Transcript:
Hi. I’m Captain Elizabeth, a wedding photographer and a bridal boutique owner based in San Diego and today. I’m gonna be sharing my top 10 tips for your wedding dress shopping experience My first tip, actually. Arkans back to the last video I made about how many bridal boutiques you should visit. My recommendation is no more than three, and this first tip is actually going to be very much related in that. I recommend not trying on too many gowns. It can become very easy to be overwhelmed. If you’re trying on 50-plu’s gowns, I would say on average, the brides who visit our store and purchase have probably tried on less than 15 maybe 20 gowns. For the most part we do have some brides who try on more than that. But most of the time brides are able to find a dress that they love that has nothing missing from it in well under 20 or even fifteen gowns. Now that said, if you’ve tried on that many and you are not loving anything. I would say that if you have hit the point where you’ve tried on 40 gallons at that point, it is time to reevaluate. What is going on inside my mind? Why am I not like any of these dresses? Is it the style of the gown? Is it the price point do? I not like the way I look. Is it a confidence issue figure out what is going on because you should definitely be able to find a gown without having to try on 50 or more dresses. Now my second tip is to narrow down your vision when it comes to gowns and make sure that you are then comparing every gown to that style. So once you’ve actually tried on some styles because some brides, actually a lot of brides will say oh. I don’t want to wear this style of Gallen, and then the stylists say you know what based on your feedback. I actually would love it if you would just try that style, and then the bride loves that implies it that happens so many times, so definitely be a little open-minded, but have a vision. So once you’ve tried on gowns, and you know what you’re liking on your body, you now need to stick with that vision and compare every dress to that vision. So say, you even have a favorite gown that you’ve tried on so far. Every dress thereafter that you tried on is now going to be compared to that dress, and that is how you’re going to determine how you really narrow down to the final decision now. My third point is to know when to stop shopping again. I’ve kind of mentioned that you don’t have to trim that many gowns to find your gown. So once you have actually found a gown that you love and nothing is missing from it. There is no reason you need to keep seeing what’s out there or keep trying on more of just because you want to make sure it’s the one. Once you find the one for you, It is the one for you. There might be another one, but this is one that you already love and it has nothing missing. There’s no reason that you need to keep shopping now in order to get to this point of finding a gown that is perfect for your wedding day. I would always recommend that you be open-minded throughout your appointment. So that is another huge tip that I want to share with you. All like I mentioned we often have brides come in thinking that they don’t want a certain style and after they’ve tried on a few gallons. The stylist thinks that that style might actually be really great for them and more often than not. The bride loves it and completely changes her mind, so I would say be open at least try on one thing that your stylist suggests and just see, and this leads me to my second point of please be open and honest with your stylist. You are not going to hurt their feelings by telling them. What you’re not liking and what you are liking. What is going to be really tough for your stylist is if you’re just like, Oh, it’s just not for me, but you’re not telling them why, or if you’re not being honest, they can’t help you unless you help them. They cannot read your mind. So even if you are a very shy bride, say something like. I don’t like how low-cut it is, or I don’t like this kind of lace. It feels too old-fashioned or I don’t like this. The sleeves are restrictive of my motion, so you’ve got to tell them things so that they can then help you find a gown that is better suited to your likes and your dislikes. Another tip is to be aware of what color suits your skintone best. The bridal gowns are usually made in a white, which is a very, very very white gown and an ivory, which is a softer but still basically a white dress and then also a honey tone, which is a little bit. More of a sandy color often found in the. Under the lining of the wedding dress, so it pops through to give contrast against white lace. Some gowns are made in blue or blush or a champagne color, so know what color suits your skintone. And if you are open to non ivory or non white gowns, definitely let your stylist know, and they can pull something that might be a really great match. Your skin tone, but that you might not have thought. Oh, that looks really. Bridal on the rack. But once it’s on you, it feels perfectly Bridal. Now my next tip is to make sure that when you are inviting people to your bridal opponents, but you are inviting only people who are going to be supportive if you are bringing somebody who is generally not supportive of you or able to see the gown on you for you and not try to pee like it’s their own wedding that they’re shopping for that is not going to be very helpful. You don’t want someone in this process, which is a very special experience, telling you negative things, just for the sake of being negative. If you know, somebody’s not gonna have anything positive or nice to say. Leave them at home seriously. It would be so much better for you to have a positive experience filled with supportive people. Then to be bringing someone you feel like you have to bring, but you don’t want to because, you know, but they’re not gonna make it a pleasant experience for you another tip. I have that is related to the people you bring with you. Is that during the appointment? Please try not to let your opinion be overshadowed by someone else’s. If you find it down that you are loving, But Aunt Susan hates it. Honestly, at this point. If you want to just buy it, don’t worry about what she says. Yes, she’s there. She’s giving her opinion. Maybe she’s been supportive, but she also just really doesn’t like this gown, but you ultimately decide that you absolutely love it then. Go with your gut instinct. Let yourself make the ultimate decision about your wedding dress. Don’t let other people overshadow you. Even if you do value their opinion, you can always take it and disagree with it and get the dress that you are loving now. Sometimes it’s really great, because everybody’s opinions online, and that’s awesome that can just reinforce your decision that you’ve made, but if you’re finding that your opinions are clashing with everybody else’s and you’re listening to their opinions and you’re deciding that it’s not really affecting how you feel about the gown. Go buy your gown. Do you get the gown that you love now? A huge tip that I have for all brides. Even before you go. Shopping is to have a budget or a budget range. If you do not know this, you need to figure out your total budget and then allocate a percentage to your dress that you know is going to suit you. Maybe you have some wiggle room. Maybe you don’t, but if you just start trying to go to stores and you have no idea of budget. That helps. Nobody because what happens if they put you in a gown that you fall in love with you ultimately decide that it’s too expensive. Well, now you’re heartbroken, so we always ask that brides let us know a budget or a budget range so that they might say my budget is 3,500 or my max is 4,000 or they might say. My budget is between three and four thousand. Sometimes we get really big ranges like $2,000 range from three to five and we’re like, okay, right like it’s nice to have a budget to work with. Because then we know we can show you. We don’t want to show you things that are outside of your price range, so please be honest. Be honest and the down prices are not gonna change once you get in the store, so there’s. No use in lying about your budget. Be honest and open. We want to help you. We want to make sure that you get a gown that you love. That is within your price point. When setting this budget, it is also important to consider whether you are thinking of alterations combined in that gown budget or if you want to make alterations. Budgets, separate same thing goes for veil and accessories. If you have a $3,000 budget that is supposed to cover all of those things, you cannot be spending $2,700 On your dress. You will have no room left for alterations, which typically can be anywhere from five to eight hundred dollars from an expert seamstress for bridal gowns, so you wouldn’t have any money left over before going over budget over that $3,000 price point, but say you’ve made your gown budget three and then your alterations is a separate budget, and then you have a separate thing for veil, hair, accessories and shoes, so it’s important to keep that in mind. Be open about this during your appointment. If your gown budget includes alterations, you need to tell them that so that they can keep that in mind when pulling gowns. That are appropriate for your price point. My last step advice is going to be that. You bring visuals to your appointment if it is your first time shopping? I recommend that you bring a couple of photos of gowns. You found on the internet that you love that you can show your stylist so that you can start with gowns that match that style or that exact dress. Now if it is not your first time shopping, if you’ve been to a place before, you hopefully took photos of you and some of the gowns that you really loved don’t. Take pictures of yourself in a gown during an appointment that you don’t love. Okay, because the pictures that you love are gonna be used to compare two dresses that other stores, it’s not helpful. If you have to sort through all these photos of gowns, you thought we’re just okay. So try to save your photos for gowns. You love, that will make your narrowing down process easier and then compare every gown against those photos, and if you start finding gowns that you love more than the ones at your past store, go ahead and get rid of those photos, but it is really helpful to have either photos from the Internet or photos from your other shopping experience. So the stylist knows either what she’s up against what she needs to beat for you to love that gown or simply things to just pull if it’s your first experience. I hope these 10 tips for helpful for you guys. We put these together from our stylists and then my experience. So these come from people who have dozens of years combined experience in the bridal industry. Hope that you guys take at least some of these with you, and that is helpful in your process. I will see you guys next time. Bye [Music]!