Wedding Dress Size Calculator

Your wedding dress size, before the boutique

Q: Should I order my wedding dress in my street size anyway?

No. Order the size the designer's chart gives for your largest measurement. A gown can be taken in almost anywhere; it can rarely be let out more than a fraction of an inch, because bridal seam allowances are small. Ordering down is the single most expensive mistake in bridal.

Bridal sizes run about one to two sizes above street sizes — the most reliably upsetting surprise in wedding shopping. Measure once, and walk in knowing your bridal number.

Calculate your bridal size

Free · No sign-up

Bust in

Around the fullest point

Waist in

Your natural waist

Hips in

Around the fullest point

Your bridal size

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Bust points to

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Waist points to

—

Hips point to

—

Enter your measurements — your bridal size appears as you type.

Why bridal runs small

It's an older ruler, not a judgment

Bridal never vanity-sized

Street brands spent decades cutting bigger while keeping labels the same — today's street 8 is measurably larger than a 1980s 8. Bridal largely kept its traditional charts, so the honest old numbers met the inflated new ones, and brides got the shock.

Gowns are structured

A wedding dress is closer to tailoring than to a jersey dress: boning, built-in structure, no stretch to forgive a size down. Structured garments are sized by measurement, exactly, which is why the chart matters more here than anywhere else in this site.

Every designer differs

There is no single bridal standard. The chart below is the consensus mid-point of published bridal charts; individual designers run a half to a full size either side of it. Use your result to walk in prepared — then let the designer's own chart make the final call.

The bridal chart

Bridal dress sizes 2–28

Bridal size	Bust up to	Waist up to	Hips up to
Bridal 2	32″ / 81.5 cm	24.5″ / 62 cm	35.5″ / 90 cm
Bridal 4	33″ / 84 cm	25.5″ / 65 cm	36.5″ / 92.5 cm
Bridal 6	34″ / 86.5 cm	26.5″ / 67.5 cm	37.5″ / 95.5 cm
Bridal 8	35″ / 89 cm	27.5″ / 70 cm	38.5″ / 98 cm
Bridal 10	36.5″ / 92.5 cm	29″ / 73.5 cm	40″ / 101.5 cm
Bridal 12	38″ / 96.5 cm	30.5″ / 77.5 cm	41.5″ / 105.5 cm
Bridal 14	39.5″ / 100.5 cm	32″ / 81.5 cm	43″ / 109 cm
Bridal 16	41″ / 104 cm	33.5″ / 85 cm	44.5″ / 113 cm
Bridal 18	43″ / 109 cm	36″ / 91.5 cm	46.5″ / 118 cm
Bridal 20	45″ / 114.5 cm	38″ / 96.5 cm	48.5″ / 123 cm
Bridal 22	47″ / 119.5 cm	40.5″ / 103 cm	50.5″ / 128.5 cm
Bridal 24	49″ / 124.5 cm	43″ / 109 cm	52.5″ / 133.5 cm
Bridal 26	51″ / 129.5 cm	45.5″ / 115.5 cm	54.5″ / 138.5 cm
Bridal 28	53.5″ / 136 cm	48″ / 122 cm	57″ / 145 cm

Consensus of published bridal charts (see methods). As a rough translation, a street size 8 lands near bridal 10–12, street 12 near bridal 14–16 — but measurements, not translations, are what boutiques order by.

Worked examples

Three brides, traced through both charts

36.5 / 28.5 / 39.5all three in street row 8

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Bridal 10 · Street 8

A perfectly consistent street 8 — and a bridal 10 on every measurement. The most common pattern there is: one full size up.

38 / 31 / 42waist & hips lead

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Bridal 14 · Street 12

The bust fits bridal 12, but waist and hips pass it, and a gown orders to the largest measurement. Ordered as a 14, tailored at the bust — the standard bridal workflow.

41 / 34 / 45street 16 body

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Bridal 18 · Street 16

Waist and hips govern again. Knowing "18" before the appointment turns a potential fitting-room shock into a non-event.

The two rules of bridal ordering

1. Order for your largest measurement. Everything else can be tailored in; almost nothing can be let out.
2. Order for the body you have. If your size changes before the wedding, alterations handle it — a gown ordered for a hoped-for body is a gamble with a non-refundable dress.

Budget & logistics

The part nobody tells you at the appointment

Alterations are a budget line, not a surprise

Because gowns are ordered to the largest measurement, alterations are the norm, not the exception — hemming, taking in, and adding bust cups are routine. Ask the boutique for a realistic alterations estimate before you commit to a gown, and hold that money aside. A dress that fits your largest measurement off the rack with minimal tailoring is worth real money compared with a cheaper gown that needs rebuilding.

Bring your numbers, not your size

Walk in with your three measurements written down — bust, waist, hips, taken this week, in the undergarments you plan to wear. Consultants order from measurements against the designer's chart; a bride who hands over numbers gets a better-ordered gown than a bride who negotiates a label. If the ordered size upsets you, remember the fitting room rule: the number is a manufacturing code, and nobody at the wedding will ever see it.

Questions

Before you ask

Why is my wedding dress size bigger than my normal size?

Bridal sizing never adopted vanity sizing. Street brands have quietly cut bigger over the decades while keeping the same labels; bridal kept its older, stricter charts. The result: most brides land one to two sizes above their street size. It is the system, not you — the number on a bridal label says nothing about your body that your street size doesn't.

Should I order my wedding dress in my street size anyway?

No. Order the size the designer's chart gives for your largest measurement. A gown can be taken in almost anywhere; it can rarely be let out more than a fraction of an inch, because bridal seam allowances are small. Ordering down is the single most expensive mistake in bridal.

What if my measurements fall into three different bridal sizes?

Normal — order for the largest, and budget for alterations to fit the rest. That is how bridal is designed to work: the gown arrives fitting your largest measurement and a seamstress shapes it to the others. Tell the boutique all three numbers, not just the size you hoped for.

When should I order, and when do I stop changing size?

Most boutiques want orders 6–9 months before the wedding, with fittings in the final 2–3 months. The practical rule: order for the body you have at ordering time. If your size is changing, say so at the appointment — consultants plan alteration timelines around it. Chasing a goal size with the order itself is how dresses end up not closing.

Do bridesmaid dresses use the same sizing?

Usually yes — most bridesmaid lines run on bridal-style charts, so bridesmaids also typically land one to two sizes above their street size. Warn your party before the fitting room moment; it saves real tears. Each attendant should be measured and matched to the chart individually, never assigned a size by guess.

What is hollow to hem, and do I need it?

Hollow to hem is the measurement from the hollow at the base of your throat, down over the bust to the hem, taken wearing your wedding shoes. Designers use it to set gown length when you order. This calculator covers bust, waist and hips — the size decision. Your boutique takes hollow to hem at the order appointment.

Every dress tool

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Weight loss

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How many dress sizes will you drop? An honest estimate for your goal weight.

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Reference

Full Size Chart

Every size in US, UK, EU and AU — with cm, plus and petite tables included.

See the full chart →

Who made this · How it's sourced

Built by a person, checked against sources

Ian Welkins

Builder & maintainer

I build small, single-purpose calculators and check every number they print. This one exists because dress sizing is a mess of unregulated charts — the least I could do was gather the published ones in one place and show the working.

Found a chart that disagrees with ours? That's exactly what the report-an-error page is for — corrections get checked and the page gets updated.

Last verified: November 2026 · Charts re-checked against the sources listed here

Methods & sources

ASTM D5585Standard tables of body measurements for adult female misses figure type
ISO 8559Size designation of clothes — anthropometric survey definitions
Published brand charts (consensus)Cross-checked across major retailers' published size charts; where brands disagree, the median value is used and the variance disclosed

Method in one line: match each measurement to the consensus chart, round up between sizes, let the largest measurement govern — then adjust for the style of dress.