Although I said “yes to the dress” over a year ago now (whoa time flies!), I thought it would be worth while sharing my little tips and tricks on what to wear when heading to a bridal appointment. Whether you are looking for the dress, going in for a fitting or are a bridesmaid trying on a million dress – these pointers will come in handy! They certainly would have been for me, and would have saved me struggling through my first outing hunting for the dress!
SPORT SHORTS
This is the biggest one. I’m the type of person that never really feels comfortable wearing a dress or skirt without a little extra coverage underneath. I have about 4 pairs of sport shorts like THESE that I wear under any skirt/dress outfit. They came in SO handy when dress shopping. Not only did I not want to give my dress consultant a show of my bottom, but I’m sure she didn’t want to see anything she didn’t need to either! It made it SO easy to hop in and out of dress in no time flat when I didn’t have to worry about being indecent every few minutes while changing.
STRAPLESS BRA
Most people don’t already have their wedding undergarments when they go dress shopping (if you do – wear them!) so I would really recommend wearing a strapless bra instead of your regular strapped bra. It makes it much easier to envision the final look of the dress if you don’t have extra straps hanging out everywhere. Even better, if you have a small chest like myself, I would look into a set of nipple covers like THESE. After my first few appointments, I changed to the nipple covers because I don’t plan to have a fancy bra under my dress, so it gave me an even more realistic idea of how the dress would fit.
SHOES
This might be a really obvious one, but wear shoes you can get on and off in a flash! No laces, buckles, or strappy shoes. I think every single bridal shop I went into did not allow any foot wear on the floor. From the front door onward, you are bare foot! On more than one occasion, we didn’t spent more than a few minutes in a shop (I knew exactly what I wanted, so I would take a quick peek and be on my way), so you don’t want to be wasting any time fussing with your shoes at the door.
YOUR OUTFIT
Not everyone will agree with this one, but for me, it really helped. Even though dress shopping isn’t an official wedding event, I really wanted to make sure I looked and felt good while shopping. That didn’t mean fancy (I mean, I’m in a denim skirt and was wearing slip on shoes!). But I just wanted to feel a little bridal to help get me in the right head space and really envision all these dresses on the big day. On and day to day basis, I always feel my best and do my best when I’m dressed and have my hair and makeup on – so why not integrate that idea it into your dress shopping day! The little lace top I wore that day reminded me of a two piece wedding dress and just made me feel bridal and girly!
HAIR + MAKEUP
This one is along the same lines as the last pointer. Even though it can be a pain in the butt, I would really recommend putting the time into doing your hair and makeup that day. It doesn’t have to be what you have planned for your wedding day, just put together. I always find it really hard to shop when I feel and look dishevelled. It always seems like I come home empty handed on these days! Although that would be a get tip for saving your wallet on normal shopping days, we aren’t hoping to come empty handed on wedding dress shopping day! Having your hair and makeup looking polished will really help you get a good idea of what you’ll look like on your big day!
HANDBAG
This is something I always do when I go shopping for anything. I always, always use a cross body bag. That way I have both hand free to sort through things. Especially when wedding dress shopping, those dresses are heavy! You need one hand to push others away and another to grab the dress you want to try on. Of course most places will let you put your bag down in the change room, but I get a bit paranoid when my belongings are out of my sight, so personally I’d just rather have it attached to my side 🙂
EXTRA THINGS
One other tip to consider is to throw on a little self tanner. Maybe not the night before dress shopping because it could end up in embarrassing moment when you ruin the sample dress by leaving brown stain all over it. But if you think of it a few nights before, everything looks better with a bit of a tan going on 🙂
Lastly, don’t forget a hair tie. Each time I found a dress that was in the running, I always threw my hair up into a very quick up-do. I’m still not sure what I’ll be doing with my hair, but just to give myself an idea of what I would look like in the dress, with and up-do and a veil on. Getting “jacked up”, as they say 🙂
I hope a few of these were helpful! I put each one of these pointers into play each time we went shopping and overall, really enjoyed my shopping experience! (Although I did run into a dress nightmare – find out about that HERE)
Let me know if you want to see any other bridal posts! Now that we are getting SO close to the wedding, I feel like I’ve gained a lot of knowledge about planning a big fancy wedding!
Xo, Andrea