For many brides, the wedding dress can be a crucial decision. For me, choosing the right dress was really important because it’s that *one* day you really get to shine for your fiancée and loved ones. It’s understandable that we want to look stunning, right?? Just like the other decisions I had to make, this particular component required a lot of thought because there are thousands of dresses out there – how the heck do you choose? So, I am here today to give you some tips based on my experience when choosing my wedding dress.
- What makes you feel comfortable? Consider your body type and what styles you like.
Choosing your wedding dress can be overwhelming since there are so many different styles out there so one thing that helps narrowing that number is to look at yourself in the mirror and think about what looks – and feels – best on you. Strapless dresses are beautiful and elegant but my boobs are not very big and I always get paranoid I’ll be naked whenever I put my arms up! Have you seen those nightmare photos where that happens?
It was too much for me to handle so I knew I would feel much better with some straps on, so I discarded all strapless models right away.
- When and where are you getting married?
It’s always a good idea to take your wedding venue into consideration. For example, when I was planning to get married in Brazil we were going to have a big, glitzy ceremony, at night, during winter. Because of that I was looking for a really fancy dress with more of a “princess look” – lace, sequins and a beautiful pattern on my back. I actually got a dress at the time that looked a lot like this (I was also going to wear my hair up like in the picture):
But we changed our mind and decided to go with an intimate, natural backyard wedding in Arizona during the day. I felt that the princess-like type of dress just wasn’t the right fit anymore -it was too much and I wanted something more simple, elegant and boho inspired. Voila! Here is my dress:
Big difference, huh?
- Instagram and Pinterest are still your best friends!
Just like what I wrote on my last post about using these apps to find inspiration for the different components of your wedding colors, flowers, and accents (if you haven’t read it yet, I strongly recommend you to stop right here and go back before moving on), Instagram and Pinterest will be just as important on your search for the perfect dress.
Personally, I think I followed about 10 different Instagram accounts dedicated to wedding dresses and had at least 40 different pins on my Pinterest board titled “wedding dresses”. For my search I typed tags such as “wedding dress”, “boho”, “backyard wedding”, “simple wedding dresses”, and went from there. I can’t even describe how helpful that was to picture what I was looking for.
- What is your budget?
I have friends who had absolutely stunning gowns but had a different approach because they either didn’t have a big budget or didn’t want to spend a large amount on their dress. I had friends who bought a pre-owned dress, who bought directly off-the-rack because they didn’t have time to go through custom tailoring, and one who bought their dress from J. Crew but it wasn’t even a wedding dress. All of them had varying budgets and timelines, and that was a determining factor in how they moved forward with their dress purchase.
In the end the choice is yours. It’s your day, all eyes will be on you and if you want a big, puffy, full of feathers, sparkly dress for your small ceremony, you go for it! As long as you feel like the princess you are, your spouse will look at you with that “I can’t believe she is mine” look – you can’t go wrong!
Love,
Luisa.
