So you’ve taken the exciting first step and booked your bridal appointment with us. Finding your dream wedding dress is one of the most memorable parts of wedding planning, and we want to make sure your experience at our downtown Beacon, NY bridal boutique is smooth, fun, and successful!
To help you get ready for the big day, we’ve put together our best tips on everything from who to bring, what to wear, and how to manage your expectations (and your budget!).
Who to Take Wedding Dress Shopping
Once your appointment is booked, you’ll need to tell your bride tribe where to be and when. So, who should you take wedding dress shopping? Well, there are a few things to think about when you’re making this decision that you should answer personally:
Do you want anyone to see your gown before your wedding day, or, do you want it to be a complete surprise for everyone?
Who do you think would be honest with you but also know when something is truly your style? Who will be respectful and supportive?
You want to pick people who have helpful advice and who will be honest with you, but also people who know you best and understand that they’re helping you choose a dress, not that they’re picking something for themselves or their taste. It’s completely fine to bring people that have different styles to you, but you just want to be sure they can put their own vision of what a bride should be aside and understand your personal vision. The most important thing is that you love the gown you’re in, that you can truly see yourself on your wedding day in it, and that you feel indescribably beautiful.
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So, when it comes down to who to bring wedding dress shopping, our best advice is to keep your crowd small. We recommend bringing a small party of three to four people of your nearest and dearest! Close family members and friends and opinions you trust - too many people can create unwanted stress and be quite overwhelming.
Managing Your Time
Our bridal appointments are 1.5 hours. This might seem like a long time but, trust us, the time goes quickly when you think about the time it will take to get acclimated and pick out the gowns you’re going to try on.
Once you’ve got your first few picks ready to put on, you also have to think about how long it takes to try on wedding dresses. Many gowns have buttons or corsets in addition to zippers and your stylist will want to pin or clamp your gown to your body to ensure you’re getting a true vision of how your gown will fit once it’s properly in your size. That can take a few minutes for each dress.
Of course, once you’re out in front of that big mirror, with your guests ooh-ing and ahh-ing at what you’re wearing, you’ll want to discuss how you feel in each gown. You’ll want to think about if it feels good on your body/skin, if you feel like the silhouette is flattering on you, if it feels like your style and if you can truly visualize yourself in that particular gown on your wedding day.
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Willowby
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Don't Forget to Fuel Up!
Definitely don’t go wedding dress shopping on an empty stomach! You’ll be getting a workout in putting on different bridal gowns and standing for a long period, so you’ll want to make sure you go in with your stomach full (and then a celebratory brunch or dinner for after might be in order too!)
Keeping an Open Mind on Style
No two brides (even if they have nearly identical body types) will look exactly the same in a bridal gown, so try not to limit yourself to a style based on your shape or what you think will look best on you. If you know you definitely want an A-line wedding dress because you’ve always dreamed of a big show-stopper dress, then go for it! But we love it when brides try on silhouettes they never considered before. Who knows, you might just love mermaid wedding dresses! Just let your stylist know your vision and vibe rather than locking yourself into one style due to your body type or what you think you should wear. You never know until you try something on.
Budgeting for Your Gown
Wondering about what your budget should be? For some people it’s obvious how much they can allocate for their wedding gown, while others find this decision hard. When budgeting for your wedding, it’s a good idea to come up with a number you feel comfortable with and stick to it; after all, there are beautiful gowns at all price ranges.
What’s very important is not looking at (and definitely not trying on) something that you know is too far above your range if you have a very strict budget. If there’s wiggle room then, of course, go for it! But if you’re working with a $1,000-$3,000 budget, you definitely don’t want to put yourself in a situation where you fall utterly in love with a $6,000 gown. The problem is once you fall in love with something, it can be hard to look at anything else in the same way.
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Talk to your stylist about the price range you feel good about. If there’s something they want to recommend for you that might fall slightly out of that range ask that they let you know beforehand.
Fortunately, we have a wide variety of gowns in prices to accommodate all budgets! Our wedding dress collection starts at around $1,300, with most of the gowns ranging around $1,500-$2,500. We also have a sample sale collection that starts at just $500!
Timeline
The wedding dresses we carry can take between 4-6 months to arrive after ordering, depending on how new the style is and the standard completion dates of the designers. We also recommend allowing 3-4 months for your alterations to ensure a perfect fit in time for your wedding. Overall, we recommend ordering your dress a minimum of 9 months in advance of your wedding date to avoid any alteration rush fees.
Undergarments
So, what’s the best undergarments for wedding dress shopping? Usually, the answer is: no bra! You’ll want to see how the dress fits you naturally, and many gowns will already come with bust cups sewn in. Our goal is to show you the closest possible representation of how the dress will look for you once it’s made for you.
The same goes for other undergarments - if you think you will wear shapewear on your wedding day, you can absolutely bring some along. However, sometimes it’s nice to get a feel for how the gown looks on your body without anything else and then your stylist can give you advice on what shapewear they would recommend for your particular gown.
We hope these tips help prepare you for your bridal appointment! If you’re ready to discover the gown of your dreams, go ahead and book your appointment with Lambs Hill Bridal Boutique today!