By Katie Walker
Ladies, the time is approaching. You’ve been dreaming about it since you were a little girl. You even tried on your mom’s dresses, gathered some weeds from the backyard, and pretended to walk down the aisle with your favorite teddy bear as your doting husband-to-be. Now you’re graduating college, you’re engaged to the man of your dreams, and you’ve got a wedding to plan. Where to start? With the dress, of course! Once you’ve got your wedding gown set, the rest is downhill. “But Katie, where do I go to get the perfect dress? How long before the wedding should I get my gown? Should I wear a veil, gloves, and how long should my train be? Help, help, HELP!” Have no fear, dear readers, for I will answer all your questions, and some you haven’t even thought of yet. Here is the be-all-end-all guide to choosing the perfect wedding gown.
1. The first thing you need to do is buy some cute (or at least decent) underwear. No, I don’t mean to go under the dress on your wedding day. I’m talking about what undergarments you’ll be wearing while trying on all the lovely frocks. Remember, the salesperson is going to be helping you ALL day, so don’t wear your ugly granny panties.
2. When shopping at several different stores for that perfect dress, you should plan to only visit one or two shops per day, and leave a day or so between excursions. This way, you can reflect on the dresses you just tried on without being bombarded by more choices. At the stores, pick out five dresses and try them all on. Then choose two to try on again. Go out on the floor and pick out five more dresses, again reducing the number to two. Look! You just went from ten dresses to four! You’re making progress.
3. I highly recommend you take the following with you when dress-hunting: a friend or family member (not necessarily your mother), a notebook and pen (for jotting down details of dresses), and a Polaroid camera (duh, to take pictures).
4. The formality of your gown should match that of the ceremony. If you choose a high-collared, empress-waist, heavily beaded number with a train as long as your family tree, you probably want an evening ceremony with full floral arrangements and a sophisticated and elegant atmosphere. Likewise, if you fall in love with a cute, knee-length number, your ideal ceremony would be an afternoon-in-the-park affair.
5. The choice of a veil/headpiece, gloves, sleeves, train length, traditional/modern, and the like is entirely up to you. Remember, you shouldn’t go with a fad. Your wedding dress should say something about your personality, not the year you got married. And if puffy sleeves and mega beadwork didn’t look good on you at your prom, they’re not going to magically work wonders for your wedding.
6. Don’t feel pressured to wear white. Not everyone looks good in it, and some people just don’t like it. On the other hand, that old saying “You can only wear white if you’ve never… you know” doesn’t hold true any more. Wear whatever color you like… within reason.
7. Don’t buy your dress too far in advance of the wedding. Weight fluctuations are the biggest reason why some women, due to all the stress of planning their dream weddings, can lose or gain enough weight that their dresses don’t fit anymore. Also, you might just change your mind.
8. Here’s a money-saving tip for the bride on a budget: there’s nothing wrong with wearing Mom’s old dress, assuming you can fit into it and the moths haven’t gotten to it! Just take it to a gown restoration place, like Bridal Gown Restoration and Preservation by Imperial. The cost of revamping it will be nowhere near buying a brand new dress.
9. Accentuate the parts of your body you love, and “hide” the parts you don’t. If your toned and tan upper arms kick butt, you might think about a sleeveless dress. Likewise, if you hate your ankles or meat stick calves (I had a teacher in high school who… yeah), a knee-length skirt is probably not for you.
10. Be wary of “$99 bridal gown sales,” as sometimes the dresses can be shoddily made, or the material can be prone to snagging or tearing. On the other hand, some stores have cheap, but perfectly wonderful, dresses. One thing you have to watch out for, though: if they’re selling you a dress for only $99, you can bet they have a backroom full of others identical to it. You might have to fork over some extra dough, but getting a custom designed dress guarantees you’ll be the only one wearing it.
Here are some local bridal gown/tuxedo shops you can check out. They have a wide range of prices, fabulous selections to choose from, and most offer alterations, custom designs, and rentals.
Allure Bridal Creations-11607 Shelbyville Road, 244-1511
Bridal Warehouse-1848 South Hurstbourne Parkway, 499-7911
Clah Fashion Designer- 332 West Broadway, 583-1020
Patrecia for Brides- 309 Wallace Avenue, 897-5000
