If you followed our wedding planning updates, you may have seen that I talked a little bit about my wedding dress. In this post I thought I would share more about my wedding dress, along with why I chose this specific dress, why it was completely different to what I was originally looking for in a dress, and my experience of wedding dress shopping, along with all the bits in between. Oh, and I’ll also be sharing some more photos of my dress too!
I had a clear idea in my head for the type of wedding dress I wanted. I had even created a Pinterest board and spent a few months collecting pictures of the sort of wedding dress I was hoping to get! I was originally looking at dresses that had long lace sleeves and that included lace on the dress itself. I must say though, when I went to view some dresses, I did go with an open mind because I think deep down I knew that I would probably end up getting a dress that was totally different to what I was looking for…which I very much ended up doing! After trying on a few different dresses, ones that were also the type of style I was hoping to get, they just didn’t feel like they were the dress for me. They were incredibly beautiful, but I didn’t necessarily feel very comfortable in them. The staff in the shop did say to me that when you find the one, you’ll just know, which is exactly what happened.
I got my wedding dress from a shop in Ely called Heart Brides, which was about 44 miles to travel to. Although that was probably quite a way to travel, I didn’t really want to have to travel any more miles than that. I had read some great reviews and what really made me want to go there was that their dresses are very affordable, prices range from £299 – £999. They also have lots of beautiful dresses at a reduced price. So, there are many dresses there to suit all budgets, which I really love, as I know just how expensive some dresses can be!
The lovely assistant who was helping me, then brought over a very beautiful mikado tea length dress for me to try on, which at first I was a little hesitant, as it was completely different to what I was looking for, but I kept an open mind and tried it on, and you know what, it was the dress that became my wedding dress! I think the most amazing part for me was that the dress in no way needed altering (they said that this is quite rare, so I just knew that it was meant to be). It was the perfect fit, the perfect length and I think I just had the biggest smile on my face when I tried it on.
The dress was a little pricier than I would have liked, but as it happened, because I didn’t need anything altering, it actually worked out cheaper than what it would have cost me to have found a bit cheaper dress and to have it altered. Definitely something to keep in mind for if you are going wedding dress shopping. Also at Heart Brides, when you pay for a dress in full, you get a free veil and tiara. I didn’t have a tiara, so I ended up getting a little jacket for free to put with my dress along with the veil. As we got married in March, the weather was a little chilly, so the little jacket was perfect and went so well with the dress.
Fun fact: I wasn’t actually going to wear a veil; I was quite sure that a veil was not for me. But as it happened, after trying on one with my dress, I don’t think I could have imagined myself not wearing one! A wedding dress shopping tip: I highly recommend trying on a veil and all types of length of veils, as for my dress, I personally felt that the long veil matched perfectly and a veil seemed to just complete the look!
Now, when it comes to dresses, I find that I end up with all different sizes. Sometimes a dress will fit round my middle, but it won’t fit at the back! But the assistants were so incredibly helpful. I was personally expecting to probably end up with a size 16, but my dress ended up being a size 14. So, I definitely recommend trying all different types and sizes of dresses, as you just never know.
I also got a couple of little extras whilst I was there. You may have seen that I wore a belt around my dress. Now I kind of did things a little bit differently with the belt. Technically it shouldn’t be a belt that goes all the way around the dress, it’s actually a very pretty detail that can be sewn onto the front of your dress, which they have someone that does this along with all the alterations. But as it happened, as I was trying it on to see what it looked like, we actually all agreed that it looked so pretty just as a belt, with the ribbon attached to it still and done up in a bow at the back! I felt that it just added that something extra to my dress, and as it happened, I ended up taking the belt off after our wedding at the venue anyway! So it kind of gave the dress two different looks in a way. I think with the jacket, it gave the dress a couple of different looks too, especially as it was quite warm at the venue anyway.
The second little extra I got was the hair twine which you may be able to see in the photos. Although I wore a veil, Liz, who did my hair and makeup, did my hair so beautifully and the hair twine and veil went so well together. Originally we were going to put my veil clip underneath the hair twine, but as I have quite fine hair, clips, hair bobbles etc. do tend to sometimes work their way out of my hair quite easily! So Liz put the veil clip on top of the hair twine, but I personally think that you can still see the hair twine really well and I definitely feel they are a good combination, if that’s something that you are thinking of having or wondering if the two will go together. Plus as it happened, it was a very windy Lincolnshire day, so thankfully where Liz had placed the veil clip, it held in my hair very well!
After I had chosen my dress, the assistant brought over a little memory pouch, to see if I would like one sewn on the inside underneath my dress. I didn’t realise you could get a little pouch to put on the inside of a wedding dress, and it’s honestly such a wonderful thing to have sewn on. In October last year, my nan sadly passed away. She was really looking forward to our wedding and coming to our wedding and for all the planning too. So this little memory pouch meant that I could place a tiny recent photo of my nan into it, to keep with me all throughout our wedding day. It’s also the perfect size for if you want to place a few little photos in or even small objects. Although we did have some laughs trying to find the little pouch underneath all the layers of my dress! You can see the look of concentration on my husband’s face as he’s trying to find it! I could definitely picture my Nan laughing along with us as we were trying to find it (I must mention that we both decided long before our wedding that we were going to get ready together. Which was so wonderful and special).
Definitely the experience of choosing my wedding dress was a very important factor for me. At Heart Brides, they were extremely helpful, patient, kind and helped with any questions and any thoughts that I had, and it was overall an amazing experience. So good that I was able to find and purchase my dress on the same day. I also really loved that I didn’t have to order a dress, I was able to just go straight there and choose a dress that would become my wedding dress. I honestly don’t think I would have wanted my wedding dress shopping experience to have been any other way.
Please feel free to ask me any questions that you may have about choosing a wedding dress, or if there is anything else you would like to know about my dress.
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