5 Things I Knew While Wedding Gown Shopping

Trying on wedding dresses is one of the most stressful and overwhelming experiences any bride will ever go through. The wedding dress is pretty much what gets the majority of the attention during the entire wedding from getting ready shots all the way until the end of the reception. Many brides might go into their appointments with a certain mindset 

Here are things I wish people told me before I went shopping to say yes to the dress:

1. You think you know what you want… until you don’t.  Since I haven’t had my wedding yet I won’t be going into details about the dress I said yes to. I will be generalizing my thoughts about the dresses I tried on(this will be updated after July 2023)! This is one of the most important pieces of advice I wish someone had told me. Ever since I was little I had my dream dress in my mind. There were certain aspects that I KNEW I wanted to have. However, once I started trying on dresses I became so confused and lost at what I wanted. I truly thought that I would have picked out a dress on my first appointment but wow was I wrong! I still wanted the same style dress in terms of having it be a mermaid, trumpet, A-line, etc…but in terms of whether I want sleeves or no sleeves, beaded or not beaded, or placement of sleeves- I didn’t expect to change my mind. I actually fell in love with a certain aspect of the dress that I told myself to stay absolutely far away from! 

   • This situation is kind of like going shopping at the mall, you see something on the mannequin in the store and you think wow that’s the exact outfit I want. Until you go to the fitting room and it doesn’t match your body type. 

2. Going off the first and most important advice I can give, the next piece of advice that I wish someone told me is to go into your appointment with an open mind. The stylists are almost always very professional and skilled at what they do and they more often than not do have great recommendations on dresses that you never thought you might like! Go in with an open mind and who knows, maybe you feel good in something you never thought you’d like!

3. While going in with an open mind, my next advice to you is to try something on that’s out of your comfort zone. You only get this special moment once in your life. It’s better to try on something out of your comfort zone and absolutely hate it, rather than not trying something on and living the rest of your days wondering “well what if I would’ve felt amazing in it?”

4. When trying on dresses, pick the dress that makes you FEEL good. Something may look absolutely gorgeous on you, but you may not feel anything about it. You can be wearing the most beautiful dress, but if you don’t feel good in it, it’ll show on your face and it’s one thing you won’t be able to mask like you do everything you else. If you feel like a million bucks, you’ll look like a million bucks! Always be sure to pick that dress that makes your face light up, that’s the true Bridal Glow! 

5. This last piece of advice I wish someone told me before is to be mindful of other dresses after you have said yes to the dress! I ran into this major moment where after I received my dress, I started doubting it and kept thinking, did I make the right choice? This is a very common thought and rest assured, it’s NORMAL! This goes back to that first piece of advice I gave, you know what you want until you don’t. What may look good on someone modeling the dress, may not look good on you! Also be mindful that the dresses you are seeing after you’ve said yes to the dress are accompanied by amazing photography, full glam, and all the accessories such as headpieces or veils. That all brings the look together. So just trust in yourself that you picked the right dress that made you feel beautiful, and I promise that feeling will go away!