Are you a bride who has begun shopping for your wedding dress and wondering how to keep up with bridal fashion trends? Perhaps you have found a wedding dress you love but are wondering if it will still be “on trend” or in style when your wedding day comes around in a few months or a year or more. Fashion trends are notorious for changing quickly and it’s understandable that brides would want their wedding dress to be on trend and fashionable. For many, a wedding dress is one of the most important garments that will be worn in a lifetime. If you're a bride and worried about buyer's remorse or second guessing your wedding dress choice after you purchased your dream bridal gown, you're in the right spot!
If you have been following our advice, then you may already know that we always encourage brides to order their wedding dress about a year before wedding day. On average, wedding dresses take six to eight months to be made and delivered and you also want to allow a couple of months for alterations. It can be worrisome to some brides knowing that they are saying yes to a dress and will not see it again for six to eight months. Will they still love their wedding dress many months later when it arrives in store for pick up?
VIDEO: Keeping Up With Wedding Dress Trends After Saying Yes To The Dress
If you are a bride who is shopping for their wedding dress and is concerned about bridal fashion trends or if you are bride who has already purchased their wedding dress and is worried about changing style trends, don't miss our advice video all about keeping up with wedding dress trends after saying yes to the dress.
Dress Regret
At Lovella Bridal, we are used to dealing with nervous brides. Wedding dresses are an investment and you want to be sure you love your dress before purchasing your gown. Wedding dresses are custom ordered for you so they are not refundable or returnable. It’s normal for brides to experience a bit of cold feet or even buyer’s remorse when it comes to ordering their wedding dress.
It will be a few months or even a year after you order your dress before you see it again when your dress arrives from the manufacturer. You might be worried that the dress you fell in love with months ago is no longer on trend or will be dated. Maybe you’ve even attended other weddings in the time leading up to your own wedding. You might even be seeing new bridal collections coming out in stores and on social media. It can be hard to remember why you fell in love with your dress in the first place when you are so far removed from it. You might start second guessing yourself and the dress you have decided to purchase and wear on wedding day.
Bridal Trends
Once your wedding dress arrives at your bridal shop from the manufacturer, you will be notified to come in and try on the dress and make sure everything is as you ordered it. This is a very exciting time for brides but it can also be a bit nerve wracking. It’s been months or maybe even a year since you’ve tried on your dress. You might feel like your personality or even your style have evolved and changed since you bought your wedding dress. There are many reasons why a bride might feel like their wedding dress is now outdated or not on trend anymore.
If you are a bride that is constantly looking at dresses online and seeing all the new bridal fashion designs coming out since you purchased your dress, you need to remind yourself that these dresses would not have been available for your wedding date. You had to order your dress a year before wedding date and so these new collections would not have been available for you to try on. Don’t second guess your decision based on new designs you see.
Another good thing to remind yourself about is that bridal fashion trends repeat themselves over and over again. Bridal fashion is not like fast fashion where something is in one day and it’s gone the next day. Typically something that’s trending in bridal fashion at the moment has been on trend for some time and it isn’t going to just disappear overnight. Usually it’s something that started trending a few years ago and is just new to you as you began shopping for your wedding dress. You don’t live in the world of bridal fashion like bridal stylists and consultants.
Accessories and Alterations
Have you ever experienced a time where something has caught your eye and then you notice it more and more? It could be something even as simple as a particular color car being noticed more. It also becomes like a subconscious tally you are keeping and once you notice it, it comes to the forefront and you’ll notice it more. The same thing can happen with your wedding dress. You’ve found the perfect dress and are feeling really good about your purchase and now you are spotting similarities more and more. The elements that you are noticing, whether it’s a fabric choice or embellishment details, it’s likely been around for a while and you just were not aware until you were ready to enter the bridal fashion world.
You might start to feel like too many brides are wearing a dress that is similar to yours in either style or shape and it might cause you to rethink your decision. Trust us when we say this is common and is easy to overcome. Every bride is unique on wedding day. You could take 5 brides of different body types and personalities and put them in the same wedding dress and you would have 5 different bridal styles at the end of the day. You will bring your own unique style and personality to the wedding dress you choose to wear on wedding day. The hair and makeup you choose for wedding day will contribute to your overall bridal look. Your accessories will change the appearance of the dress as well.
Accessories and alterations can make or break a wedding dress. Bridal accessories help brides complete the story they want to tell on wedding day for their bridal style. Accessories and alterations can help you feel different and unique on wedding day. Perhaps you can add a sleeve or a detachable element to change up the look of your bridal dress. Your wedding day jewelry, a veil, there are so many elements you can add to your bridal look to set yourself apart.
Ease Your Nerves
As a bride, you should know that it is completely normal to show up to your gown inspection appointment totally and completely nervous to try on your dress. It’s very rare for brides to show up for their dress reveal and not feel at least a tiny bit of nervous energy. It might be something little like will my dress fit me or maybe it’s will I still like the dress. It might be bigger like will I like the changes I decided to make when I ordered the dress. There is usually a bit of nervousness and that is totally normal. Remember that you chose the dress because you felt beautiful in it. You have just been out of the dress for so long that you just need to be reminded about how it feels when you’re in it.
When you put on your dress again, you might need to “date” it for a minute. Take a moment to hang out in the dress for a little bit and see how it feels on your body. Start putting on your accessories to get the full picture. If you are feeling like your dress is outdated or overplayed, talk to your stylist. Tell your stylist what is bugging you, whether it’s that you’ve seen several brides wear the same dress or the same neckline or even the same silhouette you picked and that you want to try to set yourself apart a bit. Bridal stylists will have many ideas for you and probably ones you haven’t thought of. You might be able to add straps or a lace bridal jacket or even an overskirt to transform the look of your dress while still keeping all the elements you originally fell in love with.
The alterations process can be fluid. Maybe you decide on some changes that you originally didn’t plan on back when you ordered your dress. You might add a leg slit to a ballgown or add sleeves. At the end of the day, you just need to love how you feel in the dress so you can walk down the aisle confidently on wedding day.
Don’t Overanalyze
When you do get to the stage of trying on your wedding dress once it’s arrived in store, be sure to take in the full picture. Get back into your dress and focus on how you feel overall. Don’t start to focus in on a particular area or one detail. Don’t overanalyze how your belly looks or obsess over the neckline or sleeve length. You need to look at the overall picture before you make any changes because one change is going to impact the entire look of the dress and you need to be mindful when you're making these decisions that you recognize and you can see far along enough to notice how it's going to impact the entire integrity and look of the dress.
You need to be okay with the fact that once you get into alterations and you're cutting and moving things around, you can’t always go back. Once things start getting cut, you can't add more fabric. As you are considering changes, ask the seamstress to be very thorough when they're showing you things that are possible and how they can maybe show you before they cut and make it a permanent change to help you envision the end look of the dress before making any final decisions.
Plan B
We have one last piece of advice for brides that might find that they really truly no longer love their dress and are going to an option b for wedding day. If you do change your mind about your wedding dress, we recommend not altering the dress. You will have better chances of being able to sell a non-altered dress than one you have made changes to. If you are able to sell the original dress you bought, you can then put those funds into a new dress that you do love.
You might still be able to sell a dress that has been altered, but then you are limiting the number of people it may fit because it’s already been hemmed to your height and taken in to your specific measurements. It will be much easier to sell a dress that is a set bridal size than one that’s been tailored.
If you find yourself in this position, you will most likely be looking at a sample dress for your new wedding dress or possibly a rush dress if there is enough time for a designer to process a rush order. There may even be a dress in your size that a designer has in stock that they are able to send to your bridal store. Just know that there are options and your bridal stylist will work with you to find a new dress in time for wedding day.
More Helpful Wedding Dress Advice
We hope you have found this advice helpful when it comes to keeping up with wedding dress and bridal fashion trends after purchasing your wedding dress. For even more helpful advice when it comes to shopping for your dream wedding dress and finding your bridal style, be sure to check out our past posts:
- Top 7 New Wedding Dress Fashion Trends
- How Do You Know When You've Found the Right Wedding Dress?
- The Top Bridal Fashion Concerns
- What Is The Return Policy For Wedding Dresses?
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.
