I had an awesome bridal consultation last week where one of the topics we focused on was wedding attire. Every bride needs to envision what they want the bridal party to look like on the big day. However, it is important to be flexible since you might be surprised at what you like and what looks best on you.
What’s your style? What’s your venue? What’s the vibe of your wedding? You need to consider all three when you’re dress shopping.
If you’re going to a salon to try on dresses this is important so that you can help your consultant help you.
If you’re going in without an appointment to try on dresses in a big national chain like David’s Bridal, you need the tools to make sure your dress search is fun rather than overwhelming.
And if you’re shopping online, you need to whittle down your options so you don’t get confused by everything out there.
One important rule that applies to all three modes of dress shopping is to buy your dress to fit the largest part of your body and get the rest altered to fit.
Tips and Tricks to Find Your Dress
Bridal Appointment
You’ll have some help picking your dream dress, but make sure to help yourself!
- Before your appointment, take some wedding dress quizzes to select three dress silhouettes you’d like to try and think are flattering.
- Try to identify some designers in your price range that you like, and choose a bridal boutique that carries all or most of your designers.
- Remember that your bridal consultant is an expert so try to be open to her suggestions, even if you don’t think you’ll like a dress she pulls for you.
- Select a boutique that can accommodate all the people you want to bring with you–some boutiques have space restrictions
- Only bring people who can be kind, supportive, upbeat, and honest so that you can enjoy this big day.
Solo-shopping
The three biggest rules of independent dress shopping are 1) have a plan, 2) have a plan, and 3) have a plan! The surest way to be disappointed in your dress shopping experience is to tell yourself that you don’t have any expectations and to go in totally unsure of what you want. Then you’ll try on twenty-seven dresses and realize that not only did you have high expectations and a vision of how you wanted to look, but that none of the dresses are meeting those expectations or fitting your vision.
- Take those wedding-dress-finder quizzes!
- Take several and look for consistency in your choices to identify trends you like.
- Use theknot.com’s search tools here to find dresses in your price range and look for those designers in store.
- Browse the inventory online and make sure the dresses you want to try on are in stock.
- Trust your gut, you know what you want to look like better than anyone else can.
- Bring your squad (or 2-3 people you trust) so they can help out and the experience feels celebratory and fun
Online shopping
As a voluptuous woman, finding silhouettes that accentuate my figure, camouflage my insecurities, and still stay on trend is something I’m struggling with myself, but I’ve started to refine my skill set . To this end, keep all the same online shopping rules you normally apply in mind when shopping for a wedding dress.
- Think about what normally looks good on you rather than branching out to try something new and taking a big, unnecessary risk.
- Look for a retailer that has dresses in budget, and know that you’ll look beautiful no matter what you’re wearing.
- I’ve seen incredible dresses on Amazon, Wish, and various international websites for less than $100.00.
- And don’t forget about online retailers like ModCloth and ASOS with beautiful dresses in the $100-300 range.
Good luck dress shopping, and don’t forget that I’m available for wedding planning and consulting services on a sliding scale fee. I believe event planning services should be accessible to everyone, and I’ll work with you.
-Beulah 👰🏾
Bridal by Beulah 