how to find your perfect wedding dress

Happy Wednesday y’all! It’s another Wedding Wednesday, and I know what you’re thinking, “didn’t you get married forever ago?!”. Hah! We are in fact approaching our one year wedding anniversary, and it is giving me all of the feels. Seriously, I’ve been so emotional about coming up on our anniversary. And while I’ve shared the random wedding photo on Instagram every now and again, I can’t believe a year has passed without me sharing our wedding with y’all on here. After our feature in Style Me Pretty last week, I decided it was about time to share some wedding goodness with y’all. For the next month or so (on every Wednesday) I’ll be sharing more informative posts about our wedding experience with y’all. Including lessons we learned along the way, wedding investments that are 100% worth it, how to choose bridesmaids dresses & more!

First up:: how to find YOUR perfect wedding dress!

To start, let me tell you a little bit about how I found my perfect dress. It took me about 50 dresses and 3 different days of dress shopping. I was discouraged, exhausted and almost in tears when I found my dress. It was day 3 of dress shopping, and my momma and I decided to approach it on our own this go around– without bridesmaids and all the other amazing family members (that I love 😉 ) who had accompanied me the first two times. We had been to 4 Bridal Salons, and I had been trying on dresses since 11am. It was around 7pm and I was devastated because I just knew I was going to leave empty handed… AGAIN!

After an entire day of dress shopping, I knew I had seen every dress the boutique had to offer, so I stumbled over to the sample sale rack desperate to find anything that I liked. I was first drawn to the embellishment, because it was a nonnegotiable– my wedding dress had to have some sparkle, so I pulled this beautiful dress that looked absolutely nothing I had tried on before. I mean it had sleeves, which I was totally against, but luckily against my better judgement I gave it a try. It was too big, and practically ripped to shreds, but I was in love. I stayed in it for the next hour in the store trying to talk myself into it. I knew I loved it, but would Tyler like it? Is it too different? Will the guests like it? Is it too trendy? Will I look back in photos and regret picking it? Finally I realized none of that mattered. I loved it, I felt like a bride and I knew if I was happy in it then Tyler would love it too!

So thats a wrap right? Not so fast. My dress was on the sample sale rack because the boutique was no longer carrying the designer. Plus it was from the 2014 season. The dress was beyond repair, so the only way it was going to be mine was if the designer could make me a new one. The boutique put in a call, and HALLELUJAH– she could! I was overwhelmed, and after countless hours I finally had found the one!

It was through trial and error that I found my dress, and looking back almost a year later I wouldn’t have changed a thing about my wedding dress. However, there are so many things I wish I would have done or known beforehand, and several things I learned along the way! Today I am sharing 6 tips that will hopefully help you find YOUR perfect wedding dress.

do your research

This might be common sense, but it’s important to prepare yourself as best your can for dress shopping. Of course, get on Pinterest, thumb through magazines to find photos of styles you like best. This is the fun part, y’all! Go further than that though. Scope out local Bridal Boutiques, learn what boutiques carry what designers– because often times designers have exclusivity with different boutiques. If there is a designer you love, find a boutique that carries them. Reach out to this store to see if they’re having a trunk show featuring your favorite designer anytime soon! Trunk shows are a great way to shop for your favorite designer because the boutique will have a much bigger selection of the designer on hand that day than they would normally have.

Set a budget

This is another tip that sounds obvious, but budget is huge. And it ties into research. Find designers that fit your budget. Call Bridal Boutiques to see how many dresses they offer in your budget. The last thing you want to do is schedule an appointment at a Bridal Salon, rally up your troops to join you, and then get there and be discouraged by their selection because of your budget.

Know Your Body Type

Not every style is going to suit every body type, so knowing what style works best for you will make it so much easier when you’re in the thick of dress shopping. This will also help the ladies who work at the bridal salon be more efficient with their time. I wasn’t aware of this to start, but many appointments are only an hour long, and this one hour go by very quickly.

Not to mention, you of course want to look your best and feel your best on your big day, knowing how to dress your body type will help you accomplish this!

be aware of timing

When getting engaged and setting a wedding date, dress shop accordingly. My dress took 6 months!! to arrive. Not to mention I had about two months of fittings. Every designer and seamstress is different, but if you’re having a short engagement you want to keep that in mind when dress shopping.

Have an idea of what kind of dress you want, but be open AND set hard no’s

That all sounds contradictory right?! Bear with me. If you’re indecisive like me, then hopefully this will help! If you’re one of those brides who knows exactly what dress you want then lucky you!

When I first approached wedding dress shopping these were the things I thought I wanted::  1) embellishment 2) NO SLEEVES (ha!) 3) a more fitted style– I hadn’t worked out like a maniac for nothin’! 4) I wanted to be able to dance the night away in it 5) I wanted something a little different, not something too ‘bridal’ and not your average wedding dress. Those details were nonnegotiable for me to start. One appointment in, and I was discouraged. Not because the boutique didn’t have gorgeous dresses, but because I couldn’t find a dress that fit the all the criteria I had set for myself. If I had to do it over, I would have gone in for my first appointment totally open minded, and really use that appointment as a learning experience and to form more of an idea of what I wanted.

Once I started trying on dresses and wasn’t finding ‘the one’, I started trying on just about any dress style I could find that was beaded and a little different. Once I broadened my horizon I was able to narrow down what was really important to me in my wedding dress. After I did this, I knocked off a few of my first ‘must haves’ and traded them with a NO lace and NO train philosophy. Do y’all know how many wedding dresses are made without lace AND without a train?! Not very many, let me tell ya.

So while I was more open to different styles now, I officially had things that I wasn’t going to budge on– 1) beading 2) I could dance the night away in it 3) no lace 4) no train. Eventually I found one that had all of that and more! So while that drawn out explanation might sound a little back & forth, I truly think it is best to be open when you first start trying on dresses. You will be able to determine what is most important to you in a dress if you do this!

Don’t settle! It’s okay to not buy on your first trip, and even your second

If I had settled, I would have ended up in a fully beaded (read: heavy), strapless Waters dress. Don’t get me wrong, it was beautiful, and everyone who was with me during my second dress appointment loved it. But I knew it wasn’t ‘me’, and I knew I would look back on it and wouldn’t be 100% happy with my decision.

My wedding dress details:

Dress: Reem Acra

Bridal Boutique: Bridal Informal, Cincinnati, OH

Alterations: Amy Perry with The Sewing Machine

Belt: Paris by Debra Moreland

Earrings: Fallon Jewelry

Shoes: Stuart Weitzman

Bracelet: My ‘something borrowed’ from my Aunt Michelle. It was the bracelet my uncle gave her on their wedding day!

That’s a wrap!

Wedding dress shopping is stressful, but it doesn’t have to be! Finding the one makes it all worth it!