Need Advice on Finding the Perfect Wedding Dress

Try on lots of different fits and styles! We hear all the time that brides went into dress shopping thinking they knew exactly what kind of dress they wanted... only to fall in love with something completely different! Rely on your dress consultant - they know their inventory and how the dresses fit/flatter. Tell them exactly what you do and don't like about the dresses you try on, so they can find you dresses that better match that vision. Plan on going to multiple stores; especially if you are going to bring people along with you. Remember: the more people you bring along, the more opinions you are going to get, which can be really overwhelming and confusing. That's why most boutiques encourage you to only bring 1-3 people with you. It's also ok to go alone! I've heard from sooooo many brides that they weren't having any luck going shopping with others, so they went alone and sure enough, they found "the one". Another thing I found super helpful while dress shopping was making sure my hair and makeup was done. It's hard to fall in love with the way you look in a dress when you aren't feeling great about the way you look to begin with! It's also helpful to wear nude colored undergarments and a nude strapless bra.

Congrats on the engagement! I hope you have a blast shopping for dresses!

Dress shopping can turn disastrous very quickly if you take the wrong people. Take ONLY those people you trust to help you feel great about yourself and whose opinion you value. As stated before, you should consider first going alone if you have any qualms or insecurities. You can get a feel for what looks good on you before you truly dive into showing others. You are going to find a beautiful dress!

Be open to trying on all styles regardless of what it looks like on the hanger. Keep in mind that model pictures online are airbrushed and not everyone has the same body type. Don’t settle for the first dress you try on. There are countless posts using the search feature where brides settled for the 1st or 2nd dress they tried on and then bought another one and unable to resell the original. Instead of continuing to look until you find the one you don’t want to take off at all. That is when you know it’s the one. Sometimes, there is no perfect premade dress so you have to pick parts that you love of other dresses and trust the process, but not everyone is open to that. Make sure before you purchase the dress that it is lightweight enough that you can move around in it. Dance, sit, bend and so on in the dress and make sure it’s not heavy. . If you can’t, then keep looking until you can. Also, even though social media insists otherwise that it’s much more prevalent than it is, it is actually very rare outside of unlimited celebrity budgets and Asian cultures to change into a second dress for the reception. Not to mention the cost involved. Outside of social media, multiple ceremonies/receptions are not that common in real life and a wedding dress is a once in a lifetime wear purchase that is worn for 4-10 hours out of the bride’s lifetime on a single day and they average between $500-2k. Multiply that times 2+ and many people don’t want to do it nor can they afford it to wear an expensive heavy restrictive dress for 30 minutes max before changing into something else equally expensive. But they are pressured by online communities, social media and other influences that they are “not good enough” and “guests will be scandalized” unless they go into debt wearing multiple dresses that they didn’t plan to buy.

Be open to trying on different styles and try to explain why you didn’t like the ones you didn’t like. (And what aspects you did like!) Do you hate sleeves generally or didn’t like the tight sleeves? Do you not like strapless for the look or you don’t feel they’re supportive? Etc. That helps send you in the right direction. I tried on a few dresses and narrowed things down, tried on another I liked but not quite enough, then showed the shopper an inspiration pic something in that dress reminded me of. She immediately pulled The Dress and it was perfect.


Also remember accessories can change looks. A belt may give some definition at the waist that totally changes how you see the dress, etc.