Nine tips to help you find a dress that fits your stye—and budget—perfectly.
Mpls.St.Paul Magazine Weddings Fall/Winter 2009
By Sarah Asp Olson
Once you and your mate have set the date, it’s time to find the dress of your dreams. Here are tips to help you get the perfect fit.
Chances are, you’ve been dreaming of your wedding gown for years—the one that will turn heads as you walk down the aisle, fit your body like a glove, and project your unique spirit and sense of style. It’s a lot to ask from a few yards of fabric, but if any dress can—and should—deliver, your wedding gown is it. Before hitting the boutiques, review these tips from bridal gown experts around the Twin Cities. Then, find the dress of your dreams.
Before Your Appointment
{1} Set Your Budget
Before setting foot in a bridal salon—which may be filled with dresses ranging from $1,000 to $20,000—decide how much you can afford to spend. Carol Sudheimer, owner of Our Shop in Stillwater, recommends trying on dresses that are within close range of your budget. Then, factor in some wiggle room. If your budget is $1,000 but you fall in love with an $1,800 gown, is there something you can cut elsewhere in your budget to make up the difference?
{2} Find Your Style
Start filing away pictures of dresses that catch your eye. Even if you just like pieces of certain gowns, the images will give you a place to start once you’re in the salon. Bring a few pictures along as you visit boutiques, but don’t get too wedded to exact ideas.
{3} Think Big Picture
When you walk into Grace Bridal Boutique in Excelsior for an appointment, one of the first things co-owners Amanda Henke and Jocelyn Davis-George will ask is where you’re getting married. “The dress could be a lot different [depending on] whether she’s getting married outside in Duluth or in the Basilica,” Davis-George says. As the centerpiece of your wedding day, you want your gown to complement the style and tone of your wedding. That doesn’t mean you must wear a ball gown for a church wedding, or a chiffon halter dress on the beach. What’s most important is how you feel in the gown.
{4} Keep it Small
When you begin your tour of shops, you may have the urge to round up your entire bridal party, plus moms, sisters, and first cousins, but trust us—this is not the time for an entourage. “It’s important to bring somebody of your parents’ generation and one or two friends, not four or five, because it gets very confusing and you get too much input,” says Andrea Erickson, owner of Andrea’s Vintage Bridal in Hopkins.
Consider Vintage
It's no secret that wearing vintage bridal couture is in high fashion. The trend exists for a variety of reasons, says Andrea Erickson, owner of Andrea’s Vintage Bridal in Hopkins. “Younger women tend to be more ‘green’ minded—they’re thinking in terms of conservation,” she says. “Our brides [also] tend to be romantic or sentimental [and have] fallen in love with an era or a style.” And then there’s the price point. Andrea’s carries gowns from the Edwardian period through the 1990s that range in price from about $150 to $2,000. “Many times, vintage dresses are much better constructed than what you’ll find in certain price points in contemporary dresses,” Erickson says. If you’re thinking vintage, Erickson recommends coming in with an open mind. Try things on, and don’t be afraid to dream when it comes to alterations. You might come away with the one-of-a-kind gown of your dreams. “There is a vintage dress for every bride,” Erickson says. |
At the Salon
{5} Just Try it On
Don’t be afraid to try styles you think you’d never consider. Looking at pictures is nothing like seeing a style on you. It can be quite eye-opening. “Brides have an idea of what they like and don’t like, and 90 percent end up with a style of gown that was on their ‘don’t want’ list,” Sudheimer says. June bride Andrea Johnson learned this lesson when she walked into her first boutique with a binder full of pictures of strapless princess gowns with “a lot of material.” “The dress styles I thought I could never wear looked much better on me,” she says. “It kind of wiped out a lot of my initial thoughts on what I would get.”
{6} Let Your Consultant Consult
One of the benefits of shopping in a boutique bridal salon is a consultant (often the owner) who lives and breathes bridal fashion. Davis-George and Henke hand-pick each designer and gown they carry, and they aim to provide a complete boutique experience. “When we schedule a bride, we give [her] two hours here,” Henke says. While they make a point not to be “pushy,” Davis-George, Henke, and Sudheimer agree that a good consultant can act as a guide, make recommendations, and draw on years of experience to help make a final decision. “A good consultant will listen to [brides’] concerns, their vision, and keep in mind gowns that will look great on them,” Sudheimer says. “We don’t just hear the words coming from the bride’s mouth, but what her body language is telling us.” Erickson agrees. “It isn’t an educational process that’s verbal. It’s really the process of trying on a number of gowns and allowing enough time to let a significant amount of gowns cross her field of vision to get a feeling for what looks good on her body.”
{7} Go With Your Gut
Your wedding gown, just like your groom, should make your heart skip a little. It’s a good sign you’ve found the one. You know it’s the one “when the bride doesn’t want to take the dress off,” Davis-George says. “She just stands there, keeps looking at herself, and wants to keep it on as long as she can.”
After You’ve Purchased
{8} Accessorize!
Now it’s time to add those little touches that make the gown uniquely yours. Browse vintage shops to find gorgeous period headpieces, jewelry, and accessories. Or, think outside the box, like Johnson did, and wear a piece of your past on your sleeve. “I [wore] part of my grandma’s dress on my wrist . . . [and] put Swarovski crystals on it, just to do something different,” she says.
{9}Manage Alterations
Start your search for a seamstress at your bridal salon—chances are they have someone they work with on a regular basis. At your first alterations meeting, express your desires and make sure you’re confident that the professional understands your vision for the gown—especially when it comes to bustling or major changes. If you feel you’re not being heard or understood, find someone else, says Karen Boehne, owner of Wedding Gown Care Specialist in New Hope. “There’s more than one way to alter and bustle a gown,” she says.
Preserving Memories
Karen Boehne, owner of Wedding Gown Care Specialist in New Hope, views her role in cleaning and preserving a gown as a bride’s final wedding experience. Boehne says her goal is to have a gown look as pristine on a bride’s 50th wedding anniversary as it did the day she walked down the aisle. Each gown, like each bride, is unique, Boehne says. But in general, preservation starts with a good cleaning. “As a specialist, I can take soil out of a dress that’s been in there one day or 10 years or 100 years,” she says. “I’d prefer to get it in sooner rather than later; it makes it easier for me.” Once your gown is clean, proper storage is key. The preservation chest does not have to be “sealed,” Boehne says. “Air is not harmful to your dress,” she says. “What is harmful is the acidic product in the air.” To protect a gown from harmful acids, Boehne tightly packs it in a dark, specially designed storage chest surrounded by tissue paper—all completely acid free. “The final things the bride has to control are the heat and humidity,” Boehne says. “The preferable place [to store your gown] is the level where your bedroom is [located], because we keep our bedrooms at the most stable temperature throughout the year.” Boehne also recommends shifting the fabric of your gown once every four or five years. For this, she gives her brides museum-quality white cotton gloves. |
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