Choosing a wedding dress can be stressful, but it doesn’t have to be – with online wedding dress shops now available, you can browse a wide selection of gorgeous dresses in your own home without any distractions. With so many styles and shapes to choose from, there’s always going to be something out there to suit every bride to be. For some, the pressure of finding the perfect wedding dress can seem daunting - but with a few very useful tips, rest assured that that’ll be one less thing off your long wedding to-do list so that you can look forward to your perfect day, stress-free!

1. Working with your body shape

Picking the perfect dress usually starts with knowing enough about your body type. As a general rule of thumb when it comes to picking any piece of clothing, you want to choose something that’s more form-fitting around areas of your body that you want to bring attention to, and more loose around areas of your body that you want to detract from. As a starting point, have a look in your wardrobe. Are there any common silhouettes you see that you know flatter your body? This is usually a good place to start. Most importantly however, your dress should be comfortable. We all want a figure-hugging dress, but you don’t want to be spending your wedding day in utter discomfort! The perfect dress should just be three things: look beautiful, be comfortable and make you feel confident!

2. Picking a style

Oh gosh, where to start with this one? There are endless styles when it comes to wedding dresses. From silhouettes (A-line, ballgown, mermaid, column, empire, short) to necklines (sweetheart, V-neck, off-shoulder, halter) - you can even tailor it down to dress length, having trains or no trains, lace or no lace, sleeves or no sleeves…the style is ultimately up to your own personal preference, as well as the theme of your wedding and whether you’re going for a more traditional or modern look. If you would like any advice, Aeternum Bridal is always here to help. A handy tip is to create a mood board of all your favourite styles might help with the decision-making – we know there are lots to be made! Slowly narrow down your choices into the top final few so you know exactly what style of dress to go for and don’t feel overwhelmed with the number of choices available.

3. Figuring out your budget

Though you might be tempted to work on a budget on the dress, avoid looking on sites that promise quality for an oddly low price that doesn’t quite seem right – if it looks too good to be true, then it probably is! That’s not to say that you won’t be able to find a well-priced dress that doesn’t break the bank! Our word of advice is to do some research and figure out what the styles of dresses you’re looking at tend to range from in price, and attempt to work around that. Wedding dresses tend to average around the £2,000 - £3,000 mark but try to stick with stores that sell directly to you to avoid unreasonable mark-ups in price – these stores usually sell wedding dresses at half the price you would expect from high end wedding boutique stores in Mayfair.

4. Start looking early (we mean it!)

It might be tempting to hold off wedding dress hunting until the last few months – but don’t do this! Wedding dresses are known to take up to a year to be ordered in, not accounting for the time needed to make any alterations. In short - start looking as soon as possible. If you’re hoping for a seasonal dress or for a more exclusive dress on your big day, make sure to sign up to a mailing list to ensure you’re one of the first to get notified about any exclusive offers or new dresses released. Some wedding stores (like Aeternum) even offer fully bespoke services to custom create the wedding dress of your dreams within 3-4 months - so if you’ve found one of these, you’ve struck gold!

5. Be Open Minded

We all fantasise about our wedding dress, so it’s likely you already have some description or idea of the perfect dress in mind. But don’t feel disheartened if what you had in mind doesn’t look on you quite the way you had envisioned it to look, or if you can’t find the exact dress you found on Pinterest anywhere. Online wedding dress shops are great for this as they tend to have a much wider selection for you to choose from, as well as navigating around these dresses to be pretty much as simple as a little scroll. If you come across a dress online that’s somewhat close to what you had envisioned, why not send them an enquiry as to what alterations can be made to the dress? Some wedding dress stores will be extremely accommodating and work with you to ensure they get the perfect dress made for your special day. There’s absolutely nothing to lose from just sending them an email or giving them a call – they might even point you to another dress they feel would be suitable for you that you didn’t initially come across. At Aeternum Bridal dress designs can be chosen from the collections and made to a brides specific measurements, or a bride can send ideas so that a fully bespoke dress could be created from scratch.

Despite all the above tips, the most important tip for choosing the perfect wedding dress is just to breathe (literally) and enjoy the process! At the end of the day, enjoying your wedding day is the most important thing, and our job at Aeternum is to make you look as beautiful and feel as comfortable as possible on your big day.