Trying to find the perfect wedding gown, during shopping can be exhausting and overwhelming. It could even go wrong if you are uninformed about important wedding dress pre-shopping tips and advice (aka dress shopping checklist). You are likely to regret your purchase if you’re not aware of bridal shopping dos and don’ts, what to expect and how to prepare for try-on sessions.
I want to help, and so in this post, I’m sharing 17 no-fail tips and advice to make finding and choosing your dream dress fun and a lot easier for you. Read on, and let’s get you to ready for stress-free bridal shopping.
17 Fail-Proof Tips and Advice to Make Shopping for a Wedding Gown Fun
The secret to finding your perfect wedding dress fast lies in knowing what you want, way in advance, before stepping into any bridal store. Knowing that will enable you to confidently communicate to shop reps an idea of different wedding gown styles you’d like to try on. It lets them know you have already done your homework and not likely to waste their time (wearing every dress in the shop) and looking like you are not serious to buy a dress.
1. Have an Idea of Bridal Dress Looks (Styles) to Try on Before Going Shopping: Don’t go to the dress shop to discover what to buy. Instead, do your homework from home to first decide the styles of wedding gown suitable for your figure. You also want to get a paper notebook to write out your wedding fashion shopping list. Finally, you should get yourself familiar with the lingo of wedding gown parts, and silhouettes (style-cuts) – so you won’t look lost when a store attendant speaks in the wedding industry lingo.
The next tips below will guide you on how to figure out wedding gown styles for your shape and personality, and also names of dress silhouette and parts.
2. Set a Shopping Budget (Limit) and Try Only Dresses Within Your Budget: You don’t want to try on a wedding dress, fall in love with it, only to later discover that it’s 10 times costlier than you can afford. So, stay in your lane (budget). But not to worry because the same style of wedding dresses can come in diverse price points.
For example, you could find a particular wedding gown style in $1000 (convert that to Naira, lol), and also find a similar style in lower costs $300. So, tell the bridal shop person the price range you’re looking for, as well as show pictures of desired styles (silhouette and cuts).
3. Try-On Familiar Cuts that Flatter Your Body Shape: Wedding gowns are styled and cut somewhat similar to the regular prom or designer evening dresses. So, if you know the outfit cuts (neck cut, sleeves, skirt area, body-fitted or loose) that always look good on you, you can start your store-try-on by looking at wedding gowns that have similar cuts and silhouettes.
It’s quicker to find your “it-gown” from familiar cuts than from trying on strange outfit cuts you’ve never worn before. With wedding gowns, the cuts and silhouettes have names, and it’s a good idea to know those names – to make it easy when talking with bridal shops.
- Related: The Best Wedding Gown Necklines for Every Type of Body
- The Best Type of Wedding Gown Sleeves Suitable for Different Brides
4. Check Your Wardrobe for Occasion-Outfit Styles and Cuts that You Generally Gravitate Towards: Another way to get a good idea of the style of wedding gown that is “you” and true to your personality is to start from the familiar and what’s YOU. Take a look at your wardrobe to identify a pattern. Look at the long dresses and evening gown styles you own. Or even look at the long skirt-and-blouse styles you own.
Which cuts (sleeves, neckline, skirt-styles, dress-body styles) do you have more? Of those outfits, which ones do you get the most compliments from? What styles flatter your body type most, when you look at the mirror?
It’s a good idea to start your wedding gown search from what you already know that you look good in. Don’t start searching from scratch. A wedding gown is not much different from a long skirt-and-blouse style, only that it’s white and comes in delicate fabric and embellishment.
So, when you go to the bridal stores, help them to help you find styles to try-on, by telling them the cuts, necklines and skirt styles that usually flatter your figure.
U guys gat me imagining maself in dos SWIT n LUVLY dresses, dey’r sooooooo biuti4ul
Oh yea! So therefore, make your imagination a reality kia-kia. Run to your tailor to sew those styles you’re imagining on you. Haha.