, no matter where you live. Add in a language barrier, cultural differences, and not having family and friends nearby to help… it’s easy to feel overwhelmed and confused.
Shopping for a wedding dress in many cities in the world means heading to a huge bridal boutique where there are hundreds of dresses by a wide variety of designers in different styles at your disposal. This is simply not the way it works in Israel.
HOW MUCH DOES A WEDDING DRESS COST IN ISRAEL?
Realistically, the bare minimum you can expect to spend on your dress is 2000 shekels. Based on informal polling of friends, I’d say the average that brides spend on their wedding dress is 5000 – 6000 shekels. Here are breakdowns (with price estimates) of the best ways to find your wedding dress in Israel.
Renting a wedding dress in Israel
Probably the most popular option for brides in Israel. It’s considered totally normal to rent your dress. For a medium-tier designer, you can expect to spend between 4000 – 7000 shekels to rent the dress for the night. For higher-end, luxury designers, prices generally start around 10,000 shekels for the night and the sky is truly the limit (18,000 shekels for the night is not unheard of.)
Even though the dress is technically a rental, the designer is usually willing to make adjustments to the dress for you. You love a spaghetti strap dress but you’d like to add sheer sleeves?The designer will probably do this for you at no extra cost. After the wedding, the standard is to return the dress within a week without dry-cleaning it first.
Renting a dress is a great option if you’d like to wear a designer dress without the financial commitment, or if you just don’t feel the need to hang on to a dress that you’ll (probably) wear once in your lifetime.
Buying an Israeli designer wedding dress
Israeli wedding dress designers have taken the world by storm – and for good reason. Buying your dress from an Israeli designer is definitely the most glamorous option and if you have the budget, you can easily make all your wedding fantasies a reality. Research different designers – Israeli wedding dress designers are very diverse. Some craft sleek and modern creations. Others specialize in opulent princess-style gowns.
Once you find designers and styles you love, call ahead and book an appointment at the studio – generally, walk-ins are not welcome. When you head to a designer’s studio, there’s a good chance that you will meet the designer themselves in person – and if not at the initial meeting, at a later point in the process.
Your wedding is your time to shine so don’t be shy about explaining exactly what you want and how an existing dress could be modified to fit your vision (as mentioned above, adding sleeves, shortening hemlines, etc. are completely fine to request). Make sure to come at least a few months before the wedding, as there will be several fittings to make sure the dress is flawlessly tailored to you.
High end, luxury Israeli wedding dresses by big name designers typically start at a minimum of 20,000 shekels and prices rise exponentially depending on the dress. Obsessed with a particular Israeli wedding dress designer but the prices are just too high? Consider renting or buying second hand.
If those options don’t appeal to you, occasionally designers have end of season sales where floor models and samples are sold at reduced prices. Stay up to date by following the designers you’re eyeing on social media so you don’t miss these rare opportunities.
Second hand wedding dresses in Israel
The second hand wedding dress market in Israel isn’t as developed as in other countries – but it’s still an excellent option for brides who don’t want to break the bank for their dream wedding dress. If you’ve researched designers you like, there are many Facebook groups where you can find brides selling their preloved dresses.
Kallot Lehasaga is the premiere site where you can filter second hand dresses by size, style, and designer. Most dresses cost between 3000 – 6000 shekels. The site is entirely in Hebrew so you may want to get an Israeli friend to help you. You can also check Yad2, which is basically the Craigslist of Israel.
In terms of physical second hand bridal boutiques, there are not many options. Rebride in Jaffa has the most extensive preloved bridal dress inventory in Israel, with the average dress costing around 4500 shekels.
They also have a section of dresses that cost up to 2500 shekels. If you’d like your money to go to a good cause, Ruach Nashit, an organization that helps financially empower women who’ve been abused, sells second hand wedding dresses from a wide range of designers.
Most dresses cost between 1800 – 3000 shekels. Please note that in order to visit their pop-up Tel Aviv boutique, you need to make an appointment in advance.
Seamstress
Israel has plenty of independent seamstresses – on the main streets in any town or city, you can find seamstresses that specialize in bridal couture. Depending on the size of their studio, they may have a selection of dresses you can either buy or rent. It’s common to bring a photo of a dress that you like and have the seamstress make their own version of it for you. The biggest benefit of using a seamstress is that you can be very hands-on in the process.
If you have a specific vision in mind, it’s a great way to make your dream dress a reality – with the seamstress, you can select the fabrics, customize an existing design that you like, and the seamstress will take your measurements to make sure that the dress is perfectly tailored for your body.
Depending on the fabrics used and the complexity of the design (if it’s embroidered, rhinestones, etc.) you can expect a dress made from scratch by a seamstress to cost around 5000 – 6000 shekels. Buying a ready-to-wear wedding dress from a seamstress (which may have been rented by a bride previously) should cost between 3000 – 4000 shekels.
Ordering Online — Shipping Your Wedding Dress to Israel
An option for the brave! 🙂 I have several friends who used this strategy and were very happy with the results. I recommend doing this only if you have plenty of time to spare before the wedding – the Israeli customs and mail system are notoriously slow.
The main benefit of ordering online and shipping your wedding dress to Israel is the amount of choices at your fingertips – there are hundreds of online wedding dress retailers and wholesalers carrying a wide variety of wedding dresses for every budget.
Make sure that the site you’re using ships to Israel. Please note that all online orders over 250 shekels are subject to a 17% tax levied by the Israeli government – and the percentage gets higher depending on the value of the purchase. A table that explains the value of purchase to import tax ratio can be found here.
The Israeli Wedding 