When tiny girls spend their math classes daydreaming of weddings ( instead winning the World Series — not to say you can’t do both), what do they dream of first? The perfect marriage dress, of course: a gown in white satin with a bustle and sweeping train, the perfect embellishments, and the perfect shoes.
Many brides are fortunate. They may search low and high, facing chilly dept stores and pushy bridal shops, but eventually they come face-to-face with The One. They know this is The One as they start crying, or their ma or chums all start crying instantly. All of the planning … the tone, the right sort of venues … it all springs to life.
Other brides are not as fortunate. They’ve searched just as hard, working their way thru shops across three or four states, but they have not found The One. Instead, they’ve found three or four Contenders, all of which are serviceable and nice, but not earth-shattering enough to tell them that now is certainly time to stop the looking and get on with the planning. These brides have it harder.
Even if you’re the 1st sort of bride, purchasing the dress is sort of a momentous decision that you run a risk of falling into that wallet-skinning class called the Two-Dress Bride. These are some tips for picking the perfect dress and avoiding that nasty fate.
1. Bring the entourage, but don’t buy. It’s fun and useful to bring your mum, mates or sisters on the dress-shopping expedition. It gives you a buffer against an overbearing sales staff, and it’s entertaining to see whether your impressions of perfection are shared by your mates, not to mention how they’ll love being part of such a crucial call. But no matter how avid everybody gets over a certain dress, don’t buy in the heat of the instant. Give yourself time to reconsider and buy with a cool head later, alone. The vast majority of dresses are non-returnable, so when you’ve bought it, you’ve bought it.
2. Don’t buy too early unless you must. Bridal gowns can take four to 10 coming months to come from the maker, but there’s no reason to buy over a year previously, unless your selected style is going to be abandoned. Give yourself some time to sit on your decision. Once you pick a robe, you will see one hundred others almost like it. You’ll become a walking encyclopedia on that style of robe. All the better if you still have room to choose.
3. If you have acquired “The One,” stop shopping. Any more window-shopping at about that point will only lead you down the line toward the dreary land of Two-Dress Brides. What you want to do instead is remember that ecstatic sense of having tried on The One. Go get The One out of the closet, put it on and stand out front of the mirror. You may remember precisely why it’s The One.
4. If you have purchased “The One” and can’t stop shopping, get a second opinion. Show your first and second choices to other brides. Be honest — tell them you’ve already remortgaged your condo for the first dress, but you think this second dress could be It. They are going to be honest, too — the 1st one was better. You’ll feel reassured.
5. Don’t tell yourself “I’ll sell the old dress and choose a new one.” This old saw of the Two-Dress Bride just will not work. You’ll never get more than a fragment of what you paid for your first dress if you bought it new.
6. Don’t be scared to aim high — regardless of what your position. Some brides knew from the start they needed a designer label, but life just failed to cooperate by making them heiresses. Yet all isn’t lost if you are prepared to shop courageously. At any given moment, a better-heeled bride is selling her once-used St. Pucchi or Ulla-Maija on eBay. She paid thousands upon thousands, but you, smart client, will pay half that or less. To take this road, you have to shop earlier than other brides so you’ll have a choice of gowns.
7. Shop online, but never send a check. Bridal gown businesses sometimes have a technique of disappearing overnight. No matter what the proprietor tells you, never make a purchase as large as a marriage robe without the chargeback protection of a Credit card . If they say they won’t take plastic, move on.
8. Don’t hold out forever for The One. Some brides never find The One. What they do find is a few dresses they look gorgeous in. If you are this bride, try beginning your planning from the theme instead of the dress. You’ll probably eventually get sick to death of dress shopping. When that occurs, “good enough” actually will be ok. Focus on other aspects of the wedding that mean a lot to you, like the venue, the food, or the inescapable devotion of your soon-to-be husband.
To get more ideas about what wedding dresses to wear for your wedding day, visit yourweddinggowns.com. While you are on the site, you can also take a look at wedding gown.
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- Helping You Select Your Wedding Dress
- Any Bride can Design Your Own Wedding Dress
- Daring to Wear a Short Wedding Gown
- Choosing the Perfect Wedding Gown
- Wedding Apparel: Short Wedding Gowns
