1. Make an appointment: Yes, some boutiques allow walk-ins but I would definitely recommend setting an appointment. This way, the boutique and an EXPERT will have set aside some time to meet with you! And the key word here is EXPERT. This is what they do for a living and they will be able to recommend certain dresses for you within your budget, for your body type, and for the style you are looking for. And they know what dresses they have! Believe me, you will be quite overwhelmed if you walk into one of those boutiques and just search the racks...definitely was overwhelming for me so I just sat back and let the experts do their job!
2. Get your "dream dress" out of your head: I knew EXACTLY what I wanted my dress to look like and luckily, the same style of dress was available at the first boutique for me to try on. And it was perfect!! ...wow that would have been lucky! No, the dress was not perfect and actually, I hated it so much on me that I didn't even zip it up! So my advice to you is to get that dream dress out of your mind and be completely open to trying on different styles. I ended up choosing a dress that was actually on my "hate" style list and my bridesmaids FORCED me to try it on. But once I did, it was absolutely perfect! So just keep an open mind :)
3. Don't bring the whole entourage: This is a huge one! And I did the exact opposite...oops! I brought my maid of honor, one of my sisters, 4 of my friends, my soon-to-be mother-in-law and my best friend's mom. And wow that was a lot...luckily they had large rooms at the boutiques I checked out! And believe me, my friends and family are definitely opinionated so here is a rule we made before any dress was tried on - "You may NOT give any advice until the bride has given her feedback." And this worked out great! If I said I loved a dress then they knew to keep their negative comments to a minimum (if they had any, I still don't know) and
if I hated it, they knew they could say whatever their hearts desired! With all of that being said, I would recommend having just 1 or 2 friends or family so you don't get overwhelmed and you get to pick the dress of YOUR dreams.
4. Stick to your budget: Once again, this was yet another mistake I made...and I am definitely seeing a trend here!! Remember the budget we put together yesterday? Look at the dress budget before you head out to make a purchase. And don't go over that! Tell the boutique your budget and say you are not willing to go over that. In that case, they will know to not show you anything over your budget. Wouldn't that just be the worst if you found "the one" and then checked the price tag and it was $1500 over budget?? I will answer that for you - yes it would be terrible! On a further note, I would recommend telling the boutique slightly lower than your budget and then saying you are willing to go "X" amount of dollars over that so you make sure that everything stays within that today wedding budget!
5. HAVE FUN!: This one is easy because it really is an amazing day and is so much fun! Believe me, you will feel like a princess all day long :)
So since we are talking about wedding gowns, I wanted to show you the one I chose, by Lovella Bridal!
