Shopping for your wedding gown is both wonderful and frustrating. Its the most unique shopping experience you will ever have. Never again (most likely) will you be in a situation where a complete stranger is dressing you in what could easily be the most important dress of your entire life. Never again will you need the opinions and advice of a whole group of people just to buy one dress.

Many brides are completely unprepared to gown shop and have no idea what they are getting into.  With this in mind Morgan and I, the longest reigning stylists at Bitsy, have put together our top pieces of advice for brides.

Becca’s Advice

1-Do your research

Know what kind of shop you are going into. What’s the price range? Are their dresses samples? If so what size? Do they have a seamstress in-house? What designers do they carry?

2-choose those who come with you carefully

Don’t bring a ton of people. Seriously, 2-3 is the magic number. Brides who bring more usually get overwhelmed and leave early or it takes them the whole time to try on 3 dresses. Neither scenario is good for the bride. The key is to only bring those who’s input you MUST have in order to purchase your gown.

3-Shop at the right time

Don’t shop until you are prepared to purchase! Styles get discontinued, floor samples get sold and factories get backed up. You don’t want to risk finding your dress and it being unavailable by the time you are able to purchase it and you don’t want to wait so long that you don’t even have time to order it anymore.  Avoid the heartache and shop at the right time.

4-speak up

As stylists, we don’t have any unnatural attachment to any of our gowns, our only intention is to find the gown that YOU love the most. So, speak up! If we pull something and you hate it: tell us and don’t waste your time or ours. If there is a type of dress we aren’t pulling that you want to try: don’t wait for us to read your mind, just ask us.

5-Eat a meal, but not right before

Trying on gowns can be a workout, especially if you are attracted to ball gowns, sparkle, or chunky lace. Eat a meal so you have energy but don’t come straight from lunch. Corsets and a full stomach don’t mix well.

Morgan’s Advice

1- we are here to help!

Don’t know what silhouette would look good on your body type? Ask! Want to know our opinion on a certain dress? Just let us know! All we want is to help you find your dream wedding dress, so anything we can do to help you, just holler and we’ll come running!

2-we don’t want you to be uncomfortable

Prefer to keep your tank top and shorts on while you shop? We won’t judge you no matter how little or how much clothing you keep on during your appointment. Also, if there is a dress we think would look great on you, but you HATE it, just say the word!

3-know your time limit

Dress shopping can be both fun and exhausting, but sometimes we get carried away! Unless your stylist has told you otherwise, your appointment will be the standard 1  1/2 hours. its fun to try on 30 gowns, but realistically, your stylist will know which dresses to put you in to keep your appointment (and those behind you) running on time.

4-bring only those who you want with you

You may feel obligated to bring your cousin’s neighbor’s boyfriend’s sister to your appointment, but trust us: only bring your most valued opinions with you. Those closest to you know you the best! And sometimes outside opinions make it tricky!

5-don’t dress to impress, dress for you

Brides always ask themselves “what would so-and-so think?” and unless their opinion is THE MOST important to you, follow your own instinct, you know yourself better than anyone else and this is your wedding, So do what makes you happy and pick the dress that does the same! Don’t pick a dress because you think its what others would want you to do.

 

We hope that these pieces of advice help you as you start your search!

Until next time,

Becca