Wedding Dresses - What to Know

I SAID YES TO THE DRESS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I found the absolute dress of my dreams & it feels AMAZING!

I will share more about my experience, but before I dive into that, I thought I would share some of this new found knowledge, and things I have learned along the way. Let me tell you… this experience although fun and exciting, can be overwhelming, and here are some things I found out that helped a lot.

Look, let me start this off by saying: I am not a dress expert. I am just a bride that wanted to find her dream dress and had no idea how to do that. I’m THE first person in my immediate family, and one of the first people in my extended family to get married so I was limited in terms of asking other people for their opinions. That’s why I wanted to share some information about my experience so far to hopefully help another bride!

So here is a list of things to know before you start dress shopping, a wedding dress what to know of what I have learned. This is just information I’ve picked up along the way that helped me understand a little bit more about what the heck dress I should pick and when.

Wedding Dresses - What to Know:

• Timeline - Rule of thumb I’ve heard/been told by dress shops is to aim to get your dress between the 10-12 months before your wedding, if it dips into the 8-10 month mark you’re still in a safe zone. Anything less than this may start to result in more rush fees/off the rack, because you will need a couple of months for alterations to happen. BUT always check with wherever you find your dress
  

• Silhouette - I had absolutely no clue about this one, so it’s something I learned along the way. I put a picture below that goes over the some of the main styles of dresses, but it’s something I found best to figure out by trying on dresses. Also trying on a lot of different styles helped to solidify the silhouette I loved best on myself.
  

• Material - Another thing I learned along the way was that the material of the dress makes a huge difference in the appearance and feel of the dress. There are sooo many type of materials, and you can mix certain elements together, so get a feel of what you like and feel most comfortable in. Here are some of the common ones I found.

  • Tulle - very sheer, and airy, can also be put underneath dresses to make it more of a “poofed” appearance

  • Satin - smooth and shiny, gives a very silky look but has more structure

  • Chiffon - a sheer gauzy fabric, the first thing that comes to mind is a lot of bridesmaid dresses material

  • Organza - very sheer and airy, similar to chiffon but a bit stiffer and holds shape

  • Lace - one of the most common fabrics and can be made with different types of material to give it a different look, but are placed in different spots of the dress, or most of the dress can be made up of

  • Crepe - made of like a soft silk it’s gauzy and crinkled, I found gives it a very mature feel, but also can be very unforgiving in terms
    

• Colour - Fun fact I learned is all “white” dresses are actually OFF white, who knew??! Apparently having the dress be a “true” white is very harsh against our skin tones. There is now a wide variety of colours like: nude, blush pink, etc.
  

• Budget - Saved the most fun for last!!!! Ok I found this part SUPER difficult to determine before I started shopping because every store would ask this and I didn’t really know what to tell them. I think it warrants a talk with your fiancé about what your wedding budget is, as well as if you are getting help finically for the wedding, if someone is gifting you your wedding dress, etc. What I was surprised about is that there was a lot of affordable wedding dress options, and more expensive doesn’t really equal better or prettier or more extravagant. Generally it seems like the margins are:

  • $0 - $1500

  • $1500 - $3000

  • $3000 - $5000

  • $5000 - $10 000
    

• Other things to note:

  • wedding dresses can be HEAVY, I always wanted a fancy heel but now I’m like, how do we walk in this thing? I can officially understand the converse trend under the dresses of the early 90’s

  • alterations can make a world of a difference, but in my opinion it doesn’t make sense to buy a dress that needs to be changed entirely

  • go with your gut always, if you feel pressured/stressed/like you need time - take it, a day won’t make a difference!