Evelyn Briar

But where do you even begin? Shopping for your dream dress can feel like a daunting task. You may be thinking “Where do I start?,” “What do I need?,” and “When should I order my gown?” I can help with that!

“Where do I start?”

It’s as easy as 1… 2… 3…
1. Start planning
2. Research Local Shoppes
3. Schedule your appointments

Well that sounds easy enough but what does it really mean?

 Start Planning! You'll need a few things to get started. 

A new and organized Pinterest board for each theme.
"But Evelyn, I have a wedding board I've been dreaming about my wedding since... well... forever." That's great! but I'm sure that, like my first inspo-board, yours is chock full of competing ideas. Don't worry, you're still going to use the original board, just  not quite yet. 
I named my board "Our Actual Wedding," reeeaaal original, right? then I created sections for: 
My Wedding Gown
Hair and Make Up
Bridesmaids Dresses
Mother's Dresses
The Groom
Groomsmen and Dads
Invitations, Signage, and other paper products
The Cake
The Bouquet
Flowers
Ceremony
Reception
Menu/Food Ideas
Once you're all set up, it's time to scroll through that original wedding board you had. Are you seeing a theme or vibe that you're drawn to more than other ideas you saved? For me, there was a very glamorous, formal, and fairy-tale like quality to the attire, but a moody, elevated rustic glamour to the decor. At the time there wasn't a name for it, now it's called Castle-core, or well it mostly fits that name. When you identify what you are most drawn to, start pinning or rather re-pinning to the new boards appropriate section! 

A Wedding Planner, and no, I don't mean the person (but man, are they helpful.)
This was a physical paper planner, for me. If you use a planner in your everyday life, great! You have a head-start on knowing what format you prefer. However, you're going to keep the wedding planner separate. Trust me, it gets overwhelming if you don't. In my daily life I use a combination of a physical planner as well as a digital planner. This helps with balancing work and home life by tracking important information with great detail in the physical planner but also having that digital reminder on the home screen of my phone. Let's be honest, if I'm not actively looking at my planner, it's easy to miss something important- this is where the digital back up plan started. 
For my physical planner I prefer an a5 - 6 ring binder I have this one for my daily planner and this one for my wedding planner, both are from Erin Condren. 
For the wedding planner inserts, I recommend something like this one from Etsy. So you can reprint pages if you need to make changes and can print as many seating charts or budget sheets as you need. 
For my digital planner, I prefer TimeTree. With TimeTree, I can make several calendars. One for wedding planning, which you can add all of your bridesmaids to. One for my work life, for just me. A calendar for my home life for doctors appointments, birthdays,  date-nights and more, which I added my spouse to. These calendars can be viewed and organized separately, keeping groups of people to their pertinent information, but conveniently keep everything tracked on one screen for you under "All Calendars". and bonus! you can color code EVERYTHING, with up to ten categories per calender. 
I have a more in depth post about your perfect wedding planner coming soon.

2. Research Local Bridal Shoppes
Exactly what it sounds like, Google search for bridal shops and stores in your area. Read reviews. Check out their websites to see what designers they carry, and scroll through the designer sites for inspiration! This will give you a realistic idea of what might be available to try on. Emphasis on might, every store will not carry every design from a bridal collection. However, you can get a good feel for what the designers they carry are like and the vibe of the store. I found this more helpful that just using Pinterest because you can't fall in love with a discontinued dress by accident. That might have just been a me thing. If you find something you like, save it to your Wedding Gown inspiration section of your Pinterest board. Which we will revisit later.

3. That's it, for now. You're ready to schedule your appointments!
List the shops you researched from most to least favorites and go down the list scheduling your appointments! Don't cram too many into one day, you don't want to overwhelm yourself or feel rushed. And don't be afraid to say yes to the dress early on. sometimes you just get lucky! I have had several brides come through, who LOVED the very first dress, but need to 'just make sure' - most came back and purchased that first dress they tried on and fell in love with.