Each week radio DJ Laura Pittson opens up her wedding planning diary...
Hi everyone
This week I’ve asked myself one question - How can what seems such a simple, innocent event as buying your wedding dress cause so much drama and angst? Tears, champagne, train strikes, family dramas, shop assistant issues and even a car accident have all happened as a result of trying to find my wedding dress!
It all started with a designer dress which I completely fell in love with and I even courted the idea of re-mortgaging my house to buy it. But when I took my mum to see the dress, much as she loved it, she warned me that I would regret buying a dress so much out of my budget. So, I tore myself away and decided to go further afield and see if there were any other shops that might hold my dream dress for a more palatable price.
Dear Reader, a little emotional caveat for you (and I’m sure it won’t be the last) buying your wedding dress isn’t always the smooth, hazy, romantic ride that I always imagined it to be. For that reason I have listed below a few dos and don’ts that I wish I would have been given! I hope you find them helpful.
My top tips for buying your wedding dress
1. Start in shops close to home. Don’t forget you’ll have to keep going back for those fittings! And of course when you’re buying bridesmaids dresses, it’s so convenient to just pop back and match things up. If you have to go further, fine, but if you find one nearby, trust me, you’ve saved yourself lots of hassle.
2. Contrary to what everyone else says, I personally recommend going on your own to your first wedding dress trials. It’s actually quite stressful bringing a team of people, and sometimes you get too many opinions at once. Alone you can narrow down the choices and then you can wheel in your friends to help you decide from a shortlist.
3. Don’t just walk into a bridal shop. Ring them first. Never before have I been so frustrated than when I have tried to shop for wedding dresses. I took a week off work to devote myself to it, and soon realised it wasn’t like ‘normal’ clothes shopping – normally when I want to go shopping I just go into a shop... But this practice seems to be frowned upon! I finally came to the conclusion that it would be better to just book times to visit them all, and although I still found it annoying, things started on a better footing when I gave in to the appointment system.
4. Wear make-up and have your hair in a nice presentable style. You’ll spend ages looking in the mirror, and if you’re anything like me, you’ll be busy criticising yourself instead of focusing on the dress.
5. Invest in nice white underwear with a strapless bra, and splash on some perfume! You’ll be standing in your undies in between trying on the dresses, and you’ll need to feel confident. Old/grey/ badly-fitting underwear won’t help!
6. Finally, pick a few things you really want stylewise and stick with them. Otherwise you’ll be going into every shop and trying on every dress and you’ll be tired by the end of it. Focus on narrowing it down, otherwise you’ll love them all. Remember ALL wedding dresses are beautiful, and you WILL look nice in them. It’s just which one is the perfect one for you... so BE RUTHLESS girls and don’t worry about hurting the shop assistant’s feelings. Unlike most clothes shopping you can’t just take it back if it‘s not right!
So, after trawling through the country’s wedding shops, I can certainly recommend my favourite wedding shops. These include The Bride in St Albans; Morgan Davies in Hitchin, Hertfordshire; Caroline Castigliano in Knightsbridge and the West End; and Airs and Graces in Berkhamsted where I actually managed to find my dream dress. How silly I felt when I found my dress in my local shopping parade after looking all over the place! But how relieved when I realised how easy things would now be for fittings.
So, shall I tell you what I went for? You know, I think I’ll save the secret… Suffice to say, that the big decision was made by a panel of judges. Having narrowed the dress down to two dresses in two different shops, I showed them to my mum and my best friend. Both liked both, which didn’t help matters.
So, (and here’s where working on the radio helps) I recruited a panel. Team Mercury Lee one of our fabulous production staff at Mercury Radio. A man of experience with women and with four sisters, he claims he knows a thing or two about girls’ clothes.
Next up Ruth “the Truth” Salsbury - my trusty friend, who is a seasoned stage performer. An accountant by trade, Ruth combines the practical with the creative and is often the person I turn to for help on any final decisions I make.
Finally, and from the youth department, my 12 year old stepdaughter Samantha. Samantha knows what her Daddy would like, and as a Theatrical Arts pupil she’s up to date with all the latest fashions, so I value her creative opinion.
The panel were unanimous in vote and they weren’t in the least unsure. The dress in the photo was one of the final gorgeous few but the one I’ve gone for just had the edge over it. The night I chose the dress was the first night I went to sleep imagining myself walking up the aisle happy. I can’t tell you what a relief it is.
Now I can enjoy the preparations, for, whatever goes wrong, at least I know I’ll be looking good! Next week I'm having my teeth whitened and trying to sort out the music I want for the church...
