It's fair to say that one of the supposedly most important parts of a wedding is the wedding dress as it's the thing that most brides worry and dream about in equal measure. We'd never really planned on having a big wedding and I could never see us being able to afford anything in the way of a "traditional" wedding and so it's not something I have ever really thought about and so never worried about either.
But when we booked our venue I knew I had to get a beautiful dress to match with the beautiful setting and so the hunt began...or so I thought. I asked Jack's parents and his sister to come with me for my first visit to a bridal shop, not really expecting to find anything and more just to give myself an idea of what sort of dresses I liked as I know I often like the look of dresses on other people that look so weird on me! I'd made a pinterest board before heading to the shop of ideas I liked so I had a bit of an idea as to what to narrow it down to. The only thing that pretty much all of the dresses had in common that I'd picked were that they had lace on; one thing I'd always said I didn't like. It's insane how much you change your mind in such a short period of time.
The shop I visited gave you things to pop over the hangers of the ones you wanted to try on and I think I had about 5 or 6 to use. Having taken 3 people with me, all with varying opinions on what would suit me, we had a hard time narrowing it down and I did let them mostly decide what I tried on, including a tight fitting dress that I knew I wouldn't feel comfortable in. I would say if you plan on taking more than one person with you to the bridal shop then be prepared to say no and not try something on you know for certain you won't like. But at the same time, try to remain open minded! Honestly it is so hard because you know what you want but you might also be pleasantly surprised!
There wasn't really much that surprised me with wedding dress shopping as the experience was definitely what I thought it would be for the most part but there were a couple of things that did resonate with me...
1. White dresses are a lot brighter than you think they are. The shop I visited stocked ivory dresses almost exclusively but the lady showed me an off white dress they had in and that was dazzling enough so I can only imagine how bright true white dresses are! Ivory all the way for this messy queen
2. It takes so long to get in and out of the dresses. Maybe pretty obvious but some of them just had so many buttons etc that I just didn't really click how long it would take!
3. You will feel like a child playing dress up. Not even paying taxes, paying your own bills or realising how expensive cheese is can prepare you for wedding dress shopping. I felt like I was at home in my mums room trying on her wedding dress and pretending it was mine. But that's part of the fun!
I actually managed to find my dress that day in the first shop we visited and I was so pleasantly surprised. I honestly didn't expect to fall in love with any of them the way I did, even though so many people had warned me that they had thought the same with their first shopping trip and the exact same thing had happened to them. I would say go into the experience with an open mind but also with an idea of what you like as there are so many different styles you could spend days deciding what you like. But most importantly have fun and enjoy it!
