How to Choose a Wedding Dress: The Secrets of the Perfect Wedding Dress

How to choose a wedding dress? And what wedding dress is right for me? Every bride asks these questions when the time to seek for a wedding gown comes. Of course, the search of the proper dress can be rather exhausting. However, it’s much easier if you know what you are looking for.

Now, we’d like to share some tips on how to pick a wedding dress, taking into account the peculiarities of your appearance. Also, we will tell you about the most common mistakes, made by brides-to-be when they choose a wedding gown.

How to Choose Wedding Dress by Body Type

Choosing wedding dress for body shape isn’t a difficult task as it seems to be. There are such basic types of figures as hourglass, pear, apple, inverted triangle and rectangle. Let’s see how to choose your wedding dress by the body shape as well as see what dresses are suitable for petite, tall and plus size brides.

Hourglass Body Shape

Mermaid wedding dress

An hourglass figure features the well-balanced top and bottom and a slim waist. If you have beautiful body curves, your perfect dress for wedding is the one of mermaid silhouette. It will enhance your sexy curves and highlight all the merits. Also, a dress with a dropped waist is a great way to make an accent on a slim waist. However, avoid using too many ruffles and tiers.

Apple-Shaped Body

Empire waist wedding dress

The “apples” have full breasts and hips and a bit of tummy. The perfect wedding dress for the apple body shape is an empire waist one. It will hide the problems in the belly zone and make an accent on the upper part of the body. Also, the dresses made of taffeta and satin are suitable.

Pear-Shaped Body

A-line wedding gown

The pear-shaped girls have small breast and shoulders and full hips. The pears look great in A-line gowns as they help to hide the fuller hips. Also, it’s recommended to have some textural details on the top in order to add volume to the upper part of the body and balance the proportions. But avoid mermaid and tiered gowns as they will accentuate your hips.

Inverted Triangle Body

Bateau neckline princess wedding dress

The girls with inverted triangle body have wider top and slim hips. When you have a large bust, it’s crucial to choose the proper neckline. The strapless bodices are a bad idea. It’s better to seek for off-the-shoulder and sweetheart necklines with straps. If you have wide shoulders, the V-neckline and the dresses with sleeves are proper. In order to create the necessary proportions, choose a dress with additional volume on the skirt.

Rectangle-Shaped Body

Ball gown wedding dress

If you have a rectangle body type with undefined waistline, the proper dress for a wedding must add some curves to your look. That’s why, you need to add some volume elements on the chest and the hips in order to create the illusion of the hourglass silhouette. The ball gown is good for this body type.

Petite Brides

Wedding dress for a petite bride

In fact, the sheath dress is considered to be the best silhouette for petite brides. Also, the empire waist ones can make your legs look visually longer. But, avoid ball gowns and other too “big” dresses.

Tall Brides

Lace mermaid wedding dress

Tall brides are free to choose whatever they want as everything will look nice on them. For instance, you can choose mermaid or dropped waist dresses. However, the empire waist dresses aren’t suitable as you may look too tall.

Plus Size Brides

Plus size wedding dress

The plump girls may opt for corset dresses as they can redefine your shape. While picking a wedding dress, pay attention to A-line gowns. They stretch the silhouette.

How to Find the Perfect Wedding Dress Color

Various shades of white

Choosing your wedding dress, you also need to take into account your skin type. Believe, not all brides look great in stark white gowns. Sometimes, it’s better to consider other hues of the white color. The various shades of white are:

- Stark white – the brightest type of white color.

- Natural white (also referred as Silk White) – a shade off stark white.

- Ivory – a white color with yellow undertones. It may also be called creamy.

- Champagne – has pink and gold undertones. A bit deeper variant of champagne is called Rum White.

- Ecru – the darkest shade of ivory, it’s very close to beige color.

Now, let’s see what color is the best for your skin type.

Ecru wedding dress

Fair Skin

The girls with fair skin, who need to choose a wedding dress, must pay attention to yellow-toned ivory gowns. The traditional sparkling white gown will make you look too pale on the wedding photos while the ivory one will add warmth to your complexion.

Olive Skin

The olive skin looks amazing with white dresses with pink undertones, which will make you look fresh and dewy. For instance, it can be champagne, rum or silk white colors.

Stark white wedding dress

Medium Skin

The medium-skinned brides look great in gowns of creamy and ivory colors. If you have some yellow undertones, opt for a traditional white dress.

Dark Skin

Remarkably, the girls with dark skin are free to choose from a wider number of colors as almost every shade suits them. However, it’s better to avoid white dresses with yellow undertones.

10 Most Typical Bride’s Mistakes When Choosing a Wedding Dress

In truth, there are some brides, who don’t ask “how to choose my wedding dress?”, but just start visiting wedding shops in the search of the suitable dress. Sometimes it works, but very often the brides commit many mistakes and, as a result, may stay unsatisfied with their choice.

Let’s have a look at the most common mistakes, which are made while choosing a wedding dress.

Shop for wedding dresses with friends

1. Too Big Support Team

Undoubtedly, choosing wedding dress is a serious case and you will definitely need some support. However, don’t invite too many people to the wedding salon, where you are going to try on the dresses. A big company may cause a chaos and you can get confused on what’s better for you.

Also, each person may have different opinion. Of course, a third-person opinion is very important. But take only 1 or 2 people you really trust. They will be more concentrated on what’s better for you.

2. Too Early Purchase of the Dress

If you start the search of the perfect wedding dress a year before the wedding, there are many chances that you fall in love with a certain dress. The thoughts that it will be sold to another person will start to follow you.

It’s necessary to buy the dress when you already have the necessary sum of money and know all the details of the wedding ceremony. The place, style and theme of the wedding are very important for the choice of the proper dress. For instance, a ball gown will look weird at the country wedding while the Greek styled one isn’t appropriate for the vintage wedding.

3. Too Many Dresses Which You Tried On

As a rule, the brides choose among 4-5 candidates for the role of the “perfect wedding gown”. However, it’s not recommended to try on more than 10-15 dresses as you will get confused. In the eternal race for the ideal gown, you may fail to see it among dozens of others, each of which is unique.

4. Deceptive Discounts

Choosing the proper dress size

Don’t hurry up to buy a cool designer wedding dress if you see a great discount for it. Of course, it’s possible to buy an astonishing dress much cheaper but you need to be attentive. Before the purchase, look through the dress and make sure that it doesn’t have any defects and doesn’t need cleaning.

Also, a big discount may push you forward to buy the dress earlier than you planned. And so, there is a possibility that you can make the wrong choice.

5. Wrong Size

Some brides plan to lose some weight before the wedding and buy a dress of one size smaller in order to have the additional stimulus. It’s an absolutely wrong decision. In any case, buy the dress which suits you right now.

Moreover, different brands may have different dress sizes. Thus, if you usually wear clothes of size 8, it may happen that the proper wedding dress will be of 6 or 10 size. That’s why, don’t pay attention to the numbers, just look how the dress looks at you.

6. Obsession with a Certain Style

Trying on a wedding dress

It’s great if you know what dress you are looking for. However, don’t consider the similar variants only. The experienced consultants at wedding salons may offer you some alternatives if the dress you ask for isn’t appropriate. Don’t refuse to try them on. It’s possible that an absolutely different dress will be ideal for you.

7. Purchase of the Dress You Don’t Like

Don’t buy the wedding dress under pressure. Sometimes, a bride doesn’t like the dress but buys it because her mother, sister or friend considers the dress to be suitable for her and insists on buying it. Of course, the third-party opinion is important but not in the case when you don’t like the gown.

8. Trying On Too Expensive Dresses

When you pick your wedding dress, you must stick to your budget. There can be a temptation to try on a luxurious expensive wedding dress, but it’s better not to do that as you will be upset. There is nothing worse than to fall in love with a too expensive wedding gown: you will compare all the further dresses with it and will be upset that they aren’t so good.

9. Additional Costs

Too small wedding dress

You must to take into account all the possible additional expenditures. For instance, if you order a dress by catalogue or on the net, it’s possible that it will need some adjustment and it’s additional costs. Also, you will need to pay for shipping in some cases.

10. Choice of the Wedding Salon

And finally, before you choose the dress, you need to choose the wedding salon. If you seek for the dress of a certain brand, find out about its representatives beforehand. Also, look through the sites of wedding salons. They often demonstrate their dresses and you may have a notion of what you can see there.

So, now you know some secrets on how to choose a wedding dress and are ready to start the search of the ideal gown. Of course, it’s up to you to decide what dress is the most suitable and you can break all the rules. However, it’s better to pay attention to the recommendations in order to highlight your merits.