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How much extra would you pay to see your dream become reality? It's always a big question for couples planning their weddings, and these days, it has a new twist, courtesy of tariffs. NPR's Alina Selyukh reports.
ALINA SELYUKH, BYLINE: Helping a bride pick her wedding dress can be a pretty intimate process for the seller.
CHRISTINE GREENBERG: Helping them get in and out of gowns, talking about money, talking about emotions, talking about body image issues.
SELYUKH: Christine Greenberg has been doing this for 11 years as a co-owner of Urban Set Bride, a boutique in Richmond, Virginia.
GREENBERG: So the last thing that I want to do as someone has fallen in love with themselves in a gown and everyone is crying and we're having this moment is to start talking about politics and global trade policy.
SELYUKH: But lately, tariffs have entered even the bridal fitting room as couples are discovering that almost all the dresses are made abroad. Many are designed in the U.S. and made in China. The National Bridal Retailers Association says China accounts for a whopping 90% of the bridal gown market. One of those gowns, with a sweetheart neckline and a long tail, now belongs to a Boston bride, Jessica Kaplan.
JESSICA KAPLAN: When I showed up they were like, we just want to let you know that due to the tariffs that are occurring, there is a surcharge on most wedding dresses that are coming in, anywhere between 10- to 15%, and so we did have to pay a $150 surcharge on it. It wasn't detrimental, but it was definitely a bummer on the day of it.
SELYUKH: For a while, the Trump administration added a new tariff of 145% on Chinese imports. Now it's temporarily reduced to 30% until July 9. The two countries are negotiating, and American store owners have no idea how to budget this year.
CLAIRE LANDGRAF: By and large, wedding gowns are special order.
SELYUKH: Claire Landgraf runs Finery Bridal Chic, a boutique in Rochester, Minnesota. She says when someone buys a dress from her store...
LANDGRAF: Their gown doesn't come in for six to eight months. So what's the landscape of tariff charging going to look like in six to eight months? We don't know.
SELYUKH: Many designers and stores have simply raised prices across the board to cover new tariff expenses. It's not just gowns coming from China, but also embellishments, trims, crystals, veils and hairpieces, hangers and garment bags. Landgraf, for now, is charging brides half her tariff costs per gown as a line item that she can remove if tariffs are gone when it arrives. All this has more brides hesitating to say yes to the dress.
LANDGRAF: This has been one of the slowest seasons.
SELYUKH: In terms of people buying the gowns, she says, since COVID when parties were risky - brides are coming in, but they used to visit once or twice before buying. And now...
LANDGRAF: I'm seeing a lot more multiple-visit brides.
SELYUKH: Some of the most popular U.S. gown-makers - Maggie Sottero, based in Utah; Allure, based in Tennessee - have urged the federal government to exempt formal wear from tariffs because American textile manufacturing faded out decades ago.
GREENBERG: My dad was in the Army for 24 years. I would love to purchase American-made wedding gowns...
SELYUKH: That's Virginia store owner Christine Greenberg again.
GREENBERG: ...But they don't really exist. They certainly don't exist at the price point that the average American consumer could purchase a wedding gown.
SELYUKH: An average bride, not in a big city, spends under $2,000 on a wedding gown. American-made dresses tend to start around twice that price. And not only are there few people buying them, there are very few people making them - skilled technicians of lacework, embroidery, beading by hand. Growing this on a mass scale would take many years.
CHELSEA RITCHIE: You know, I'm kind of curious about, what if I get, like, a dressmaker?
SELYUKH: Chelsea Ritchie is another tariff season bride in Los Angeles who's trying to face the new reality by thinking outside the box.
RITCHIE: You know, buy the materials and then buy the fabric and see if somebody can make me a dress within the same price versus me ordering it and then altering it.
SELYUKH: Her dream dress is dazzling white with a mermaid silhouette. It's likely her fabric and materials would still be imported. Another decision to make, another thing to stress about during the joys of wedding planning. Alina Selyukh, NPR News.
(SOUNDBITE OF CELTIC HARP MUSIC'S PERFORMANCE OF WAGNER'S "HERE COMES THE BRIDE") Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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