You gown price range falls within the average cost of a bridal gown, so there will be many designers to choose from. Take the time to try on gowns, and don just go by the magazine pictures. If a salon tells you the alterations are free, the costs are built into the price of the gown.
I have done bridal alterations for fifteen years, and have worked closely with Jessica McClintock. I worked out of my home, had proper insurance, and my rates were reasonable. I only did wedding and evening gowns. You can find people who do alterations who specialize in bridal gowns. This is important, since it requires a customized fit.
My dress was from maggie Sotero and I loved it! He dresses would probably fit in your price range and I think they are really gorgeous. Mine was on the less expensive side ($530 with the cap sleeves) but it still looked really great. Lots of her dresses have the lace up back rather than buttons or just a zipper.
For alterations I paid about $150, because I gained weight between when I bought it and when it came in (eek!) so she had to let out the sides a bit. If I hadn bought the jewelry I would have worn my mom pear earings and necklace. I used my mom veil but if that haddn worked I would have made one myself for about $30. Shoes I got at payless in their Bridal section (only at select stores) for $15 bucks.
I am really a cheapskate at heart so while it might sound like I just threw stuff together from various stores, the end result still looked awesome (if I do say so myself).
I also liked the dresses at Jasmine Bridal. Really you just need to open the phone book and go by the bridal salons in your area.
Now the two dresses I narrowed it down to were only $30 difference. One was $840 and the other i believe $807-812. Now that included taxes and the veil that I wanted as well. The marked price on the dress I went with was $700.
As far as accessories, that is completely up to you. I see on tv the bride spending $85,000 on jewelry. Many brides I know use a piece of their mother as their something borrowed. My dress was so ornate that I didn do a necklace at all. I wore my engagement ring and my mothers blue tanzanite ring on my right hand. I didn do gloves, I wore shoes I already had as my "something old". The only "accessories" I bought were my hose, garter, earrings and tiara--so perhaps just over $100.
Email me and I show you pictures--they are online. The dress I actually went with did come from David Bridal though so you might not want to see it.
Now alterations were the costly part. Both dresses I got estimates on alterations and both were going to be more than $100 in alterations--and all I had done was hemming and bustle. So if you are really exact in your 1,000 cap, I would say the most your dress can be is $700 (leaving 100 for taxes, 100 for alterations and 100 for accessories). If you need any other alterations (especially along the bodice), you may expect to pay a decent amount more than that.
Now if you live in NYC or California it might be more difficult, but I don think any of the stores I went in to had many dresses more than 1,000. They had to custom order those. Most of their stock was just in the price range you mentioned. Just go to the different bridal stores in your area though b/c you need to figure out what style of dress you like (how embellished/plain, neckline, skirt-ballgown or sleek) before you can limit the price so much. Then you be able to go to stores with a more exact idea in mind.
I haven purchased my dress yet, but I love the designs by Alfred Angelo, Maggie Sottero and Casablanca. Your local bridal shops will carry dresses from certain designers and will have numerous catalogs to look through. They are usually very informed about designers and if you have a specific style in mind they can tell you which designer is best. The only things I purchased so far are my jewelry and my veil, which I got off of ebay for less than $30. I wanted a veil with butterflies and rhinestones and another Y!A member found it for me on ebay. Also ebay has a lot of businesses where they make the dress to your measurements, so they are not used.
My dress was custom made since I couldn find it in a shop. Seamstress charged me $650 for it and since it was custom made for me there were no charges for alterations. Don know who the orginal designer was.
It very similar to the dress Audrey Hepburn wore in Sabrina (1954) except that I had her add three quarter lenght sleeves and the hem is floor length all the way around. Champagne with dark purple design.
from:http://cocktailjurken.startje.com/