I asked around and seem like all my friends signs a package to get their gowns settled without even trying for them. However as I'm not doing a big wedding and only need one gown, do boutiques le me try before deciding if i can rent with them?
i accompanied my friend to 2 bridal shops, both shops offered to let her try few gowns on the spot if she would like to.
for the first shop, my friend did not see any gown that she was really in loved with, but she was okay for most dresses, so she asked the consultant if she can bring her husband-to-be to their shop in july (HTB not staying in SG) and she would try the gowns to let her HTB to see (and "approve") before signing, and the consultant straight away rejected this and said that nobody would let her do that. then my friend countered her statement saying other shops allowed her to do so (which is real, she visited another bridal shop and they were okay for this request), then the consultant changed to "okay then they allow u but here we cannot".....i was like "uh....ok.........."
second shop actually agreed to let her bring her HTB go down to the shop in july and decide whether to sign the package after trying the gowns.
i believe most of the bridal shops allow you to try first but may be they will limit the number of gowns u gonna try...they mostly said "oh if u wan i can let u try 2-3 pieces now ah, no problem"
anyway my friend signed up w the second shop almost immediately because she really loved the long train dress that shop has, and this shop's consultants were not as pushy as the 1st shop.