Congratulations, you have found the love of your life now you need to find ‘the one’ to get married in. But watch out for this massive mistake. You have traipsed round wedding dress shops in Bridgwater; strutted your stuff in bridal boutiques in Weston; trotted to bridal shops in Taunton. In fact you feel like you have been everywhere?

Many brides book loads of appointments and spend months gathering up their nearest and dearest but what happens? You OVERSHOP THE DRESS! We see it all the time… brides tucker themselves out refusing to commit and second-guessing themselves.

Overshopping is the bride’s worst enemy, it always leads to frustration, confusion and general gown-weariness.

Here’s our top tips to avoid the dreaded OVERSHOP and to get the experience your 10 year old daydreaming self deserves:

How to Research when buying a wedding dress

You need to get a feel for what you want before you start shopping if you can. You might find a picture on Pinterest of your dream dress but how do you know the cost, how old is it? It might be a custom made one-off? Don’t commit to an image, research your boutiques and the designers they stock, look at their most recent collections and see if they inspire you.

If this is wedding dress shops in Bridgwater, Taunton, Exeter or Bristol definitely phone ahead. Check what sample sizes the bridal shops are carrying. Many of them only carry sizes 10 to 14 and if you are anything over that you will struggle to get in the samples. Then you will hate your wedding dress shopping experience.  (We carry samples sizes 10 all the way up to 32, real sizes for real women)

Should I buy a wedding dress in the first shop?

More is not always better when wedding gown shopping. Say you go to 9 boutiques and you have 9 favourites. How are you going to remember what number 2 was like by the time you get to number 9? Your poor brain will be in a spin and before you know it is too late. You are already over shopped and it is hard to get the magic back. Over shopping steals the bridal magic.

How not to hate wedding dress shopping

We can spot an over shopper the minute they walk through our lovely Minehead bridal boutique. They just look a bit sad, they look different, they have no excitement left and their fun has been sucked right out of them. Their friends and family roll their eyes when we ask about their shopping experience so far and it breaks our hearts. They say they’ve been dragged around wedding dress shops in Bridgwater, in Exeter, in Bristol, in Weston and throughout Somerset.

Remember when your loved one proposed to you? Did you say “hang on a minute darling, I just need to take a few days to consider all of my options and do a bit of analysis on the likelihood of Aidan Turner deciding I am his Demelza, can you wait a while for me to decide?” Of course you didn’t , that would have RUINED your beautiful moment.. bridal dress shopping is the same. We need you to have fun, to laugh and smile and twirl and skip. Over shopping is the enemy of all that.

Should you buy your wedding gown straight away?

You just never know if you are going to find ‘the one’ and if you do make sure the debit card is ready. If Mum or Dad are paying let them know in advance that you might want to do the business. Be prepared, that perfect dress might just be waiting for you. If you have to come back you’ll just get tempted to traipse off to another shop and start second-guessing yourself.

My bridesmaids hate my wedding dress

We have all watched “Say Yes to the Dress” and watched with horror as the gown they love in the changing room gets demolished by the entourage. There is no way your six bridesmaids (unless they are sextuplets!) are going to like the same styles on themselves or even on you. If you do need to bring all of them, and Mum, and Nan and Auntie Mildred then be prepared to ignore them and listen to your heart. We are always on the bride’s side and you can trust our expertise and love for our Somerset Brides to make sure your aisle style is perfect for you.

Should I keep looking once I have bought my wedding dress?

Often brides order their dress and then carry on looking, it’s bonkers! Make a decision to unfollow some of your Instagram accounts. Move your pictures of you in your gown into some well-hidden folder on your computer. Post-purchase Pinterest is pointless.

Don’t let yourself get to “I cannot do this anymore” and don’t be afraid to fall in love with a gown at the first boutique you visit. It is OK to have an easy dress shopping experience. We promise you the magic that comes from finding her will last forever.

No more wedding dress shops in Bridgwater, no more running around Somerset to find your dress. Call us today or contact us to book a wedding dress appointment