Boho’s tips on wedding dress shopping

by Kelly Hood

Wed­ding Dress shop­ping is one of my favourite bits of the whole plan­ning process; every girl loves to play dress up, right? Well some of us do, while oth­ers find the whole expe­ri­ence com­pletely stress­ful, so much empha­sis has been put on find­ing the per­fect dress that it can be very daunt­ing!
By fol­low­ing these sim­ple bits of advice the whole process should be made a lot eas­ier for you.

Image cour­tesy of the Har­ro­gate Wed­ding Lounge

Research:
Think about dresses that you nor­mally wear and what style makes you feel good, most peo­ple have a good idea about what flat­ters them and what doesn’t. Also think about the bits of your body you like and you don’t like. If you like your neck­line and shoul­ders, then maybe you want to show this area off more than say your waist?

Have a look through the wed­ding mag­a­zines and web­sites to look at styles and design­ers that you like, this will give you a bet­ter idea of where to start when you get into the shop.

If there is a spe­cific designer that you like then find out who stocks it. Each dress shop will have a dif­fer­ent selec­tion of design­ers, espe­cially if they are in the same city, so you need to find the right shop if you have your sights set on a cer­tain designer.

Make an appoint­ment:
Most shops espe­cially on a Sat­ur­day will have an appoint­ment only ser­vice. If you just want to pop in and have a look on a Sat­ur­day don’t think the shop staff are being rude if they don’t let you in, they are sim­ply attend­ing to the brides already in the shop.
Mid week doesn’t tend to be so bad and most shops are happy for you to just pop in if they are free they will see you.
But to save dis­ap­point­ment call the bridal shop before hand and find out what their appoint­ment pol­icy is

Take some­one with you:
It’s always good to have some­one with you when choos­ing your dress, but think very care­fully about who it is you want with you.
Think about whose opin­ion you value, who will tell it to you straight and has your best inter­est at heart. Some­times tak­ing your mum isn’t a good idea if she is going to talk you into some­thing you don’t like.
Also try to take just one or two peo­ple with you. There is noth­ing worse than tak­ing all your brides­maids and hav­ing a huge shout­ing match as no one can agree on the right dress for you. Remem­ber it’s your day and you’re the one wear­ing it, no one else.

Set a Bud­get:
This is true for any part of your wed­ding plan­ning, but very impor­tant when choos­ing the dress. You need to know how much you can afford before you go and try them all on; this will also dic­tate which bridal shops you go to.

Dress the part:
It’s always an idea to make an effort with your appear­ance the day you try dresses on. This will help to visu­alise how you will look on the day. If you already know that your hair will be up or down, then wear it that way on the day,  as it will give you a bet­ter idea of the whole ‘look’. Put some make up on, even some fake tan, so you know what the dress will look like once you have had your bridal pam­per.
Also take shoes with you and make sure you have good under­wear on. You are not going to feel bride-like with your old grey saggy knick­ers on!

Take a cam­era and note­book:
Some shops don’t like you tak­ing pic­tures of the dresses, but most are OK, ALWAYS ask first though! If you are unsure about a dress it is always good to look at your own pic­ture the day after instead of try­ing to use your mem­ory! Also if you do find ‘The’ Dress then it’s always good to get a pic­ture of it so you can match up your acces­sories.
A pen and paper will help you as well to keep notes of each dress, price, style num­bers etc.

Make sure you leave enough time:
Most dress shops work with very long lead times, the dress you try on in the shop won’t be the dress you buy (unless it’s in the sale). Once you have cho­sen your dress it will nor­mally need to be ordered in so you can then have your fit­ting, either that or your mea­sure­ments taken so it can me made to your size. This whole process can take about 6 – 9 months, so leav­ing the dress shop­ping to the last minute could leave you disappointed!

Get a rec­om­men­da­tion:
It’s always a good idea to ask friends and fam­ily about cer­tain dress shops. It’s always good to get a rec­om­men­da­tion about the ser­vice, the staff and the qual­ity before you spend your money there.

Be open minded:
You may have a clear idea in your head what you want, but try on as many dif­fer­ent styles as you can. Most brides will tell you that the dress they chose was noth­ing like the dress they imag­ined they would wear. Try on dif­fer­ent styles and see what suits you the most, don’t choose some­thing because it is fash­ion­able, choose it because it makes you feel like a mil­lion dol­lars and is comfortable.

Alter­ations:
Most dresses will need to be altered, and most of the time this price isn’t included in the price of the dress. Find out exactly how much this is before you com­mit to anything.

Style of the day
Think about the style of your day and the venue when try­ing on your dress. Your dress needs to fit the theme, how­ever some­times it will be your dress that dic­tates the theme. If you’re get­ting mar­ried in a big cas­tle, then maybe a more tra­di­tional full on wed­ding dress would suit the occa­sion, how­ever this style dress isn’t going to work if you are get­ting mar­ried abroad. If you are going for a Vin­tage style wed­ding then the dress needs to work with the style as well.

The Fit­ting:
Once the dress has been ordered and arrived you will need to go back to the shop for a fit­ting. If you are los­ing weight for the wed­ding then this is the date you need to try and be your tar­get weight! You will also need the shoes you will be wear­ing on the day, so the length can be adjusted cor­rectly and also your cor­rect under­wear.
Again try and wear your hair the way it will be on the day.

Enjoy it:
Remem­ber wed­ding dress shop­ping is one of the best bits in the whole prepa­ra­tion process, it’s so much fun try­ing on all the beau­ti­ful dresses; don’t let it stress you out. You dream dress could be the first one you try on, or it could take 10 dif­fer­ent shops before you get there, but don’t worry you will get there! Be patient and don’t stress about it!

Arti­cle repro­duced with kind per­mis­sion from Kelly, Boho Wed­dings and Events. Kelly has lots of great advice to offer, both on her wed­ding plan­ning web­site and on her own wed­ding blog — she’s recently posted a Valentine’s spe­cial with great pic­tures and sto­ries which I highly recommend.

Kelly — thank you.