Thursday 8 January 2015

Shopping for my wedding dress (Part 1)


This is already hilarious for me. Much as I love clothes I have never dreamt of my dream wedding dress. You read that correctly. I have dreamt of Mulberry handbags and mid heeled court shoes, of wardrobes with magnificent sliding doors and clothes all neatly organise inside. I have dreamt of holidays in Ibiza, the ultimate red lipstick and of the perfect brew and the accompanying wheat free biscuit. But I have never dreamt of my dream wedding dress.

I'm a stylist and image consultant and love clothes, but this wedding dress malarkey is a whole new, terrifying, other worldly ball game for me. Here are some wedding dress shaped facts about The Wardrobe Angel:

  • I have never tried on a wedding dress before. NEVER. NEVER EVER.
  • I fell out with maxi dresses last year and have never worn a floor length gown so I don't know if I'll like that wedding dress material swishing around me.  
  • I think I have wedding dress blindness - I bought a bridal magazine and after a few pages of flipping through I couldn't tell the difference between one dress and the next. 
  • I'm scared of the weight of the dress; I'm hardly a body builder and carrying around all that tulle and lace for a whole day seems out of my bodily reach.

We've set the date, booked the church and the venue and now there is this HUGE gaping hole in the organisation of our wedding - my missing dress. And time is ticking. I get married in under 9 months. I rang the very wonderful Natalie Willingham to book her as my make-up artist on the day and she gave me some very sound advice,

"You've never tried on a wedding dress before and they are a different breed of clothing altogether so when you enter the shop take off your stylist hat and be guided by the shop assistants."

Except here we are - the first day of wedding dress shopping is tomorrow. I don't know what pants to wear, I am plucked, waxed and shaved within an inch of my life and I have NO IDEA what to try on first. I don't know what I like. I can feel a huge panic rise in my chest and it does not subside. My Mum is clearly loving this and I am trying my very best to go through the motions but I NO IDEA what I am doing.

And I am TERRIFIED.

4 comments:

  1. Hey! I just saw your comment on my blog a minute ago and thought I would come say hi! I actually work at a bridal shop and I would just say you have to go in with a very open mind. The majority of people who walk in with a particular idea of what they want walk away with a completely different style of dress! I would also say to be very honest with yourself but also with the assistants. I often find people don't want to say they hate a dress they are wearing as not to offend (seriously, we don't care, we don't design them, we have probably been staring at the same dress for months thinking that we also don't like it) but this can make it really difficult to help find the right dress! I would also say that everyone is uncomfortable the first time they try bridal dresses on and why wouldn't you be?! You probably have never done it before and hopefully never will again! A good shop with nice assistants will make you feel comfortable and relaxed and if it gets overwhelming take a break for a little while and come back with a fresh head!

    Hope this helps and hope it goes well!

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  2. Eeep! So exciting! I love some of the more modern wedding dress shapes that have started to proliferate - hopefully you'll find one that's less a heavy mass of fabric and more 'you'. Good luck!

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    1. Thanks dude....next update due soon! I dreamt about Kim and Kanye's wedding the other night. I am DEEP into this wedding business now....

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