
Award‑Winning Bridal Styling & Couture Designers
Wedding Dresses in San Diego for Fashion‑Forward Brides
Experience Our San Diego Wedding Dress Collection
Step inside our Mission Hills boutique and explore a wedding dress collection unlike anything else in San Diego. We’ve curated gowns from sought-after designers including Sarah Seven, Danielle Frankel, Sept Bridal, Flora Bridal, Rue de Seine, and Alexandra Grecco—many of which you’ll only find here. From made-to-order couture to exclusive sample sale treasures, every piece is chosen for its impeccable fit, timeless beauty, and the way it makes you feel the moment you slip it on.
Whether your style leans sleek and minimalist, romantic and lace-filled, bohemian and free-spirited, bold and fashion-forward, or full-on black-tie glamour, our collection is designed to inspire. And because every appointment is one-on-one, your stylist will guide you through it at your own pace, pulling gowns that match not just your vision, but your personality.
Founded in 2014 by two sisters with deep San Diego roots, The Dress Theory has grown into one of Southern California’s most loved bridal boutiques, known for pairing an editorial eye with approachable luxury. Brides travel from across the country to experience our collection—and leave with a gown that feels as unforgettable as their love story.
We Designed the Bridal Experience for Comfort, Connection, and Finding the Wedding Dress That Feels Like You.
bridal stylists here for you, Not The Sale.
From the moment you arrive, everything is centered around you—your style, your pace, your vision for the day. We welcome every bride into a private suite in our Mission Hills boutique, where you’ll have time to settle in, sip something sparkling, and feel truly seen.
Our stylists aren’t here to push you into a dress or close a sale. They’re here to listen, to pull gowns that feel like you, and to guide you toward the moment when you slip one on and just know. That might mean showing you something straight from your Pinterest board, or something you never imagined you’d love—because we’re matching your personality, not just your checklist.
For us, the win isn’t making the sale. It’s knowing you walked out feeling confident, celebrated, and excited for what’s ahead.
The Stylists Behind the Dress Theory Experience
Rhiannon Marquis
analy soucie
caroline meadows
catie collins
megan kanegai
Camille & summer
a cozy bridal shop Where You Can Breathe, Sip, and Say Yes
Exclusive Designer Wedding Dresses
The dress theory San Diego Bridal Experience
At The Dress Theory San Diego, finding your wedding dress isn’t just another appointment; it’s when the dream starts to feel real. In our Mission Hills boutique, the excitement of stepping into gowns you’ve admired for months meets the comfort of shopping with your most stylish, down-to-earth friend, the one who hypes you up, knows what works for you, and makes the whole thing feel effortless.
From the moment you walk in, it’s all about you. We’ll bring you into your own private suite with no crowded fitting rooms, no sharing mirrors with another bride—just you, your people, and a stylist who’s listening closely and pulling gowns that feel like they were made for you. When a bride gets so comfortable she kicks off her shoes without thinking about it, that’s when we know she’s exactly where she’s meant to be.
Our brides don’t just come from San Diego. We welcome women from across Southern California, Arizona, Nevada, and far beyond. Many are planning destination weddings in sun-drenched Italian villas, chic Parisian courtyards, or the golden beaches of Mexico, and they make us part of their journey. They come for our exclusive lineup of designers such as Alexandra Grecco, Sarah Seven, and Daniel Frankel—gowns you won’t find anywhere else in the city. They stay for the way we make the process joyful, personal, and unforgettable.
Whether you’re drawn to sleek, minimalist lines, delicate romantic lace, or a statement silhouette that turns every head in the room, we’ll guide you to “the one” without the overwhelm. Because when you feel truly heard, completely celebrated, and radiant in the mirror, saying yes isn’t just easy; it’s a moment you’ll carry with you for the rest of your life.
“From the moment I found my dress and The Dress Theory, I couldn’t wait for my husband to see me in it. I’ve never felt more timeless, more beautiful, in my entire life. Thank you.”
Gaby DeAscentis
What Brides Ask Before Booking
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Yes, and we’d love to help you get scheduled over the phone if needed. Otherwise we recommend booking online so you can see all available appointments at once for our San Diego bridal showroom. Appointments allow us to give each bride personalized attention in a relaxed, welcoming, private environment.
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Approximately $2500-$10,000 with a few above and below that range. Most brides put down 50% deposit when they purchase their made-to-order dress and pay balance later. You can choose to pay in full or ask for a flexible payment plan. We’ve been around over a decade and we are always happy to do a payment plan, without any interest or extra charges, whenever it makes sense for a bride.
Please note alterations are an additional cost and done off-site at a specialist. This can range in price from $400-$900 for standard bridal tailoring, or more if you are customizing, changing, or dramatically altering a wedding dress.
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We purchase our samples in a range of sizes whenever possible. We usually only have one size of each dress, with a few exceptions. Sizes are using a 6, 8, 10, 12, or 14. The sizing is sometimes street sizing and sometimes bridal sizing. Just like regular clothing, each designer has their own sizing chart. Ultimately, dresses will be too big or too small during their first fitting appointment for most of our clients. It’s not ideal, but we are trained and experienced in the industry process. Some of our designers do customized sizing, this can be included or an extra charge depending on the designer. Many of our brides order split sizing which is offered for brides falling into more than one size on the size chart and can be beneficial for certain cases. Most dresses can be ordered in a size 00-18 approximately. Custom or extended hollow-to-hem dresses can be ordered for petite or tall bridal clients.
If you are concerned, curious, anxious or feeling ANYTHING except prepared and excited to go dress shopping, especially for sizing reason, please call one of our stylists directly. We love you and want all our brides to feel prepared, welcome, as comfortable as possible. We can walk you through the process, talk about options, and schedule a time and room that is most private, anything that we can possibly do to help and also manage expectations. We know trying on sample wedding dresses isn’t a perfect system or process for brides that feel the sizing does not work well for them due to height, sizing, confidence, skin conditions, medical and health issues, or whatever else you’re working with. We also have years of experience sizing pregnant brides for pregnancy and maternity friendly brides and pre and postnatal body changes and fluctuations.
If you are concerned about fluctuating in size after wedding dress shopping and before your wedding day, don’t worry! Not many people stay the same measurements year round, especially brides due to stress and schedule changes. We’ve worked with many brides postpartum, undergoing medical treatments, choosing or needing plastic or any type of surgery, changing their eating or activity habits, feeling stressed by a variety of pressures, and many more sitiuations. We are sensitive, understanding, and experienced with all of these scenarios. In fact they are pretty normal and just a regular day at work to us! If you think you are the only bride on a weight loss journey, feeling different with stress of wedding planning some feel, or building muscle in new places from a new workout regimen, you are not alone! Whatever the concern or change is, please communicate directly with us, even if it comes up after purchasing. We will move any mountains for you that we can, and guide you to the best options and choices with our experience and expertise. We promise you, we’ve most likely heard it before! You can’t surprise or shock us, and we honestly want to help all of our brides so they feel ready to go and beautiful on their wedding day!
We have limited samples in store in a 16, 18, or 20, but we are not a plus-size speciality store at this time. We are always trying to improve our size options as best as we can as a small, local business. We know wedding dress shopping is not as equitable and accessible as it could be. We want to help brides try on a variety of samples and visualize the fit in the perfect size to the best of our ability and the bride’s personal comfort level. We’ve worked with brides that fine and successful with the process, and we’ve talked with brides who are ultimately more comfortable with a shop that specializes in sizing that works best for them. We support you and can talk with you to help you make that decision, whatever it is that is best for you!
Some of our designers size charts go from 0-22/24, and some can do custom measurements for sizing beyond 24. Our samples are generally only one size, and we do have some samples in 16 and 18. The bulk of our samples are size 6-14. We will assist you in the process no matter the number, if the bride is comfortable and open to working together on bringing their bridal style vision to life to the very best of our ability.
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Some brides shop solo, some come with a crowd. We think less is more in this scenario, but ultimately we try to be as flexible as we possibly can to make sure it’s the day YOU have been dreaming of. We think it’s usually best with 1-4 guests, but we see brides have a great time solo or with bigger parties. We also see brides struggle either way with group emotions, involvement or lack-of, opinions, and overwhelm. We are here to support you and do our very best to make sure the focus is on you and the energy is positive, we are on your side. However, we can’t always control every situation so we ultimately think it’s best that you carefully consider who joins you for the process and make sure you protect yourself and feel prepared to let anyone else’s opinions or behavior not impact this special day of shopping. Ultimately we think less is more, bring who you need to feel like you can make a decision if you feel you need anyone there, and use your best discretion. Don’t feel bad if you can’t invite everyone in your family or bridal party, there are other ways to involve them in the process like accessory appointments or your dress pick-up appointment.
If you want to bring a larger group, please call us in advance so we can go through options and do our best to comfortably accommodate the group, and prepare the rest of the shop. Again, we just want all our brides to be happy and have a great experience wedding dress shopping. We can’t tell you what that number looks like specifically for you, but generally we do think 2-3 is the magic number… 2-3 bridal shops (or less) and 2-3 guests (or less) based on our decade plus years of industry experience.
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It’s best to email or call us about specific styles you want/need to try as samples can be sold off the rack occasionally, or dresses might be discontinued, out for dry cleaning, or a photo shoot. If we know, we can do our best to accommodate! If we don’t have the dress, we can often arrange a loan from our other locations or the designer. There may be a shipping fee needed for a loan. We can also book you for a trunk show appointment for that specific designer if we have one coming up, usually there is a discount and an extended collection. You would not need to pay a loan fee for a dress traveling in for a trunk show.
If there are several dresses or styles you are interested in, or just like the style of, bring in screenshots, photos, moodboards, or whatever you have please. We will use that info to find you your dream dress! But if there is a specific dress you need to try, please, please call or email us first! We don’t want you to be disappointed if we can prepare in advance and with notice.
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Our San Diego bridal boutique is located at 1427 West Lewis Street in the Mission Hills neighborhood. We are located next to so many incredible local businesses for drinks, flowers, wine, shopping, jewelry, coffee, pastries, or light bites.
We have free parking directly in front of the boutique, some is time and some spots are not. If you cannot find parking (not usually an issue), or can’t find us… please give us a call. The surrounding neighborhood has parking options too. Look for charming light blue green craftsman filled with white dresses in the big porch window, that’s us!
book your appointment
Our San Diego bridal shop will provide you with a personalized, unique, and unforgettable shopping experience. We curate wedding gowns with an unprecedented amount of refinement and style for modern classic, minimal, or bold, statement making brides. Our stylists will greet you and your loved ones (or solo) at our boutique. We’ll listen to your vision and style and pull a carefully selected set of dresses chosen just for you!
We believe wedding dress shopping should be one of your favorite parts of wedding planning. And we believe it can, and should, be easy!
Store Info & Contact Details
STORE MANAGER
Rhiannon Marquis
sandiego@thedresstheory.com
Bridal Stylists/
General inquiries
Rhiannon
Megan
Analy
Caroline
Catie
sandiego@thedresstheory.com
Buying inquiries
Rhiannon Marquis
rhiannon@thedresstheory.com
Contact info
The Dress Theory San Diego
1427 West Lewis St
(619)876-5018
sandiego@thedresstheory.com
STORE owner/
operator
Summer & Camille
hello@thedresstheory.com