Here Clicks the Bride

I’m getting married.

Being no spring chicken, and having done this once before, I’ve opted to keep things small and strictly on my own (and my fiancé’s) terms. The thought of going through all the steps of traditional wedding planning makes me wince.

Yet one afternoon, on a whim, I went to a bridal shop, where I figured I could try on some of the simpler gowns or maybe a bridesmaid dress just to start to get a sense of what might work for the ceremony. And as soon as I walked in the door, I knew I’d made a mistake.

The saleswoman immediately pounced and dragged me to a dressing area with its own three-way mirror and standing platform. Seriously, I don’t even want to recount the details of her bringing me dresses, me standing there trying not to look horrified after I tried them on … it’s too traumatic. I felt like Miss Havisham.

So I did what I’d secretly suspected I should have done in the first place: I went online. I browsed JCrew.com’s wedding section, found an elegant silhouette that I thought might flatter me, and ordered the dress. In brown. When it arrived, it was a near-perfect fit and struck just the note I was hoping for. Done.

J.Crew was on to something when it launched its wedding line in 2004. And in the past six months, Urban Outfitters, Ann Taylor and White House | Black Market have all announced plans to get into the ready-to-wear wedding dress game. What took everyone so long?

The recession has hit everyone, but the U.S. wedding industry is still a $42 billion bonanza, according to research firm The Wedding Report. More than $2 billion of that went toward wedding dresses in 2009.

As a second-time-arounder, I suppose I’m not the primary target audience. But certainly (as these retailers have all seemingly realized at the same time), there are also plenty of blushing new, modern brides who are too busy or pragmatic or tulle-averse to deal with the rigmarole of bold-faced wedding dress shopping. But that doesn’t mean they don’t have money to spend or don’t want to look spectacular.

So don’t be surprised to see many more new wedding lines popping up over the next couple of years. What will be interesting is to see how the bridal chains react.