Today's advice post is one that brides planning their wedding day fashion will not want to miss. When wedding dress shopping and choosing your bridal accessories, there are so many questions that run through a bride's mind and so many things to consider. For many brides, a wedding day is a once-in-a-lifetime event, and it can be overwhelming to prepare for such a monumental event. Wedding dresses and bridal outfits are very different from traditional, everyday clothing and so there are many details to consider when it comes to choosing your style wedding dress and even what accessories you will wear to complete your bridal look.
This week, we are breaking down newlywed Sofia Ritchie's wedding day looks and answering all the top bridal fashion concerns that brides have when it comes to wedding day attire. Bride, Sofia Ritchie, is a great example for us to discuss bridal fashion concerns as she had two fabulous wedding day outfits with accessory changes and even bridal hairstyle changes. We have all the tips and advice brides need to be prepared to handle any bridal fashion concern leading up to and on the wedding day.
VIDEO: Sofia Richie Wedding Dress Review
Before we dig into all the top bridal fashion concerns and questions, be sure to watch this week's bridal fashion advice video with a Sofia Ritchie wedding dress review so you will know what details to pay attention to when trying on wedding dresses and choosing your final wedding day bridal look.
Concern 1: What About Gap? What About Halter Necklines?
Many brides wonder, will my wedding dress gap open on the sides? Furthermore, brides who are wearing a halter-style wedding dress are worried that the top of the dress won't fit them properly. For our first concern, we are sharing what to do if you're worried about your wedding dress not fitting your body closely and what to do if you're wearing a halter neckline.
Sofia Ritchie recently married Elliot Grainge in the South of France and had two gorgeous wedding day looks. Her bridal style on the wedding day is a perfect example to break down some of the top bridal fashion concerns that we hear from brides all the time at Lovella.
For her wedding ceremony bridal look, Sofia wore a stunning beaded lace halter top wedding dress with a long wedding dress train. In some of the wedding day photos, you will notice that there is a bit of gapping with the halter style straps that are unique to this style neckline on a wedding dress. You’ll see that the straps and the dress are not laying completely flat against the bride’s chest and back, particularly in photos taken from a side angle. This is important for brides to know and see so that they have realistic expectations.
Oftentimes brides expect that through the alterations process, their wedding dress is going to be super fitted to their body and really hug every inch of them. We, of course, want a proper fit and alterations is an important step of this process, but you need to have a bit of room to breathe and move around in your wedding dress. If a halter-style wedding dress was super tight and glued to the body, the mobility of your arms would be limited as the neckline would start to cut into your arm and shoulder and will become uncomfortable.
One last tip on halter necklines specifically is that this style of wedding dress typically can make someone look a bit broader in the shoulders. This may not be something you are worried about, but if you are particularly self-conscious about your arms, then a halter neckline is probably not one you want to consider as it will highlight your shoulders and arms.
Concern 2: Can I Wear Beaded Lace?
If your wedding dress has beading or texture of any kind, you'll want to know our advice for what to do about beaded lace wedding dresses. Beading is a common detail you will see on wedding dresses to give a bit more dimension to a dress design. Sofia’s wedding ceremony bridal dress features a beaded lace design throughout. Another realistic expectation we want brides to be aware of when choosing a wedding dress with beading is that it can cause chafing.
We see chafing in bridal dresses, particularly on the underarms and inside of the arms where they may rub against the fabric of the wedding dress while walking down the aisle and dancing. If chafing is a big concern for you, then selecting a second bridal dress to change into for your reception may be a good option for you.
Opting for a simpler, beading and sparkle-free, reception bridal dress is a good solution to prevent any arm chafing while dancing the night away.
Concern 3: Will My Bridal Shoes Show?
If you're worried about your feet or bridal shoes under your wedding dress, you'll love our advice about the proper length of your wedding dress. One of the most requested details we hear from brides at Lovella is to not have their feet showing on the wedding day when they walk.
Sofia’s wedding ceremony dress is another great example of realistic expectations for brides on the wedding day. Her beaded lace wedding dress was perfectly hemmed to just graze the floor when she is standing still, but her feet do show as she is walking down the wedding aisle.
If you are particularly concerned with your feet showing when you walk on your wedding day, you will want to pay particular attention to the style or silhouette you choose for your wedding dress. A more fitted option like Sofia Ritchie’s wedding dress is going to show your feet peeking out as you move around. You want to choose a wedding dress with a fuller skirt to prevent your feet from showing. Something like a ballgown, an A-line dress, or even a fit to flare with full skirt at the bottom, will all give you more space in the distance of your foot peeking out of the bottom of your dress when you walk.
Keep in mind that when you are trying on wedding dresses in a bridal store, you are often standing still and the dresses are too long. You oftentimes won’t have the full picture until the alterations process when the dress is hemmed and you have the opportunity to walk around the store in your bridal shoes.
Concern 4: How Long Are Wedding Dress Trains?
The next detail we want to discuss is wedding dress train length. Sofia’s wedding dress train is about as long as it possibly could be for a wedding dress that doesn’t have a very full skirt. We love a long wedding dress train for a dramatic bridal look, and Sofia’s bridal dress is no exception.
When wedding dresses have a full skirt, the trains can be wider and longer because there is more distribution of the fabric and the way it flows. For a column style wedding dress like Sofia’s, they crafted a wedding dress train as long as possible using multiple layers of fabric. Oftentimes, when bridal designers are doing a dramatic wedding dress train length for the shape and silhouette of the dress, they don’t include the lining fabric at the bottom and you will just see lace for the dress train. This makes the dress much lighter overall and easier to bustle. You will see that Sofia’s bridal dress had lining all the way through to the end of the train, so it would be extremely heavy to bustle. In Sofia’s case, she opted for a reception bridal dress, so designers did not have to worry about creating a bustle that would hold all of the dress train fabric, but if your wedding dress has a long train, this is an important detail to consider.
Wedding Dress Veils
Another unique detail to Sofia Ritchie’s first wedding day look is her incredible wedding veil. At Lovella, we love cathedral length wedding veils and the dramatic moment they give brides for their ceremony entrance and in photos. You can certainly opt for a short wedding veil, but know that they do cause a bit of interruption in the overall look of the back of your wedding dress.
If you are having an outdoor wedding ceremony, a short wedding veil is also more likely to pick up wind a bit easier than a long veil. An insider’s tip for brides wearing a long veil during their outside wedding ceremony, is that your maid of honor can always lightly step on just the outside edge of your veil and because of the distance, it will keep the veil down if the wind picks up.
When shopping for wedding veils, brides should not just consider the length of their veil. It’s also important to think about the width of your wedding veil. You can have a very long bridal veil, but a good rule of thumb is to have your veil as wide or even wider and longer than your dress train. This will give you the most dramatic look.
Wedding Veil Blusher
Another unique detail to Sofia’s wedding veil that is absolutely incredible is the sparkle detailing, particularly on the blusher portion of her veil. The wedding veil has a gorgeous scattered sparkle for an extra detailing and dramatic look. A wedding veil blusher is the part of the veil that comes in front of your face. Sometimes it's a completely separate piece of tulle, and sometimes it’s all one piece of fabric. In Sofia’s case, hers is connected as one piece of tulle. In this case, the veil comb would be placed on the back of the head so the blusher just drapes over you. If you have two separate pieces to your veil, there will be two combs to place.
One great thing about having your veil and blusher separate is the versatilely it can give you on wedding day. Some brides want to enter their wedding reception with their veil and keep their veil on for their first dance. This is easier to do with a short veil so you can maneuver without a lot of extra fabric. In this instance, we tell our brides to remove the comb with the long veil and just flip the blusher portion of their veil back behind their heads.
The genius of the design of the sparkle on Sofia’s blusher is that the sparkle fades in the area around her face so that she is not photographed with a bunch of spots on her face, and it gives the veil a sort of raindrop sparkle effect. For this reason, we often encourage brides to choose a blusher with no detailing on it. Even a blusher with a trim will add a border or seam all the way around and cause an interruption in your overall look. Keep in mind if you choose a lace trimmed blusher, you should opt for one that is double sided because then when it’s flipped back, you will still have the lace detailing and not just the back of the trim showing.
One last tip on blushers is to consider the length of your blusher. We like to recommend that brides choose a blusher that is the length to fall at your waist or even lower to your hip bone. Any longer and it will make it a bit difficult for the blusher to be flipped back with ease.
Veil Comb Placement
Another important thing to think about when choosing bridal accessories like your wedding veil, is where the veil comb will be placed on wedding day. Many brides think that the comb should go at the bottom of their bun or hairstyle, but we recommend against this as it will make it look like your veil is coming of out your neck. The veil comb should go at the top of your bun or right into the bun to really anchor the veil. Veils can be a bit finicky and hard to manage, so you’ll want to be sure they are secure and really anchored into your hair so it stays put throughout wedding day.
Comb placement is also an important factor when thinking about the length of your wedding veil and blusher. If your bridal hair style is a really high bun, or you plan to wear a tiara or crown, you need to be sure your blusher is going to clear those elements and still fall over your face.
Bridal Jewelry
When it comes to your wedding day look, jewelry can be a great way to complete your bridal style and look. Sofia Ritchie chose a pair of beautiful drop earrings that perfectly complimented her wedding style. We love a drop earring as a great way to draw attention up to a bride’s face. Keep in mind that you want to choose a slightly larger earring so they stand out in photos. Something small like a stud is not going to be that noticeable, especially from a distance.
At Lovella, we love a bracelet for brides. We typically recommend a bracelet on the right arm to give a bit of balance. Brides will already have some sparkle on their left hand from their engagement ring and wedding band, so a bracelet, even a simple tennis bracelet, on the right arm can balance out the look. This is an especially nice detail for photos of you cutting the cake or toasting champagne. No matter what hand you use, you’ll have a bit of sparkle and just an extra detail to complete the look.
Wardrobe Malfunctions
Next up, let’s discuss Sofia’s reception bridal dress. For wedding day look number two, the bride chose a really chic and feminine, short bridal dress for her wedding reception look. One detail you may or may not notice when looking through Sofia Ritchie’s wedding photos is that she starts the night in her reception bridal dress with a three dimensional camellia flower in the center of her bust, and in later photos, that floral detail is missing. This is super important for brides to know - malfunctions do happen on wedding day, no matter how couture a garment you may be wearing.
This is not something that should ruin your day, but it’s good to know that it’s a possibility so you can be prepared and have your expectations in check. Something like a three dimensional floral detail is only held on by some thread, so it’s easy to give someone a hug at your wedding reception and have it get snagged. One very common malfunction we hear from brides is having their wedding dress straps or off the shoulder sleeves get torn off. This is so easy to do if you are dancing or partying just a little too hard, but hey, things happen and you can still enjoy yourself. It just means you are having a good time on wedding day and you shouldn’t let it kill the mood or ruin your dancing for the rest of the night.
A good item to have on hand in your bridal emergency bag is a sewing kit so you can quickly stitch up a torn strap or seam and get back out to celebrating.
Bridal Shoes
As we discussed before, some brides do not want their feet to show when walking in their wedding dress. If this is something that has high priority for you, you may also want to put more thought into your wedding day shoes. More likely than not, some of your shoe is going to peek through when you walk down the aisle, so choose a fun shoe that you love and want to show off.
A common trend we are seeing these days in the wedding world is for brides to have a second wedding dress and to change into a reception bridal dress. We love when brides take it a bit further and also change their shoes for their new look, like bride Sofia Ritchie did. When Sofia changed into her short reception bridal dress, she came out in this look with a heel and then later changed into more of a flat so her feet could be more comfortable while dancing.
At Lovella, we always recommend brides to have three to four shoes on hand on wedding day. You are on your feet more than you think and moving around a lot on wedding day so you want to keep your feet comfortable. If you are wearing a heel as your main bridal shoe, we’d recommend bringing another pair that also has a platform in the front so that you can change the arch of the ball of your feet.
Heels will also change your posture, especially when getting your wedding day photos taken. With heels on, you will stand tall, looking really elegant and chic.
Bridal Hairstyles
Another really fun option to change up your bridal look on wedding day is to change your hairstyle from wedding ceremony to reception. This can be a great option for brides on a budget who can’t afford or just don’t want to buy a second wedding dress to change into but still want to have a different bridal look for their wedding reception. Bride Sofia Ritchie is again a great example of this. She went with a fun and sophisticated, slicked back bridal ponytail for her wedding reception look.
At Lovella, we hear a lot of brides who want to wear their hair up for the ceremony and then wear it down for the reception and we would encourage just the opposite. You want to wear your hair down for the ceremony and then in some sort of updo or ponytail for the reception. Think about it, at your wedding reception you will be moving all around to greet your guests and dancing the night away. You’re going to get sweaty and you don’t want your hair in the way and looking messy.
Of course you want to stay true to who you are and depending on the type or vibe of your wedding, you might want a certain hairstyle, but we’d always recommend going down for ceremony and up for reception if you choose to change your hair throughout your wedding day. Keep in mind that it’s also going to be more difficult to go from a styled updo to a hairstyle that’s down and will look good. It will be much easier to go from hair down to styled up. Think about how much time you want to be in the chair for this hair change too and account for that in your wedding day timeline.
In Sofia’s case, it was a super easy change over. She went from a styled bun into a slicked ponytail so they just had to take down the bun and put into a ponytail so she’s not missing much party time at all.
More Helpful Bridal Fashion Advice
All in all, we love Sofia Ritchie's wedding day looks and love that it gave us the opportunity to really break down all the different aspects of bridal fashion and share some of the top concerns we hear from our brides in regards to their wedding day outfits. This was a great example of how things are really worn on wedding day and how to set realistic expectations as a bride. For even more helpful advice when it comes to bridal fashion, be sure to check out our past posts:
- Top 7 New Wedding Dress Fashion Trends
- Top 9 New Wedding Fashion Accessory Trends
- How To Choose The Right Wedding Veil
About Lovella
If you're shopping for your perfect wedding dress, come visit us at Lovella Bridal in Glendale, CA. We carry wedding dresses in all sizes and styles, including plus-size bridal gowns and a full selection of veils and accessories. Lovella Bridal is the premier, luxury bridal wedding dress shopping boutique located in Los Angeles, California. Lovella features couture, feminine, modern and chic bridal gowns in all sizes from the best wedding dress designers. Schedule an appointment to find the wedding dress of your dreams at Lovella Bridal. We can't wait to help you!
About Wedding Fashion Expert
Our wedding dress shopping tips and advice are from Nayri, Lovella's own, in-house wedding fashion expert. Nayri is truly the expert when it comes to bridal fashion and wedding style. As the Wedding Fashion Expert, Nayri is the top bridal fashion stylist and the best-selling author of the book "I'm Getting Married And I Have Nothing To Wear," the ultimate guide to helping brides find their wedding day style and their perfect wedding dress. You can subscribe to her YouTube channel or listen to her podcast for more helpful and practical advice on wedding dress shopping.
