Bridalwear shopping guide

Buy­ing a wed­ding dress is very excit­ing, a once in a life­time expe­ri­ence and an adven­ture some of us have been look­ing for­ward to since we were about 5 years old! It’s also more than a lit­tle bit dif­fer­ent from buy­ing a nor­mal dress, with spe­cial­ist bridal­wear shops, high price tags, deposits and alter­ations to take into account.

If you’re newly engaged and not sure where to start, this page is for you. We’ll explain about the dif­fer­ent places you can buy a wed­ding dress, the styles to con­sider, and every­thing else to expect while you choose and buy your wed­ding dress.

Bud­get­ing for your wed­ding dress

The wed­ding dress is quite pos­si­bly the most impor­tant part of your wed­ding bud­get. It may not be the most expen­sive, but it has to be towards the top of your list. The aver­age wed­ding dress bud­get accounts for around 8 — 10% of total wed­ding spend­ing in the UK. The aver­age wed­ding dress costs £1,200.

Think about how impor­tant the dress is to you. If it’s the one thing you’ve dreamed about since you were tiny and sec­ond only to your groom on the day, then buy from a bridal­wear bou­tique and bud­get for up to 15% of your wed­ding cost.

If you’re happy to save a lit­tle and shop around, bud­get up to 8% of your wed­ding cost for the dress and con­sider high street stores as well as bridal­wear bou­tiques. Bhs do wed­ding dresses under £500.

If you’re going for a bud­get wed­ding or even an alter­na­tive style do, per­haps with a vin­tage dress, a spe­cial evening dress or a trouser suit, then allow around 2% of your wed­ding bud­get for your outfit.

If you are hav­ing a vin­tage wed­ding, and your mum or grandma has their wed­ding dress at the back of their wardrobe, then you may not need a wed­ding dress bud­get at all, and we’re all very envi­ous of you, you lucky thing! But…

Do remem­ber if you’re buy­ing a tra­di­tional wed­ding dress to allow for alter­ations in your bud­get. This could be any­thing from rais­ing the hem of your dress (if you’re half pixie like myself!) or tak­ing in the side seams, short­en­ing sleeves and straps — so it’s a good idea to put aside up to £300 for alterations.

BridalAlterations.co.uk has a com­pre­hen­sive price list on their web­site for wed­ding dress alter­ations to give you an idea. They’re based in London.

Wed­ding dress shapes and styles

If you’ve already started look­ing at wed­ding dresses you’ll know there are hun­dreds of styles, shapes and colours to choose from. Even a sin­gle bridal bou­tique is likely to have 100 dresses in stock. This is all part of the adven­ture, but it can be a bit daunt­ing. Where to start?

Think about your wed­ding. If you’re hav­ing a tra­di­tional church wed­ding, opt for a tra­di­tional dress, noth­ing too out­ra­geous. (Unless you want to shock the vicar and your granny, which I’m not entirely against!) A long white or ivory dress fits in per­fectly for a church wed­ding ceremony.

For a reg­istry office wed­ding, civil cer­e­mony at your wed­ding venue or for your civil part­ner­ship, you can choose a tra­di­tional gown or some­thing more orig­i­nal. The world is your oyster!

Wed­ding dress colours

Your wed­ding dress doesn’t have to be white or ivory. I’ve seen lovely cham­pagne coloured, gold and pat­terned wed­ding dresses from design­ers like Car­o­line Cas­tigliano and Alan Han­nah. To really make an impres­sion, try a red wed­ding dress (Mag­gie Sot­tero has some beau­ti­ful styles) or have a look at ‘Loretta’ by Lind­say Flem­ing — it’s got pea­cock feathers!

photo credit www.jonrouston.co.uk

Wed­ding dress fabrics

Many wed­ding dresses com­bine fab­rics for effect. Some are lay­ered, some kept very sim­ple. Many are ruched and / or bunched satin and silk. Most are the very high­est qual­ity fab­rics, espe­cially the designer labels, and each fab­ric has a dif­fer­ent effect:

Silks and satin wed­ding dresses have a gen­tle shine, and will swish and move beau­ti­fully on your wed­ding day. They both feel lovely and soft and are the most pop­u­lar fab­rics used in wed­ding dress design. One of the more unusual silk wed­ding dresses — and one of my favourites — is Tatum, by UK wed­ding dress designer Joanna Hehir.

Chif­fon and organza are used for lay­er­ing on many dresses. These light fab­rics cre­ate shape and are used to enhance the style of your dress. Mag­gie Sottero’s 2010 Des­ti­na­tion col­lec­tion uses gos­samer chif­fon lay­er­ing — this wed­ding dress with chif­fon is a beau­ti­ful example.

Crepe is a light­weight fab­ric with a soft shine, often with folds and designer creases to add inter­est to a dress. It’s used in some more unusual designs, and in gre­cian style wed­ding dresses, includ­ing Kula Tsurdiu’s gre­cian wed­ding gown from her 2010 col­lec­tion, which I love!

Taffeta is a time­less fab­ric and works beau­ti­fully with vin­tage designs. This Ian Stu­art bridal gown uses taffeta and French lace layering.

One impor­tant thing to bear in mind when look­ing at wed­ding dress fab­rics is the weight of your dress. If you’re get­ting mar­ried in the depths of win­ter, then a heavy fab­ric like Duchess satin is per­fect. If your wed­ding will be on a beach in the mediter­ranean, then stick to a lighter fab­ric to keep cool!

Alter­na­tive wed­ding dresses

My favourite UK wed­ding dress design­ers for alter­na­tive dresses are Kula Tsur­diu, Ian Stu­art and — if you’re after a really unusual wed­ding dress — Lind­say Fleming.

Kula Tsur­diu and Ian Stu­art both have col­lec­tions full of vin­tage lace and excit­ing fab­rics, in beau­ti­ful colours and amaz­ing shapes. Kula’s designs are sim­ple and exquis­itely made — not too alter­na­tive, but refresh­ingly different.

Ian Stuart’s bridal­wear col­lec­tion is extrav­a­gant and full of rich shapes and tex­tures. Every dress is a cre­ation in itself, and you will make one hell of a state­ment in your Ian Stu­art dress.

Lind­say Flem­ing has been cre­at­ing won­der­ful alter­na­tive gowns for years, spe­cial­is­ing in medi­ae­val wed­ding dresses with long flow­ing sleeves, using vel­vets and capes, rich colours and more. Her new vin­tage col­lec­tion is imag­i­na­tive and very beau­ti­ful — if you’re hav­ing a vin­tage wed­ding, you have to check out Lind­say Flem­ing for inspiration.

Wed­ding dress shapes to suit your figure

The golden rule with wed­ding dresses is to try dif­fer­ent shapes of dress on — you won’t really know until you’ve tried a dress whether it suits you. If you’re look­ing for advice, then bridal­wear bou­tiques are the per­fect place to go. A bridal­wear retailer will know which dresses will flat­ter your fig­ure, and which will high­light your favourite curves or dis­guise your wob­bly bits.

If you’re not buy­ing your dress from a bou­tique, or you want to have a rough idea before you go, then here are a few quick tips:

Full skirts suit those of us who are pear-shaped. The shape of the skirt will dis­guise your hips and bot­tom and give you an hour­glass fig­ure. Check out Car­o­line Cas­tigliano for some won­der­ful full skirted wed­ding dress designs.

If you’re very curvy, a full skirt might not be for you. Try an A-line skirt which will bal­ance your fig­ure from top to bot­tom, with­out putting too much empha­sis on any one part of your body.

An A-line skirt work with a hoop and pet­ti­coat is per­fect for the fuller fig­ure, cre­at­ing a beau­ti­ful shape and mak­ing your waist look narrow.

Choose a sweet­heart neck­line to empha­sise your cleav­age if you’re an hour­glass. An A-line dress will suit you and draw atten­tion to your lovely curves.

Slen­der brides look great in Empire line wed­ding dresses. These have a seam below the bust, and a long flow­ing skirt — you will glide down the aisle!

Fish­tail dresses are fig­ure hug­ging and great for hour­glass fig­ures and taller brides.

Where to buy a wed­ding dress

If money is no object!

Head directly for a wed­ding dress designer. Design­ers like Car­o­line Cas­tigliano, Char­lotte Bal­bier and Kula Tsur­diu will visit their stock­ists from time to time, and you can make an appoint­ment directly.

Alter­na­tively visit the dress designer’s web­site and find their list of stock­ists. There will be a list of bridal­wear bou­tiques who stock their designs, and you can make an appoint­ment to view the collection.

Vis­it­ing a bridal bou­tique is an expe­ri­ence — your appoint­ment will be an hour or longer, and you can take your mum, best friend, sis­ters or all of the above to share the adven­ture! Make sure some­one has a cam­era so you can take a pic­ture home once you’ve found The Dress.

With a bud­get of £1k or more

Bridal­wear bou­tiques are the place to start look­ing for your wed­ding dress. Most towns have two or three — travel fur­ther afield if you’re look­ing for a spe­cific wed­ding dress designer.

Call the bou­tiques local to you before you go, and ask how many dresses they stock, and which design­ers they’re from, to get an idea of what to expect. They’ll be dif­fer­ent in qual­ity, and although most wed­ding dress shops are a real plea­sure, don’t be afraid to shop around. I’d rec­om­mend you visit more than one if you can.

The staff in the shop should be help­ful and polite, offer­ing gen­uine advice and lis­ten­ing to your ideas. If they are clearly try­ing the hard sell, can’t answer your ques­tions or don’t put you at ease, then try another shop. You should enjoy buy­ing your wed­ding dress.

With a bud­get under £500

There are plenty of high street retail­ers who are well estab­lished in the bridal­wear mar­ket. Prices are really afford­able and with the cur­rent fash­ion for sim­ple, ele­gant wed­ding dresses you are bound to find a wed­ding dress to suit you.

Bhs are the best on the high street for wedding dresses. They have a small but perfectly formed range of bridalwear, with most dresses at just under £500. The Bhs wedding collection features classic dress shapes and fashionable designs, from their fairytale Luciana wedding dress to the lovely vintage layers of Elisabetta.

With online exclusives,  sale dresses from as little as £120, regular discounts and a really good range of bridesmaids' dresses to boot, I really rec­om­mend Bhs.

Other high street wed­ding dress retail­ers include the big depart­ment stores: M&S have some lovely out­fits in their Auto­graph Occa­sions range, which you could wear again as evening wear.  Deben­hams have some really lovely white evening dresses which they sell as wed­ding dresses, and the light fab­rics and sim­ple flow­ing shapes make them per­fect for a des­ti­na­tion wedding.

Last but not least, Mon­soon is becom­ing a very pop­u­lar choice for wed­ding dresses and out­fits. They are well known for their qual­ity and for their lovely bohemian styles through­out their fash­ion col­lec­tions, and have some lovely maxi dresses in white for around the £200 mark. Def­i­nitely worth a look!

With a bud­get under £200

Oxfam sell sec­ond hand wed­ding dresses — some brand new and never worn, oth­ers worn once — at great prices online and in spe­cial­ist bridal depart­ments across the UK. Please give them a try — you will be pleas­antly surprised!

Even if you aren’t keen on a sec­ond hand wed­ding dress (and ‘tsk’ to you if you won’t even con­sider it!), many dresses are donated by design­ers, so you can buy the wed­ding dress of your dreams for much less that you would expect. A smaller range is also avail­able online.

Oxfam has eleven bridal depart­ments across the UK, all of which offer a warm wel­come, spe­cial­ist advice and a wide selec­tion of bridal wear and accessories.