When you first start planning your wedding it can be hard to know where to start looking for a wedding dress. We get lots of brides who visit us for their first appointment who don’t really know what to expect, they just found us on google so booked an appointment. Wedding dress shopping is very fun, but it can also be very tiring, a little preparation before the day can hugely improve your experience. Here’s our guide on how to prepare to find your dream wedding dress.
How to start wedding dress shopping
Research
Before you book an appointment with a shop do your research. Most wedding shops will charge for appointments, especially on weekends so it can get quite expensive if you go to a lot of shops which aren’t right for you. While you may not know the exact style you will like without trying any on we recommend having a look at the designers a shop stocks, do you like a variety of their dresses, the overall aesthetic and style? If you’re looking for a short dress or a wedding dress with sleeves have you checked to see if they have a few of those options in-store? Another key thing to research is the sample sizes a store holds, most will have a variety but if you’re a petite size 6 you’ll want to be trying on dresses in 10’s-12’s max rather than 18’s which you won’t be able to see the shape and fit of the dress. It’s entirely likely you wont be able to try on all your favourite styles in your size, that’s what our handy clamps are for! You can usually try on dresses 1-2 sizes either side of your size, depending on the style.
Budget
Set your wedding dress budget before you go shopping, how much can you realistically afford to spend on your dress, does the shop you’re thinking about visiting have a good number of dresses fro that budget? There’s no point going to a shop if they only have 1-2 dresses in your budget. At The Boutique & Co. we’ve organised our collection by budget to make it even easier for you. When you set your budget don’t forget to add in the cost of alterations too which are usually somewhere between £150-£500 depending on the style of dress you go for.
Go Prepared
We do recommend doing your hair and makeup for your dress fitting if you plan on doing this for the wedding day. It’s very hard going from yoga pants to wedding dress and the whole thing often feels a bit strange initially. Wear nude underwear, take shape wear pants if you think you’d wear them on the wedding day (most people do!). The more you do to replicate how the dress will look on the day the more true idea you’ll get.
Don’t Over Shop
Some brides fall in love with their wedding dress on their first try, some need to continue shopping. If you do fall in love with your dress at the first shop don’t be afraid to purchase it. The experience should be fun and magical and often there is no point going to 3 more stores after just for the sake of it you can ruin the experience for yourself. Of course if you need to try on a few more styles and dresses you should do that too, but we have brides come to us who have tried on dresses at 10-20 shops and they have shopping fatigue so remember to be productive in your shopping! So, where to start looking for a wedding dress? It’s all in the appointment preparation!
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