Considering I had a secret wedding Pinterest board before I even got engaged, you would think that I would have been fully prepared with ideas for my wedding dress. Well...not quite. I knew going in what I didn't want: no strapless dresses (I'd be uncomfortable + I have a weird fear of looking naked in photos), no ball gowns (not my style), and no white white (I'm too pale). I thought having the instructions of "must have straps, must be simple, elegant, and vintage-y, and must be in an off-white color like pale pink, champagne, or ivory" would be enough.
In some ways it was: Both shops I visited (Lovely and BHLDN) on my first-ever wedding dress shopping outing, the consultants could not have been more helpful and they completely understood my style and what I was going for. Right away, we realized that a sheath dress with a defined waist was the best fit for my shape. (Here's an example, though this isn't a dress I tried on. I wish! It's lovely.) Once we had that down, we just had to round up all of the vintage-y, off-white dresses in my budget and narrow down to a core group of dresses that all seemed perfect for me.
But that's when I ran into a problem: Turns out, you can determine what fit, style, and budget you want, but then there's the whole issue of what feel and atmosphere your wedding will be—something I hadn't even thought of yet.
For context, my mother came to New York to visit about a month after my engagement. Since I'm still a year plus from my tentative date, I didn't have a venue yet and it was fairly early in the process to go dress shopping—but I wasn't sure when my mom would be back in New York, so wedding dress shopping we went! As I mentioned above, I found several that all would have been perfect, but each had its own personality, so to speak. One dress would have been amazing for a black-tie, fancy affair. One would have been the dream dress for an outdoor, floral-crown ceremony. And another was very traditional—soft and romantic.
Because I didn't have a venue or even a fully formed idea of what atmosphere my wedding would be, it was hard to choose a dress that matched the right vibe. I couldn't have that aha moment and know this is the one because to be honest, they all kind of felt like the one—depending on the situation.
So, that's my advice. The good news is that I think I know what I want now—but for the time being, I'm keeping it a secret.
What issues did you face when you went wedding dress shopping?