Now that you've started to create an mental image of your big day, complete with location and colors and season, it's time to add arguably one of the most important details--the dress! Many designers can take six to eight months to ship their bridal dresses, plus you'll want to leave at least a few months for fittings and alterations, so it's important to tackle the dress shopping early. Plus, you may find yourself falling in love with a dress that you would have never expected, and it may change a few of the elements of your wedding day (I definitely went back and started adding silver into my bouquets and decor after buying a dress with a silver sash). It's never to late to make those kind of changes, but they are generally cheaper to do early on (like, before you buy yards of white ribbon only to end up buying an ivory dress and wanting to change everything to ivory), so the sooner you can find "the dress", the better. Besides, isn't shopping for the dress one of the best things about getting engaged anyway?
There can be a lot of factors that go into selecting "the dress", especially if you don't exactly have an image of what you want in your head. However, I want to first tackle some of the preliminaries of dress shopping--what to expect at your appointments, what you can do to be prepared for them--and we'll worry about making the final decision a little bit later.
One of the first things you can do even before you have your first appointment is look at a variety of dresses online to help give you an idea of things you do or do not like. Maggie Sottero, Alfred Angelo, and Allure Bridals are some popular designers. Most bridal stores will also include links to the dress designers that they carry, so if you know where you are going to be shopping the bridal salon's website is also a good place to start. A few things to keep in mind though: Most stores do not stock the entire lines of dresses that the designers they carry, so if you fall in love with one off the website there isn't a guarantee that it will be available in the store (if you are brave enough, most stores will order for you off the designers website, though). Also, don't get pigeon-holed on the type of dress you have to have. Most bridal consultants have helped hundreds of brides, and they might be able to recommend a dress that will be super flattering on you, even though it may not have been a style you were initially looking at. Open-mindedness is key at some of your first appointments--and besides, you will hopefully only be doing this once so you might as well try on all the dresses you can!
If you are like my sister and are traveling from out of town for your appointments, there is nothing wrong with scheduling appointments at multiple stores in the same day. However, keep in mind that you will want to space your appointments out a little bit so that you can allow time to travel between the stores and also give yourself some wiggle room if an earlier appointment runs a little long. Trying on dresses can also get exhausting, so a little down time to grab a snack can be a good energy booster. You'll also want to have a camera along; not all bridal salons allow photos, but you'll want to get plenty of pictures at the ones that do because by the end of the day, it can be hard to remember all of the details of all of the different dresses. Plus it's always fun down the road to have a picture of you in the dress to stare at while you are waiting (impatiently) for the dress to ship.
There are a few clothing considerations that you'll want to make on the day of your appointment. For starters, you will likely be getting in and out of your clothes multiple times (at least once at each place you have an appointment), so wear something comfortable (but nice). Also, you'll want to make sure you have neutral undergarments and a comfortable bra; if a strapless bra is necessary most stores will provide one for you (and one that is likely to have the same cut as the dress so you aren't distracted by your bra when looking at yourself in the dress).
There is one final thing to think about while you are out searching for "the dress". In many instances, the store you purchase your wedding dress from will be the same store you purchase much of the other apparel for your wedding--bridesmaid dresses, tuxes, flower girl dresses, etc--as well as the place that will likely work with you during your fittings and alterations. So it isn't just about finding the perfect dress, but finding a salon that has consultants that you are comfortable with, that treat you well (be a little selfish, you are the bride and deserve some special treatment), and who genuinely care about making your wedding day the best it can be. This definitely came into play for me; I had narrowed my selection down to four dresses between two stores, but was always a little bothered by the service at one of the stores (it always felt to me like they were trying to push their own personal agenda instead of listening to what I actually wanted), so I went with one of the dresses from the other store (and was soooo glad I did; we got nothing but exceptional service and every time I walked into the store I felt like they were genuinely excited to see me and hear how the progress of my wedding planning was going. Shout out to The Bridal Gallery in Sioux Falls--they're so awesome, in fact, that when we were there looking for dresses for my sister they still had the wedding picture I had sent them up on display!).
Next week we'll talk a little bit about keeping all this wedding stuff organized--you likely already have quite a few documents started and idea jotted down, and once you start meeting with and selecting vendors you'll want to make sure you have a place to store and organize your contracts and payments.
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