Does starting the search, of trying to find your wedding dress fill you with fear ? Or are you confused where to start ? RELAX ! grab a cuppa and read all about how you can restore your inner harmony, setting you up for wedding dress shopping success!!
First of all CONGRATULATIONS on your engagement, I bet you’ve been hypnotised by looking at your engagement ring, multiple times ever since your proposal, that rush of excitement when you said ‘YES’, now its time for the all important hunt for your wedding dress. Let me tell you a secret, every bride is fearful of making the wrong decision about her wedding dress, its not just you, after all your gown will be admired by all your guests and will be the topic of conversation on a Monday morning, when your wedding guests work colleagues ask “What was the bride’s dress like”?
You suddenly feel a wave of panic sweep over you and think that you have to rush out and try dresses on, with no wedding date set and no research carried out on any of the bridal shop’s, outlets or national chains, you intend to visit. You think that you have to get ideas and quickly find your style, whilst mentioning your panicked plan to friends and family, who instantly invite themselves, suddenly you have an entourage bigger than Beyoncé. There’s no wonder you are left feeling even more confused, than when you first started to think about wedding dress shopping, once that first disastrous shopping trip is over… sadly this is where many brides go wrong!
Before you even try any dresses on, you first need to set your wedding date, time of ceremony and book your venue….Why, I hear you ask ? Well this is going to stop you from making a very expensive mistake, bridal gowns are made in so many different fabrics, some are more lightweight than others, there’s also a wide choice of colours available, from traditional white and Ivory to blush, nude, oat, champagne, gold etc, the possibilities and options really are endless, your gown has to work around the time of year, time of ceremony and your venue.
When booking your wedding date be mindful of accepting a short notice date, lead times on made to order gowns are around 4 – 6 months, you can have a gown made quicker but this will come with an additional cost, your only other option would be to buy off the peg, but typically these gowns will have been tried on by many other brides, if you want a gown making especially for you then please allow enough time or you’ll only be disappointed.
It’s so important to research the bridal boutiques, outlets or national chains that you intend to visit, there is HUGE difference in terms of quality of gowns, customer service and experience offered, it’s also a great way for you to establish how much to spend on your gown, remember this is a once in a lifetime event captured forever on your photograph’s.
Bridal magazines, internet and social media platforms will provide you with an over-whelming choice of wedding dress images, if you find you are attracted to a particular designer, then do some more research on the price range and also where your local stockist is, if it ticks all your boxes contact the stockist to make sure they have that style available within their collection for you to try and book your appointment.
Always be careful of ordering your dream dress off the internet, typically you will be seduced by the designer’s image being used to lure you into a false sense of security, a too good to be true price will be attached, but when the gown arrives you’ll certainly see that the old saying of “You get what you pay for” will spring to mind, if you can’t touch it, see it or try it on I wouldn’t advise that you spend your hard earned cash on a cheaply made, counterfeit copy!
Lastly the most important advice is for you to have had the serious talk with whoever is buying your gown or has joint / sole control of your overall wedding budget… before you even try any wedding dress on. Also discuss if there is any room in the wedding budget, just in case your expectation of gowns and your budget doesn’t live up to your expectations. Sadly we’ve seen this happen when a bride falls in love with her dream dress to find that she simply can’t afford the gown, this then sets her up for disappointment when trying other gowns on, as nothing will live up to her dream dress.
May we wish you wedding dress shopping success, we would love to hear from you if you any further questions or need anymore advice please drop us an email to enquiries@elegancebridalstudio.co.uk
We do hope you will plan in advance of trying wedding dresses on, remember if you fail to plan, you plan to fail !
Love Julia x
