Calling all newly engaged brides! Are you recently engaged and wondering what you need to know to start wedding dress shopping? Once you say yes to the ring, many brides want to find their dream wedding dress as one of their first wedding planning tasks. When you are just beginning to research bridal fashion, it can be overwhelming to know where to start. How do you find bridal stores you want to shop? How do you determine your wedding dress budget or what style gown you want to wear?
If you are a newly engaged bride to be who wants to know all things wedding dress shopping, you are in the right place as we are giving all the best tips and advice for those beginning their search for their dream wedding dress.
Video: Newly Engaged Brides: Top Must-Know Things Before You Begin Wedding Dress Shopping
If you are a newly engaged bride to be who is ready to start wedding dress shopping, we have all the tips you should know to help you prepare for a stress-free and successful wedding dress shopping trip. Before your first bridal appointment, be sure to check out all the top must-know things newly engages brides should know before you begin wedding dress shopping.
Tip 1: Start Shopping Early
Our first tip for newly engaged brides shopping for their wedding dress is to shop early. Lately at our bridal shop in Los Angeles, we have had many brides shopping with us for their wedding dress that are cutting it close to their wedding day. If you have never shopped for a wedding dress, you might not know that bridal gowns are special order items. A general rule of thumb to keep in mind is that wedding dresses will take about 6 to 8 months to order because they are special order garments.
When you are at your bridal appointment, you will be able to try on sample wedding dresses, which is the inventory that the bridal store has on hand for brides to see and try on. These sample dresses are going to be in the middle of the designer’s size chart to allow a larger variety of brides to try them on. Many stores will also carry a selection of plus size wedding dresses too. These sample gowns are not going to fit you perfectly, but will give you an idea of what the dress will look like on your body. Once you decide which dress you want to purchase, your bridal stylist will take your hip, waist and bust measurements and then use the bridal designer’s size chart to determine the best size wedding dress for your order. Bridal gowns are not just sitting in a warehouse ready to ship to you like everyday clothing you buy online or at a department store. Wedding dresses are made to order based on your body’s measurements.
An order time of 6 to 8 months is an average timeframe that can vary slightly from designer to designer. Each bridal designer will have their own timeline for dress construction and delivery. You will want to allow enough time for any potential delays so you can avoid stress worrying if your wedding dress will arrive on time or not. Once your dress arrives to your bridal store, you will begin the alterations process to completely tailor your dress to your body. Alterations typically take 2 months with a couple of dress fittings, so in an ideal world, you will be ordering your wedding dress at least one year before your wedding date.
Tip 2: Short Timelines Can Still Work
If you are a bride planning a wedding with a date closer than a year from now, don’t panic because you still have options! While it’s ideal to order your wedding dress a year ahead of your wedding day so you can take your time shopping and not stress about delivery dates, there are dresses available on shorter timelines.
Many bridal stores have a selection of their inventory available for sale. As bridal designers release new collections, bridal stores often sell their sample dresses to make room for new dresses. These dresses are not special order gowns, you will be able to take your dress home that same day if you purchase a sample dress. These sample dresses have been tried on by other brides shopping for their wedding dress but have not been worn on a wedding day so they are not used gowns. There may be some wear and tear but sample dresses are also usually discounted to reflect their condition.
If you are a bride on a time crunch and are considering a sample sale dress, you should be mindful of sizing. While the sample dress may not fit perfectly, you still need to make sure the size of the sample dress works with your body. If the sample dress is too big on you, particularly a few sizes too big, altering it down may affect the design of the dress negatively. You want to make sure any changes won’t affect the proportions of the dress and overall design. If the sample dress is just a bit too small, you could always have the zipper removed and a lace up corset back put in to give you extra room. Samples dresses are ideal for brides whose dimensions fit close enough into the dress without a crazy amount of alterations.
Some wedding dress designers also offer rush fees for their dresses. This varies per designer and per dress so you would need to check with your bridal store on what options are available. Some designs are not able to be rushed based on the fabric or embellishments but other dresses are able to made more quickly. Depending on when your wedding date is, a rush fee may not be possible so. Just be clear on your timeline with your bridal consultant.
Tip 3: Be Ready To Buy
No matter when your wedding date is, if you are wedding dress shopping, be ready to buy. If you are actively looking at wedding gowns and making bridal appointments, be ready to buy when you attend these appointments. Some brides may start shopping a year and half or even two years before their wedding day thinking they have plenty of time and can browse styles and then make their decision in a few months.
In theory, it would make sense to shop early and take your time but you risk missing out on a wedding dress you love. Let’s say you are shopping a year and a half or two years before your wedding and you fall in love with an amazing dress but you decide you will come back in a few weeks or six months and place your order at that time. That wedding dress could be discontinued in the time that it takes you to come back and buy your dress. The designer might not be able to stock certain materials needed for that particular dress and so they will discontinue that design. All of that work you did six months ago shopping and finding a dress you love was now a waste of time because that dress is no longer available unless you can find a sample size of that gown that fits your body. You will be back to the starting line in shopping for your dress and it might be harder to find a second gown you love if you are still thinking about the one that got away.
Anytime you are shopping, be ready to buy the dress you love. So if you don’t think you want to buy your wedding dress a year and a half or two years before your wedding date, don’t start shopping for your dress. Wait until the time you are going to be comfortable placing that order. Ideally the perfect timeline is anywhere from nine months to twelve months before your wedding. If you are nine months away, you’re still okay. The eight month mark is where things start to feel a little bit tight, as we mentioned earlier, and you will just be limiting yourself on dress options when you don't start early. If you only take away one piece of advice from us, it should be to start your wedding dress shopping about a year before your wedding so you have all of the options available to you, you won’t be limiting your dress selection at all and you won’t have to stress about delivery timelines.
Tip 4: Quality Over Quantity
Our next tip for newly engaged brides is all about selecting your wedding dress stores. Quality over quantity is good advice for most things in life and it also applies to bridal stores and choosing where to shop for your wedding dress. You want to make your bridal appointments strategically because going to countless bridal stores is going to work against you and cause analysis paralysis. Shopping at too many bridal stores is just going to lead to overwhelm and make it impossible to make a decision.
When you are ready to shop for your wedding dress, start by doing research. Browse inventory online to make sure a certain store has styles and designers you are drawn to. We recommend starting with three, maybe four, bridal stores and that’s it. Once you start visiting more than that, you are just going to see repeat inventory and will seeing so many dresses that you can’t keep your options straight. Even if you decide to visit bridal stores in different cities, you will start to see the same selection of dresses over and over because designers send their collections to stores based on territory.
Do your research, pick the area you want to go shopping in, hit those three to four stores, and then finalize your decision. Keep it simple. If your first bridal store is a large store, it’s okay to go back to that store at another time. Let’s say you are starting with us at Lovella for your very first wedding dress shopping appointment. We are a large store, over 6,000 square feet and we have over 1,000 dresses in our inventory. There is no way you are going to see even half of the gowns we have in stock on your first visit. Your first visit might just be about finding what style gown you like, whether that’s a fitted mermaid dress or a princess ball gown dress. You are just figuring out what you like and what you don't like on this first visit. It’s okay to not find your dress the first go around. It will likely be in your best interest to re-shop the big bridal store after you’ve shopped the other stores you selected because you now have a better sense of what you are looking for. You will be in a different mindset after you’ve narrowed down what you are shopping for and looking for in a wedding dress. You’ll be able to hone in on particular styles and designers and even particular details that are must-haves or things to avoid.
One last thing to keep in mind when it comes to appointments is to not overbook your day. Don’t visit more than two stores in one day. Do one in the morning and then have a break, have lunch and visit a second store in the afternoon. If you see too much in one day, it can be overwhelming and you will lose track of what you liked or which dresses were at which store and it just all becomes a blur and we want your wedding dress shopping experience to be joyful.
Tip 5: Learn What The Dollar Buys
When you are not familiar with wedding dresses and bridal fashion, it can be hard to determine a wedding dress budget. If you don’t know what the dollar buys you in bridal, it can be hard to manage expectations. You might have a number in mind that you think will work for your wedding dress budget but throwing out an arbitrary number can lead to confusion and disappointment. You certainly want to purchase a wedding dress that is at a comfortable price point and a number that you are willing to invest.
It’s challenging to set this price point before you start shopping, so this is where research is important but seeing dresses in person is going to be even more important along with being open minded. Many bridal stores will list at least an average price point for their designers, if not a price for each wedding dress. At Lovella, we list each bridal designer on our website with a price range of their collection. This gives you a starting point on what you might be investing in your wedding dress. We usually recommend for brides to try to figure out, in a perfect world I would like to spend X number of dollars on my dress, and use that as a starting point. Keep in mind that alterations are priced separately, along with accessories like veils and headpieces. Call the bridal stores you are going to visit and ask about the average cost for alterations because there is a range, but you want to have at least an estimate when thinking about your overall bridal fashion budget.
Keep in mind that the price that you want to invest in the dress can also evolve as your search evolves. So often we have brides come to us at Lovella saying she wants to spend around $2,000 on her dress. We might exhaust all the options in that price range and based on what she’s liking on the beading, or train length or amount of fabric layers, she might need to be more in the $5,000 range to get the look they want. Based on what you see in store as you start trying on dresses, the number you are willing to invest in your wedding dress may fluctuate to get what you really want to walk down the aisle in. We never encourage a bride to spend more, you don’t need to go into debt to feel beautiful on your wedding day. But it’s important to invest what you feel comfortable spending without compromising. Buying a wedding dress is an emotional decision. Your wedding dress is the most important article of clothing you will wear and you don’t want to walk down the aisle in a dress you only feel so-so about.
Tip 6: Be Open Minded
When you start wedding dress shopping, you might have an idea of the type of dress you are looking for. Maybe you are set on a form-fitting dress to show of your figure or maybe you want a big ball gown to live your princess dreams. One of the best tips we can offer brides just beginning to shop for their wedding dress is to be open minded in the process. No bridal experience is created equal. Every single person has their own experience, so don't compare your journey to anyone else's journey. Ask your stylist to pull dresses for you, have an open mind and an open heart. You never know what might catch you off guard, and really catch your eye, and that you love on you that you never thought you wanted.
Especially in the beginning of the wedding dress shopping journey, try on every style and shape gown. If you put on a ball gown and hate it, great - that crosses that style off and you can move on to other silhouettes and narrow down your style. With each bridal dress you try on, you will learn something. Each dress helps you narrow down what you like and what you don't like and helps your bridal stylist know what to show you next to lead you to finding the perfect gown. Trying on a wide variety of shapes and styles also ensures you won’t have any regrets or second guesses when you make your final choice because you tried everything.
Pay attention to how you feel in the dresses as well. Obviously every bride wants to be beautiful on wedding day, but the feeling you have in your dress can greatly affect that. Your energy shifts when you are feeling beautiful and confident and when you find that one dress, the energy is going to come through. The way you walk and talk and your demeanor will change and allow you to shine even brighter on wedding day when you are feeling confident you found the best dress for you.
Tip 7: Nourish Your Body
We hear from brides all the time that they don’t want to shop for their wedding dress until they are at their “ideal weight”. As we were just discussing finding the dress that makes you feel beautiful and confident, it’s actually better to shop for your dress when you might not be feeling at your best. Obviously if you are ill, don’t go out shopping for your wedding dress, but if you are feeling not your most confident in your skin it might actually be the ideal time to go wedding dress shopping. If you are able to find a dress that makes you feel beautiful and confident when you are not at your peak, then you know you found an amazing dress. If you happen to lose weight or get in better shape before wedding day, then that’s great and that dress that raised your confidence is only going to make you feel better. But if you don’t lose weight before wedding day because wedding planning is stressful, then you know you still have a dress that is going to make you feel amazing.
Along these lines, please eat and nourish your body on your dress shopping days. We often have brides who skip a meal to not be bloated when trying on wedding dresses and that can be bad. Your body and brain need fuel to function clearly and make sound decisions. No one needs to be fainting in the dressing room because you are light headed and starving. It takes work to try on wedding gowns, they are heavy and bulky and you’re going to get a bit of a workout in as you go between wedding dresses. Eat a nutritious meal ahead of your bridal appointments so you will be feeling good and ready to make smart decisions.
Tip 8: Wear The Right Undergarments
Now that you’ve done your research on where to shop and are starting to learn what styles you might like, its important to set yourself up for success at your bridal appointments. One of the easiest ways to do this is to wear nude undergarments to your wedding dress shopping appointments. Depending on the styles of dress you are trying on, you might be able to see your underwear showing though if you are wearing something like black or red or hot pink. Seeing your undergarments through the wedding dresses you are trying on can be very distracting to the process.
Brides should also be prepared to go braless during their appointments. We know some brides may be more modest or shy, especially if you need to get undressed in front of someone you just met. Trust us, your bridal stylist is not trying to see your body. They are just there to help you in and out of the dresses and guide you on your shopping journey. You can just let them know you’d like them to turn around until you have the dress around you and then they can zip you up. Many of the dresses you will be trying on will have built in bra cups, so you likely won’t need a bra at all for trying on wedding dresses but you can always bring or wear a strapless bra so you have it on hand. In most cases though, you will likely be going braless on wedding day because of all the structure and support that is built into these dresses and the alterations process ensuring your dress fits you perfectly. Another option would be to wear pasties to your bridal appointments so you have a bit of coverage still without a bulky bra getting in the way of trying on dresses.
Tip 9: Bridal Accessories
Our last tip for newly engaged brides beginning to shop for their wedding dress is to order all your bridal accessories at the same time you order your wedding dress. Once you find your dream wedding dress, you can have fun styling and accessorizing the dress to make it uniquely yours. Adding a bridal headpiece or veil can solidify your wedding dress decision when you see the vision as a whole. It can save you time and money to order those bridal accessories at the same time you are buying your wedding dress.
Yes, you might be able to order a cheaper veil online, but you get what you pay for. Bridal stores are going to have access to veils that you can’t get online and are going to be a better quality. If you purchase the veil you try on in store, you ensure that the color and type of lace perfectly matches your wedding dress. If you order a veil online, you might not be sure what the color will truly be and it’s likely not going to be the same dramatic veil you tried on in store. Designer bridal veils are very wide and give that dramatic bridal look. A veil you can get cheaper online is going to be a much narrower piece of fabric and will not give you the same effect as the veils available in the bridal stores.
We often have brides buy a veil online when trying to save money, only to find out that what they purchased doesn’t look right with their dress because of the coloring or lace detailing. Now they have to spend more money to get that original veil they tried on or they can be in a tight spot depending on the timeline because veils can take four to five months otherwise order. Just like we encourage you to purchase your wedding dress early, buy your accessories at the same time so it’s all done and off the to-do list. Do yourself a favor and invest in the veil with the dress. Save yourself time, and time is money.
After you say yes to the dress and your bridal accessories, the last choice to make is your bridal shoes. You will need to determine if you are wearing flats or heels on wedding day so your dress can be hemmed to the proper length during your alterations.
More Helpful Wedding Dress Shopping Advice
We hope you have found this advice helpful when it comes to preparing for your first wedding dress shopping appointment. For even more helpful advice when it comes to shopping for your dream wedding dress, be sure to check out our past posts:
- Wedding Dress Shopping Tips & Advice For The Newly Engaged Bride
- The Truth About Setting A Wedding Dress Budget
- How to Avoid Wedding Dress Buyer's Remorse
- How Do You Know When You've Found The Right Wedding Dress?
- How To Maximize Your Wedding Dress Shopping Experience
About Lovella
If you're shopping for your perfect wedding dress, come visit us at Lovella Bridal in Glendale, CA. We carry wedding dresses in all sizes and styles, including plus-size bridal gowns and a full selection of veils and accessories. Lovella Bridal is the premier, luxury bridal wedding dress shopping boutique located in Los Angeles, California. Lovella features couture, feminine, modern and chic bridal gowns in all sizes from the best wedding dress designers. Schedule an appointment to find the wedding dress of your dreams at Lovella Bridal. We can't wait to help you!
About Wedding Fashion Expert
Our wedding dress shopping tips and advice are from Nayri, Lovella's own, in-house wedding fashion expert. Nayri is truly the expert when it comes to bridal fashion and wedding style. As the Wedding Fashion Expert, Nayri is the top bridal fashion stylist and the best-selling author of the book "I'm Getting Married And I Have Nothing To Wear," the ultimate guide to helping brides find their wedding day style and their perfect wedding dress. You can subscribe to her YouTube channel or listen to her podcast for more helpful and practical advice on wedding dress shopping.
