We know you have a lot on your mind when it comes to planning your wedding – and we are here to help you with your bridal dress! Wedding dress shopping is often one of the first tasks on the wedding planning checklist. (We also happen to think it’s the most joyful, but we’re biased!) Today, we’re sharing our best bridal stylist tips for how to know when you’ve found the one. It can be tough to go from “I think this is it” to actually making that bridal dress purchase, so we’re here to help our brides shopping for their dream wedding dress in the Pacific Northwest.
Just like you found “the one” in your partner you’ll marry, we’re going to share our insider tips on how to know when you’ve found “the one” in your wedding dress!
![Weddings with Joy showroom](https://weddingswithjoy.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/weddings-with-joy-showroom.jpg)
About The Timing
Bridal dresses can take six to eight months to arrive in our bridal store in Olympia, WA after placing your special order, so it’s often recommended to start shopping for your wedding dress about nine months to one year before your wedding. (If you’re getting married in the Seattle, WA or Portland, OR areas, be sure to book your bridal dress shopping appointment!)
You also want to make sure you allow enough time for your wedding dress alterations, which typically happen over the month to two months before the wedding date.
Wedding dress shopping can be super fun, but it can get overwhelming as well. Many brides are excited to shop for their dream wedding dress, but the experience can bring out a lot of emotions too! Emotions can range from happiness and joy to feeling anxious or frustrated. We recently shared our expert advice on how many guests you should bring with you when wedding dress shopping, and now we are sharing our best tips for how to know when you have found the right wedding dress for you.
Experiment With Styles
Did you know the average bride tries on between three to seven wedding gowns before finding the one?
One of the best tips we can offer brides who are wedding dress shopping is to be open to trying on a variety of bridal dress styles and wedding dress silhouettes or shapes.
When it comes to wedding dress shopping, it’s always helpful to bring some inspirational photos with you to your bridal dress appointment. This will help your bridal consultant to learn your style and have a starting point of the type of bridal dresses to bring you to try on.
It’s okay if you don’t have an exact wedding gown in mind that you want to try on, but knowing a shape or type of detail, like a wedding dress with sleeves, you like can be a good jumping-off point. Each wedding dress that you try on will lead to the next one, and the next one, and ultimately to the one you will say “yes” to.
If you have never worn a wedding dress before, you might not be sure what style you will like best on your body or what will make you feel like a joyful bride! Maybe you try on a ball gown shape wedding dress thinking that is what will look the best on your body, but once you see it on, you realize you want a more fitted wedding dress. Or you could try on a lace bridal dress only to realize you want something with sparkle or no embellishment at all.
As stylists, we see it all the time with our Pacific Northwest brides who come into our shop with their hearts set on one style and then end up purchasing a wedding dress style that is a bit different than they originally thought they wanted before they walked in the door for their bridal appointment.
You never know what you will end up falling in love with for your wedding day, so try to keep an open mind when wedding dress shopping and try on a variety of dresses – that’s what you are in a wedding dress shop for after all!
![bride with floral lace wedding dress is emotional while shopping. weddings with joy](https://weddingswithjoy.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/bride-in-fitted-floral-lace-bridal-dress-with-straps-and-long-veil-weddings-with-joy.jpg)
Be Open With Feedback
Going along with our first tip to saying “yes to the wedding dress” of trying on a variety of wedding dress shapes and styles is our next tip to be open and honest with your feedback. Your bridal consultant is only as good as your feedback.
As you try on each wedding dress during your appointment, be sure to express what you like or don’t like about a certain bridal dress. Do you like the sleeves? Do you like the train? Do you like how it feels? How it moves? Do you like the shape, the cut, the fit, the neckline, the straps? And so on. This will help narrow down the options and lead to the next bridal dress to try on, which will eventually lead to “the one.” The less information that you provide to your bridal stylist about your preferences will just make it that much harder to get you to your dream bridal dress.
Your bridal consultant will know the bridal store’s inventory of wedding dresses, and what might be the perfect match for you if you are giving honest – and detailed – feedback.
![Beautiful, plus-size bride smiling ear-to-ear as her bridal stylist fans out the train on her wedding dress.](https://weddingswithjoy.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/wedding-dresses-plus-size-olympia-selection-676x1024.jpg)
You’ll Know It’s the One
As a bride, you have probably heard all the old adages already that you will cry when you find your dream wedding dress, jump up and down for joy, get butterflies or have any certain reaction. At our bridal boutique in Olympia, WA, we have seen it all! And every bride is different and has a different reaction when finding their perfect wedding dress – no two brides are ever alike when they’ve found “the one”!
Don’t let other people’s opinions sway your own decision. So many people have thoughts on how this exact moment when you know this is the wedding dress for you should look or feel, but the only opinion that matters is your own.
Allow yourself to say “yes” to your wedding dress when you feel ready! You are the one who will be wearing it on your wedding day, so no one other than you can know it’s the one.
As expert bridal stylists, we will sometimes see a look on your face just because we’ve been doing this for a long time, but other than that, it’s entirely up to you to let everyone else know how you feel and that you have found your dream wedding dress.
Whether you jump up and down, shed a few tears or simply say “Yup, this is it,” remember there is no right or wrong way to say “yes” to your wedding dress!
![Bridal stylist helps bride try on wedding dress. Weddings with Joy](https://weddingswithjoy.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/dream-wedding-dress-olympia-selection-683x1024.jpg)
Here at Weddings With Joy in Olympia, WA, we believe that every bride has her own unique special moment when she finds her dream wedding dress. Truly, no two Joyful Brides have the exact same experience shopping for a wedding dress and ultimately saying “yes” to her perfect wedding dress.
Cheers!
Your Joyful Stylists
About Weddings With Joy
If you’re a bride in the Pacific Northwest or planning a wedding in the South Sound, Seattle, and Portland, OR areas, come visit our amazing bridal boutique in Olympia, WA full of beautiful wedding dresses. At Weddings With Joy, we offer a truly one-of-a-kind experience for our joyful brides through our personalized attention and bridal styling support as they find their perfect wedding day look. Weddings With Joy features stunning wedding dresses in all shapes, sizes, and styles as well as the best tuxedo rentals and suits in Washington state. Request your bridal shopping appointment in the South Sound to find your dream wedding dress! We can’t wait to help you become a joyful bride!