Every bride wants to look gorgeous and beautiful on their wedding day, and that would not be complete without finding a perfect wedding gown that makes them look their best! The fun and exciting journey begins through your research online, bridal magazines or visit to a bridal studio. However when it comes to making a decision for that one gown on your special day, the variety of choices available can be pretty overwhelming. I have some great tips and would like to share with all happy brides-to-be how I found the perfect wedding gown for my wedding. Read on and let your gown fitting be made easy!
How You Can Have The Perfect Wedding Gown for You
As a bridal stylist for my bride-to-be clients, I take time to hear their ideas, understand their needs, top it up with some professional style analysis and translate these bridal dreams to reality. A gown may look really pretty on the rack but it may not be the gown that enhances our feminine figure. Many brides-to-be end up wasting many hours in bridal studio, trying to find the ‘perfect wedding gown’. Knowing the bodyshape is one of the first steps to save the headache, minimize the hours. Through the bodyshape and face shape analysis, I would recommend a few neckline styles that would complement their bodyshape and enhance their feminine figure on the wedding gown. Being a bride-to-be myself, knowing these essentials of professional styling has helped me to save plenty of time to hunt for a perfect wedding gown and which bridal studio I should choose.
1. Know Your Body Shape, Determine your Style
A-Line
Fits at the bodice and gently flares wider toward the bottom, resembling the A-shape. A silhouette that is good for disguising bottom heavy figures.
Recommended Body Shape: Inverted triangle, rectangle
Ball Gown
Fits at the bodice with a very full skirt to the hem. A silhouette that hides everything from the mid-section to hips and legs. Would be flattering on average height to tall women.
Recommended Body Shape: All body shapes
Trumpet
Fits closely to the body until mid-hip and widens gradually to the hem, resembling the mouth of a trumpet. Adds curves on a straight figure or accentuates feminine curves on a fuller figure.
Recommended Body Shape: Rectangle, Inverted triangle
Mermaid
Fits closely to the body from the chest to the knee and flares out to the hem. Flattering on tall, slender women. Accentuates the feminine figure.
Recommended Body Shape: Hour glass
2. Identify Your Face Shape, Shortlist the Necklines
Oval Shape
This is the most ideal face shape that would complement most necklines.
What would look great:
Square Shape
Noticeable jawlines will be available for square shapes. Necklines with soft curves or some depth would soften the look of the jaw line.
What would look great:
Heart Shape
The heart shaped face shape is usually broader at the forehead and narrows down towards the chin. Similar to the oval shape, it would complement most necklines.
What would look great:
Round Shape
The jawlines are less noticeable on round shape and are usually fuller at cheek area. Defined lines with some depth on the neckline would help to make the face shape look less round.
What would look great:
3. Use Your Colour Season, Pick Your Colours
When you wear the right colours for your wedding gown, it complements your skin tone to give a younger, healthier and more radiant look. It is an easy way to look good, feel good and improve your self-esteem and confidence on the big day. In a basic colour season palette, there are mainly four types – Cool Winter, Cool Summer, Warm Spring and Warm Autumn. The most accurate way to determine your colour season is to engage a trained stylist or image consultant to perform a colour analysis with the drapes method. Almost immediately, you would know if you should pick a white or off-white gown and the best evening dress you have ever worn!
4. Research, Review, Shortlist
After you have identified the type of wedding gown style for your special day, the next big question is, where to find? How I went about to find the perfect wedding gown from the bridal studio is through research, research and research. I love laces, hence I started off with a search on bridal studios which carry largely lace designs. Take time to browse through the gallery of bridal studios, and identify what range of gown styles they have more or less of (eg. Ball gown, trumpet). Ask yourself if the gown designs look updated to current trends and look through reviews of the bridal studios at forum pages. Sometimes, you would be able to find reviews on customer service and wedding gown quality, which would be very helpful in narrowing down your choices. Lastly, I would recommend shortlisting not more than 4 bridal studios to visit.
As it can get pretty intense if you have too many choices! The final decision on which bridal studio to select varies on many factors. Couples would need to discuss options on rental or purchase, packages provided, hidden costs such as dry cleaning or alteration, availability of gown, cost, just to name a few.
There are a lot of terminologies used in wedding gown styling which can sometimes be difficult to articulate. To help you build your confidence, take a couple of minutes and try out this quiz before heading down to the bridal studios. Finding the perfect wedding gown can be fun and hassle free with help!
I love hearing from you, if you have any feedback, opinions or questions please comment below and If you enjoyed this post and know someone who could do with this information please share it with them by clicking on the share button below.
If you would like to breakthrough from your current style and step into your True Style Personality, drop me a chat (jeann@stylebyjeann.com) or simply download my FREE resource “Look Stylish for Less“.
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