How exciting, you are engaged – congratulations!
It’s your first time trying on wedding dresses… So here’s what to expect and our top wedding dress shopping tips.
For most brides as soon as they are engaged (well and if your honest before too) the Pinterest page starts, a WhatsApp group with mum or friends.
Searching designers, looking for inspiration and getting excited about trying wedding dresses on.
Lots of our brides are definitely excited but also a bit nervous, this is all really normal. Before you think it is you and you’re not normal! So much expectation, so much choice, how will I know what I like? What if I don’t like anything!, I don’t like the way I look, I want to loose weight. Please be assured, these are all normal thoughts and our job is to help you answer those questions and overcome those feelings.
We see lots of brides every month, for every 7 in 10 brides that visit us it is their first time dress shopping and around 80% of those find a dress with us, which is totally amazing. However, our golden rule is you have to ‘love’ the dress not just ‘like’ it. After all, your wedding dress is the most beautiful dress you will ever wear.
Before your appointment we get asked lots of questions, about what to wear, who to bring.
These tips might be useful
Budget
Think about how much you would like to spend on your dress. Taking into account you will want to set aside money for potential alterations, accessories such as shoes, jewellery etc. Why is this important? Trying on dresses over your budget will put you in a difficult position if you fall in love with it. No other dress then compares as you are always thinking about ‘the one’.
Underwear
What to wear? Ideally light colours, if you have a strapless bra, wear or bring it to your appointment.
Fake tan/Make-up
Please feel free to wear makeup, we want you to feel your best. With regards to fake tan, we and other shops ask you not to as this can stain the dresses.
Guests
Generally less is more. Choosing a couple of key people you want to share your special moment with is best. Bringing too many often results in conflicting opinions and we have seen many times brides getting overwhelmed. You want to make sure you pick the dress ‘you’ love.
So after meeting so many of you and having shared your experience what have we learned…
Be open minded
It’s really helpful when you arrive to hear about the dress styles you like. Do you want fitted? Ballgown?
The detail the you like, maybe its lace, lots of bling, classic and simple. Maybe you have seen one of two of our dresses online. These are all great starting points.
However, we find about 60-70% of brides pick a wedding dress different to what they originally thought.
Wedding dresses are amazing, from a look in a magazine or on a hanger the change when it’s on can be massive. Often the ones you love on the hanger you don’t love on and the ones that don’t get the best reactions when we lift them off the rail, well let’s just say brides often end up buying that one!
But also, we see brides that haven’t looked at anything and have no idea. That’s totally fine, we are here to help.
So be open minded to try different dresses, after all it is really fun.
Don’t settle
Often every dress you put on looks lovely. All wedding dresses are beautiful but not right for everyone. After all you only need that ‘one’ dress (or two!!). It’s the dress you will remember forever and should be the most beautiful. Make sure you have that moment, you will just know. Mainly because you don’t want to take it off.
Accessories
We have all the accessories you may be looking for from shoes to belts to hair pieces, jewellery, veils and more. But, if you have a family heirloom, using a something borrowed or you have been super organised and ordered online. Please feel free to bring them to your appointment. After all if you think you may have found ‘the one’, you will want to try everything on together.
Relax and enjoy!
Most of all be relaxed and have fun. Your experience is one you will remember forever.
