You don’t just want to look beautiful on your wedding day; you want to look spectacular! One of the crucial elements to being the most beautiful bride you can be on your special day is choosing the right wedding dress. With so many styles, designs and fabrics to choose from it can be overwhelming to find your dream wedding gown. The following tips will help you find the perfect dress for you to glide down the aisle in.

Research designs – Before you even think about stepping into a bridal shop you should look at as many pictures of wedding dresses as you can to get a sense of the style you would like to wear. You can look through magazines and online to get lots of ideas. Pinterest.com is a great site to see thousands of images of wedding dresses from the simplest styles to the most elaborate. Once you have narrowed down your choices you will be a lot closer to finding your dream dress, and will be able to give the bridal shop an idea of what you are looking for.

Be open to suggestions – Your bridal consultant is likely to have a lot more experience with wedding dresses than you do, so while you probably have a sense of what you want, let your consultant make suggestions regarding what styles will look great on your body shape. Once the style has been chosen then you can narrow it down to your other requirements regarding fabric, beading, lace etc. A good bridal consultant will guide you in the right direction while taking your likes and dislikes into consideration.

Start looking early – Shopping for the perfect dress is much like buying a house. You need to be prepared to look at a lot of dresses before finding the dress you decide is the perfect dress. You will need to try on a lot of dresses too, to see how they look on you. Dresses often look great on a mannequin or a hanger but when you try it on you may find that it is not right for you. The opposite can be true so don’t dismiss a dress out of hand because it doesn’t look that great on the hanger. It may turn out to be the perfect dress. Allow plenty of time for shopping, and then once you have chosen the dress you need to allow time for any alteration to be made for the dress to be ready for the big day.

Keep a budget in mind – Wedding dresses can range all the way from a few hundred to thousands of dollars. Weddings can be expensive so if you have a clear budget in mind advise your consultant before starting to peruse the dresses available so she can steer you in the right direction price-wise. Make sure you are aware of what wedding dresses cost so that you are not shocked when you see the price tag. If you are able, allow a little bit of flexibility in pricing so that if alterations or custom embellishments need to be added you can afford them.

 

Make your consultation appointment for a weekday – Bridal shops tend to be crazy busy on the weekends and consultants will be pushed for time. By arranging to have your consultation on a weekday you are likely to get more personal attention. This will make what can be a challenging event a little less stressful. There is less chance of a bridal consultant being double booked on a weekday too. Another advantage of a weekday consultation is that there will be less demand on the model dresses so you should be able to see most of the dresses. On a weekend, depending upon how many consultations are going on at the same time, the dresses could be away being tried on by another bride-to-be and you may miss out on even seeing the perfect dress.

Take an honest but loving friend with you – It can be difficult knowing if a dress looks good on you, and while for the most part bridal consultants will be honest with you remember that they are there to sell you a dress. An honest friend who will tell you when something doesn’t look right will help you choose the perfect dress. Watch your friend’s expression when you walk out in the dress to gauge their opinion, but ask them too.