I know that it depends on the dress...did the place where you got it have any reccommendations of where to do? What kind of alterations do you need? My 1st wedding..I am pretty sure that I only paid about $300, and they had a LOT of things to chnge...they took it in...hemmed the crap out of it (I'm only 5'2") and then because I am abnormal and decided to not care about dieting the very last couple of weeks before the wedding as opposed to crazy dieting..they had to then let it out just a couple days before the wedding