What to expect when you're wedding dress shopping

For most people wedding dress shopping can be quite daunting. So much unsolicited advice and opinions from friends and family about what you 'should have' or what they 'think you'll wear' or where you 'should go', and I promise I am not here to add to that! Let this be a run through of what to expect when you visit us to find your wedding dress.

Firstly, pick your bride tribe. Pick the people you really need their to help you make the decision, your nearest and dearest. At the end of the day it's your dress and opinions are important but too many opinions can distract from what you want for your day. While I understand your aunties, cousins daughters friend got married last month and knows how it all works, does she really need to help you pick your dress?! Probably not. We normally suggest 2 or 3 at the absolute most, be that Mum, Nan, sister, cousin, best friend, the make up of your tribe doesn't matter to us, you finding the right dress in the easiest possible way is what matters.

Once you have chosen your fighters, make an appointment! We'll take the all important details from you and ask you a few questions and get you booked in the diary. On the day of your appointment try and have an open mind, you would not believe how many brides walk in who just have to have sleeves because they hate their arms and leave with a strapless dress. I know you're the exception to the rule, and you will definitely definitely have sleeves but just let us do our job and try on something without sleeves or even scarier a strapless dress!

We'll welcome you in store and take you to one of our private changing rooms. None of this coming out into the shop to show the world a dress you don't like or doesn't fit! We'll ask you a bit more about your wedding, the venue, any ideas, any dresses you've already seen or like the look of or like the look of and most importantly your size. We are fortunate to have over 150 dresses from size 6 up to a size 32, we ask your size for a reason... so you can see how a dress will look on the day of your wedding. We are not here to, nor want to squeeze you into a size 10 sample when you're a size 16, then convince you that you can tell exactly what it looks like! We will then work our magic and try on a bit of everything, ruling things out as we go, swapping and changing styles and details as we go. You don't have to try on every dress in the world to find your one dress, you need a good bridal consultant who listens to you and knows their stock and has a lot of choice at their disposal (that's us!)

Our appointments last between 60 & 90 minutes. We will always retry your favourites on at the end and 95% of the time a bride will know herself which is 'The One' for her. People always ask if we knew which one the bride was going to pick, I will say we are rarely surprised. Even dealing with a complete stranger, a bride's body language gives a way a Lot and we definitely know before the bride which dress they'll pick. One of our favourite parts of the job is watching the bride realise she's stood in her dress!!!

Once the dress is chosen, we'll either put it in a gown cover so you can take it away with you or we'll get you measured for your dress. If it's the latter we'll have a quick chat about sizing, weight loss or gain and get you the right size ordered. Once all the paperwork is complete you can take a picture with our letterboard to celebrate finding your one! CONGRATULATIONS! You've done it, and look how easy that was?!

A few tips about your appointment

-Don't bring your whole wedding entourage, too many voices and opinions take away from the vision you have for your big day.

-Book an appointment, tell us a bit about yourself and your wedding and we will already have dress ideas for you before we've even met.

-Don't worry about shoes or underwear (nude is perfect, white is fine, we can work with black!) Tell us any specifics you might need or want and we will be happy to oblige.

-Most brides come to us with an open mind find their perfect dress normally within 3/4 dresses. Let us do our thing and you will find 'The One' very easily, without much stress or much effort at all.