Unfortunately, a wide variety of traditional wedding dresses are not sold in the Cayman Islands. Therefore your options are to purchase a dress while overseas and bring it in yourself or buy it online and have it imported.
Your wedding dress should be true to you. If you don’t love it or feel comfortable in it, don’t buy it! Find the right style, colour, embellishments, fabric, and silhouette before saying yes to the dress.
When purchasing your wedding dress, be mindful of the temperature, theme and style of the wedding. You may also want to research any dress codes for churches, venues and what your wedding officer requires. Most wedding celebrants do not require you to dress a certain way, however, wearing a bikini may deter the wedding celebrant from officiating the wedding.
When bringing your wedding dress in yourself, if your dress exceeds the CI$500 allowance when re-entering the Island, you will need to pay duty on the balance of the dress at 22% duty. Please note that this import duty does not apply to non-residents temporarily bringing in a dress to get married in Cayman.
If you are buying the dress online, you will need to pay customs duty (22%) on the value of the dress. We recommend purchasing it a couple months in advance. Since you don’t have the chance of trying on your dress, you will need to see how it fits and get any alterations done before the wedding.
If a traditional wedding dress is not what you are looking for, Cayman does have a variety of stores that offer a range of elegant dresses and ball gown dresses.
Keep an open mind when shopping for your dress. You may be surprised how a certain fabric or style may look on you, especially when you’re all dolled up with your veil.
