Although we realize it should be the most fun item to cross off your list, you really do need to get started early. Special ordering, custom anything, and having the gown arrive in enough time to alter it during the various stages of your inevitable pre-wedding diet take a lot of time–preferably nine months to one year before you walk down the aisle. So let’s get shopping!
EXPERT TIP: Before the Scouting Mission. While thinking about monetary restrictions may momentarily rain on your shopping parade, make sure you put together some sort of budget before engaging in a full-on frenzy. Figure out a numeric value and stick to it. Don’t even try on a dress that is excessively over your budget: You may fall in love with it, and if your budget makes owning it impossible, you will look upon the dress you do purchase with resentment and, possibly, disdain. This is not how brides should feel about their dress. Don’t let it happen to you.
The Look Book
If you’re not quite sure what kind of dress you want, and have not been fantasizing about your wedding dress since grade school, make a “look book” prior to shopping:
1. Rip out pages from magazines, print out pictures from designers’ Web sites, steal from your best friend’s wedding album-basically, when you see a dress you like, cut it out and paste it in a little scrapbook of potential dresses.
2. Study the images of different looks to help you determine the patterns of things you do and do not like. This will make it much easier to communicate what you’re looking for to the bridal salon staff.
3. Make a note of what it is you like about each dress:
• Is it the material?
• The structure?
• The cut?
Just remember that the dresses you’re looking at are probably on gazelle-like models, and unless you are frequently mistaken for Gisele (and in which case, pardon us), you may end up honing your ideas only once you start to see things fitted to you.
Picking Your Shopping Entourage
There is no pressure to find the dress–or any dress–on your first shopping mission. You may even want to visit a few shops and see what’s out there before you decide where you’d like to make appointments for try-ons. You can make this trip alone, or you may want to bring a trusted friend with tastes similar to yours. When you decide you’d like to actually brave the world of try-ons, think about who you’d like to have with you. You’re about to see yourself in a wedding dress for the first time, and you may be surprised at how emotional you become. That said, don’t feel that you need to have your entire bridal party or your entire extended family with you to witness this magical moment. Ask yourself:
• Who would be helpful to have around while you’re trying to make a hard decision?
• Do your mom, sister, and best friend keep you grounded?
• Will they be honest when it comes to weighing your options?
• Will they tell you if they can see your cellulite through that sheath or if that strapless really plays up just how flat as a board you are? If so, bring them.
• Do you have one friend who’s not necessarily your closest but is just really helpful when you start feeling overwhelmed? If so, bring her.
On the other hand, if your mother’s harping makes you break out in hives all over your chest–which would undoubtedly make it hard to tell whether you like a sweetheart or V-neck neckline–wait until you’ve narrowed it to two or three dresses before asking her to come along to offer an opinion. This trip doesn’t have to be a party; simply bring someone or some people who will be fun and helpful.
Grazing
Looking at racks and racks of dresses, especially dresses in all the same color, can be very overwhelming.
1. Approach them with an open mind. If you see something you like–or even think you might like–try it on. Don’t let the way a dress looks on a hanger make you hesitate to try it. Hangers can make dresses appear much different from how they look on your body.
2. Be aware that there are trends in the bridal fashion industry each season. Designers may decide, from time to time, that they like heavy beading or excessively long trains of chiffon. But while this may influence the selection of dresses available in the stores, it won’t limit the variety, and it shouldn’t cause you to purchase a style that’s different from the one you’ve envisioned.
3. Try on as many as you like, and even if that first one makes you gasp, makes everyone around you weep, and makes all the salon consultants gather around and shake their heads in wide-eyed wonder–don’t be too quick to pull out your credit card. There may be another dress out there that gets an even stronger reaction.
4. This is not to say you need to try on hundreds of dresses (as matter of a fact, don’t), but it will pay to look around and compare and contrast. When you find one that you keep coming back to no matter what you put on or where you go, well then, chances are you’ve found The Dress.
