Denise Buzy-Pucheu, founder and owner of Persnickety Bride, said sudden tariffs on imports from China are hurting US companies, including bridal shops and wedding dress designers. Some of the brands she has added additional tariff charges.
Courtesy of Persnickety Bride. Photos by Stella Blue Photography
A few days after President Donald Trump announced sudden tariffs on imports from China, Dennis Boujee Pucheu sat on the couch at a bridal boutique and fired the store’s iPhone.
In a video posted on Instagram, the founder of Persnickety Bride in Newtown, Connecticut spoke directly to brides and prospects, outlining how a 145% tariff on Chinese imports would strike bridal businesses in particular.
Almost all bridal gowns are made in China or other parts of Asia. They also make many of the fabrics, buttons, zippers and other materials used. Skilled tailors are difficult to find and often come from manufacturing in older generations in the US and in other countries.
“This type of work isn’t just about anything you can bring to the US,” she said in the video. “We don’t have the technicians for these technicians to do that.”
China’s import duties are colliding with a wide range of consumer goods, including t-shirts, patio furniture, baby strollers, and toys. However, bridal gowns and special occasion apparel businesses show that damage obligations can pose to small businesses that are rooted in the global supply chain.
Most of its sales come from independent stores across the country that carry bridal gowns, tuxedos, wedding dresses and more. They cater to customers with solid deadlines, tight budgets, high expectations, and often create custom orders weeks or months before items are created or shipped.
In addition to these dynamics, the industry is particularly vulnerable to tariffs. According to the National Association of Bridal Retailers, an estimated 90% of wedding dresses are made in China, but they move manufacturing to other parts of Asia, such as Myanmar and Vietnam. The industry group represents approximately 6,000 wedding and special occasion shops across the United States
David’s bridal drives its production from China due to tariffs. By July, the company aims to produce all dresses in other countries, including Myanmar, Sri Lanka, and Vietnam.
David’s Bridal
The specific pain the industry feels is leading them to promote sculpture from duties, like others who are very exposed to tariffs. Over the past two weeks, the NBRA has launched a campaign to write letters to U.S. senators and representatives to encourage lawmakers and the White House to grant exemptions. The industry is already paying tariffs that began during the first Trump administration, along with other obligations.
A White House spokesman did not immediately respond to a request for comment on whether Trump would consider the exemption.
Some bridal gown celebrities have launched an online petition that includes Stephen Lang, founder and CEO of Trenton, New Jersey.
Lang said he lost his sleep due to the tariffs. He is worried about going out of business with 120 employee companies that started in 1991 and many of the stores that carry his dresses.
Many of these stores were already struggling to cover costs such as rent and employee wages, he said. We also feel that the boutique business model is narrowed down as some customers use them as “Tryon Shops.”
If a shop or dress brand closes the door forever, he said that not only business but also rituals to find clothes for special occasions and family milestones will be lost.
“Our industry will be wiped out if it doesn’t change,” he said.
If tariffs continue at the same level, moms and pop shops, like Sandragon Zarez owned, must make tough choices. NBRA vice president Gonzalez said the dresses carried in Sacramento, California cost her between 5% and 25% due to customs duties.
She is refraining from raising prices, but she says she doesn’t know how long she will be able to wait.
“It’s weekly,” Gonzalez said.
Sticker shock for bride
For many brides, wedding dresses have already caused sticker shocks.
According to the 2025 Real Weddings Study by Knot, a global company that sells wedding-related services and has a directory of wedding vendors, U.S. brides spent an average of $2,100 on wedding dresses.
And that’s not the only cost of the list. Overall, the average spend per wedding was $31,428, according to a report from the wedding, an industry market research firm. Some estimates are run even higher. The knot gives an average cost of $33,000, while David’s bridal estimates an average of $37,500.
Financial Crunch Brides is already facing, making it more urgent for bridal shops and designers to find ways to manage higher costs from customs duties without losing shoppers to cheaper online alternatives.
Shoppers are leaving David’s bridal shop near Harrisburg. David’s Bridal LLC was announced on Monday, April 17th, 2023.
Paul Weaver | Lightrocket | Getty Images
With around 200 stores nationwide, David’s Bridal is rushing to make an effort to move all of its manufacturing from China. The Pennsylvania-based wedding company has experienced two bankruptcies and is in the midst of efforts to modernize its business, selling wedding dresses ranging from $99 to about $6,000.
As of the end of last year, approximately 48% of the company’s products were made in China. By the end of this year, the company aims to hold production in other countries, including Myanmar, Vietnam and Sri Lanka, CEO Kelly Cook said. Imports from these countries face far lower tariffs than China after Trump announced in early April a 90-day suspension on higher tariffs in some countries.
Cook said the company doesn’t need to raise prices as it looks for ways to cut costs across its business, such as getting 300,000 dresses to the US before tariffs begin and using new artificial intelligence tools.
“Our last resort, absolutely last resort, is to increase to customers due to customs,” she said.
Production volume and production speed have slowed down
When they faced increased costs, major bridal brands began to add additional tariff charges, a percentage-based additional cost that bridal boutiques and customers usually share.
Mon Cheri, for example, charges a 39% tariff extra charge for the shop. Also, since the tariffs were launched, they have taken other measures to manage costs. Only required shipping orders, such as custom dresses for specific wedding dates.
The company imports about 90% of all products and about 80% of bridal items from China. We sell wedding dresses ranging from $500 to $20,000, which are delivered to specialty stores nationwide.
For brides, the new extra fees for the shop will translate to a retail price increase of around 15%, Lang said. For example, the average price for a company’s bridal dress is $2,200, so add $300 to the price that customers pay.
Another New Jersey-based bridal brand Justin Alexander also added an extra tariff fee to the dress, said Creative Director and CEO Justin Warshaw. For brides, these additional charges have been converted to a retail price increase of around 6%, he said. For example, he said a $2,000 dress would cost customers more than $120.
However, he said the company decided to absorb the difference in cost of dresses ordered by the bride before the tariffs began.
“We understand that the bride said yes to the dress at the price,” he said.
About half of the company’s production is in China, with 45% in Vietnam and 5% in Myanmar, Warshaw said. The price of the dress ranges from around $1,500 to $12,000.
However, some designers, wedding dress shops and businesses said plans could change if tariff levels drop. For example, David’s bridal said that if his duties drop, he could maintain up to 25% of China’s production. NBRA’s Gonzalez said some boutiques include in their agreements that they will subtract the extra portion of the tariffs included in the price, or if import costs are reduced.
Atlanta-based bridal dress brand Amberge concludes its operations in China and has left the country completely, said the company’s CFO Stephen Jacobs.
If the company stayed in China with high tariff levels, retail prices would have risen, he said. For example, the Unneverge Norfolk Dress (currently costs $3,730) will surge nearly 65% ​​to $6,150.
Jacobs and his wife, Creative Director and CEO Sean Jacobs, purchased a high-end bridal brand in 2014. At the time, all of the company’s dresses were made in China.
But the couple’s team has firsthand seen the complexity and cost challenges of manufacturing in the United States, one of the Trump administration’s tariff targets.
Motivated in part by Covid-related supply chain shocks, Shawne and Steven Jacobs have opened a manufacturing facility for their luxurious bridal line near their Atlanta headquarters. The wedding dress line ranges from $4,000 to $14,000.
“It worked for our price range,” Sean Jacobs said. “But we’re talking about luxury.”
It took about two years to expand to a facility of 35 and recruit the pattern makers, tailors and other workers needed to create detailed dresses, Sean Jacobs said. She said many of the company’s skilled sewers are immigrants, she said, a pool of talent now being threatened by Trump’s stricter immigration policies.
And she said Asia is still essential to production. Anne Barge’s low-cost bridal line, Blue Willow, is all made in Vietnam. She said it’s impossible to make those dresses and maintain a price range of under $3,000 in the US.
