Last Saturday, I went wedding dress shopping with my daughter. For those not in the know, this does not mean that we spent the day casually dipping in and out of bridal dress shops, browsing and chatting and watching my daughter try on those she liked.

If this was the image you conjured, you need to snap out of it and focus – wedding dress shopping nowadays is serious and not for the faint-hearted.

It’s become common for brides to have a minimum of two wedding dresses for their big day. Credit: Getty Images

The day itself started two months ago, when I made bookings at three stores – because that’s how things are done these days. A wait time for appointments, and appointments no less than 10 months out from the wedding itself. Each booking cost $80 and secured one hour of dress trying-on time.

As I’d offered to pay for the dress, I did some research on how wide I would need to open my wallet. Apparently, brides spend anywhere between $500 and $10,000 nowadays. Looking on the websites of the shops we were visiting, there would be no change from $8000. This was out of our price range, but at least we’d get a feel for what dress styles did and did not........

© The Sydney Morning Herald