5 Tips to ensure a successful bridal appointment
Congratulations! You are recently engaged and now it’s time to start looking for that all important dress!! But where do you begin and how do you decide where to go? If you follow these tips, there is no reason that you cannot secure your dress on the first day. Shopping for your wedding dress is something most girls have been dreaming about since they were little, and when the day finally arrives, it sometimes brings along feelings that you would never have imagined. It is not unusual to feel nervous and a little scared - because you just don’t know what to expect.
Here we have 5 tips, that we hope, will have you feeling excited, confident and ready to make your decision.
1 - Do Your Research
This one may sound simple, but it is definitely the most important. When you are looking for an outfit for work or dinner with friends, you know exactly where you are going to shop for them. However, if you can’t find the shoes or jeans you’re looking for in the first few shops, it would be easy to assume that you will NEVER find them! Similarly, dress shopping can be overwhelming, and if you can’t see something you like on the rails instantly, the feeling of disappointment can be tricky to shake off. If you do your research this will most certainly not be the case for you!
We suggest looking at the Socials. Start by looking at Instagram & Pinterest, and make a note of the kind of things you like. Are the same designers popping up? If so, find out who your local stockist is. Are you drawn towards a particular fabric or shade? Do you like the way the captions are written? This one might sound odd, but just go with it. If you like the way the caption is written, you will probably like the person who wrote it, as they are speaking your language, they already ‘get you’. So go a little further, do you like their profile? Do you think they would be a good fit for you? Would you like them to be part of your journey? The next step would be to get in touch. Email them with questions, do they stock a particular designer, what is the process when you visit? How far away are they? Do they offer a fitting service or do you have to find your own seamstress? Do they offer personal appointments or do you have to share the space with other brides at the same time? Once you are happy and confident that your dress could be there, go ahead and book your appointment!
You should be able to find your dress within 3 boutiques, so keep this in mind when doing your research.
2 - Guest Selection
If the pandemic has taught us anything, it’s how important guest selection is. Thanks to programmes such as “Say Yes To The Dress”, it was the custom to bring along every female who has ever shared a moment of your life, right down to your neighbour’s dog walker’s best friend!!! No-one would bat an eyelid to bride arriving for her appointment with 9 guests in tow. However, things changed and most, if not all boutiques were limited to one guest in person with others joining virtually. We saw an immediate change in the direction of the appointments and how much calmer they were for the bride. Let me explain how that worked. When you can only bring one guest with you, it is easy to see who’s opinion matters to you the most, and it is so much easier to know how YOU feel about a dress without 6 other voices telling you what they think first. You might actually adore the princess dress and feel like the absolute best version of you in it, but it doesn’t help if the afore mentioned neighbour’s-dog walker’s-best friend keeps banging on about the slinky number! It puts a doubt in your mind that would never have been there, and makes you feel a little deflated. The smaller groups make for a more positive experience, giving you the space and time to process your thoughts, in a relaxed and calm environment. Without pressure and feeling the need to please
The perfect number of guests is one or two. The people who know your style and are on board with the feel you are trying to create for the day, and these people are usually always family. Another wonderful thing to come from the more intimate appointments is that the dress remains a secret until the day itself.
3 - Stay True to Yourself
We could have also titled this one honesty. When you’re shopping for a wedding dress, it’s very easy to become swept up in the excitement of it all, so you need to take a breath, look in the mirror and ask yourself … “Are you honestly going to wear a puffball dress with yellow stripes all over it?” (Disclaimer - we do not have this dress on our rails!). Your wedding day is not the time to be trying something drastically new. If your style is classical and demure, you really don’t want to go for something high fashion. Likewise, if you are constantly ahead of the trends, you probably want to avoid the traditional Lady Diana vibe (which, I have to say, looks like it could be a trend for 22/23 weddings, in which case - go ahead).
When shopping for your dress, you need to remember how it makes you feel. Remember how when you see yourself in the mirror for the first time, and your heart beats just a tiny bit faster, your stomach gives a little jolt, and even though you don’t realise it - you are smiling from ear to ear. That is the moment! As subtle as it sounds, this is the moment you have fallen in love and this is now the dress that you will compare all the others against.
Another matter to stay true to, is your budget. Every bride that has ever lived has had a budget to work towards. Sometimes there is wiggle room, sometimes there is a generous Aunt who screams “Sod the budget” and waves her credit card in the air. Not very often, but it happens. Most of the time, there is a fiancé at home with a very official looking spreadsheet and each and every penny has been allocated. So unless your one guest is the Aunt we mentioned earlier, please only try dresses on within your price range. There is nothing worse than falling in love with something you can’t afford ….. or explaining to your partner why you’ve had to ditch the band!
4 - Underwear
We are asked about underwear quite a bit, and at this stage it is really not very important at all, so we will keep it simple. If you were to wear something nude and a strapless bra, that would give you the best result. It is extremely likely that your stylist will be in the fitting room with you whilst you are changing, so if you want to, Shapewear and/or a slip can also help if you are feeling a little shy. However, in our experience, most bridal gowns don’t require a bra, and usually, by the time you try the third dress, you will have cast it aside altogether. My advice here is not to get too hung up about it. (If you really are a nervous bride, don’t let this worry you. All stylists are very discrete and will happily stand outside the curtain and wait for you to call them in if you would prefer).
5 - Use Your Stylist
It may seem an obvious one but your stylist is there to find you the perfect dress. This is why you have chosen a Bridal Boutique and not merely a Wedding Dress shop. You probably already have a relationship with her from your early research, and she has an idea of the dresses she wants to show you before you even arrive. Use her knowledge and expertise to create something magical for your special day. One of her hidden talents is to know exactly what you need, even though it might not be what you think you want, so keep an open mind because it might be that your dress doesn’t exist until you create it.
