What happens after saying 'Yes to the dress'
Congratulations!
You’ve done the hard part and you’ve found THE dress, the one you will remember forever, so what next? Now what do you do?
The first and probably most important thing to do is stop looking!
Imagine meeting the person of your dreams, saying yes to marrying them and then continuing to go on dates? It’s the same thing, you’ve said Yes, the dress is probably being stitched together as we speak, what good can come from continuing the insta/pinterest browse? You’re just setting yourself up for some major fomo and worse case scenario buyers remorse!
You said yes for a reason, so nows the time to unfollow or mute your favourite bridal accounts on instagram, archive that pinterest board and do whatever else it is that you need to do to remove the temptation from your phone and you won’t then get sucked into that late night scroll.
Now that you have the dress, well at least know what it looks like and what you look like in it, you can turn your focus to your accessories!
Saying yes to the dress doesn’t mean the shopping stops. We now need to think about Shoes, Veils (maybe) Hair accessories, jewellery and the all important pants! (the comfy ones not the sexy honeymoon ones… although that does mean even more shopping!) Make sure you bare in mind that anything made to order, i.e. Veil or bespoke hair peice can take time, just like your dress so don’t hold off until alteration appointments start as this could be too late.
You will also need to have your wedding day pants and shoes ready for your first fitting so make sure that this is high up on the to do list for after saying that all important Yes.
Next, if you haven’t already, this is a good time to get the girls assembled and find them their Bridesmaid dresses, the girls are there to assist you on your day and personally I feel that their dresses are there to compliment yours, not in a way that makes them look shit, I truly beleive that gorgeous, confident bridesmaids only makes you as a bride look even more beautiful in yourself. You can consider what colours you are looking for, if they are going to compliment your dress (if you haven’t gone Ivory!) are they going to work with the flowers that you would like, are you having the girls in the same dress or are you looking for them to be in their own styles but the same colour or even colour palette?
Trust me when I say finding your dress is far easier that sorting your Bridesmaid’s!
Depending where abouts you are in your wedding dress timeline, alterations generally start around 8-10 weeks before your wedding day (FYI this varies from boutique to boutique so dont @ me if your seamstress wants longer or less time!) During your appointment your stylist/consultant/me will chat through this with you and give you an idea as to what the next steps are in the process and what you will need to do. For me here at The Bottom Drawer Bridal, I do not have an in house seamstress, but I do have the amazing Emma to reccommend to you all, she can come to the boutique should you wish or you can go direct to her, but this all must be booked direct with Emma, you will also pay for your alterations direct to Emma. Having had my fingers burned in the past, The Bottom Drawer Bridal is not part of your alterations process, I’m here to help and advise and be with you should you wish me to be but any queries or concerns about your dress are to be directed at Emma. Again this is not the same for everyone so make sure you know what the process is from where you bought your dress!
One final little nugget of advice for you is that when you have your dress at home with you, do not try her on! Firstly god forbid you accidently damage her while trying her on again, there are certain things that can be fixed but damage to tulle is really hard to fix and make invisible! Secondly keep trying her on and you’re going to lose her magic, Its not the same as that favourite top you have in the wardrobe. Imagine having tried her on so many times that shes’s not as exciting on your wedding day! Then what are you going to do?
So is there anything I’ve missed? Let me know if there is a part 2 to this post…
All my love