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Wedding dress shopping is one of the most exciting moments any bride awaits. You’ve been scheduling wedding meetings, booking venues, designing invitation cards, etc. Now, you must be excited about meeting your dream wedding gown. But while you do, it would be best to avoid these common mistakes brides make while shopping wedding dresses.
We have been dressing brides for 21 years. Those are countless brides we’ve helped find their dream gowns in Uganda and Kenya. Over the years, we’ve consistently faced the same challenges while helping these brides. So today, we’ve created this wedding dress guide to point out some of the mistakes we have seen brides make while shopping for their gowns. Take a look at these mistakes below:
1. Shopping from internet pictures
This is one of the most common mistakes you should avoid while shopping a wedding dress. It's okay to scheme through a few wedding gown pictures to get an idea of your dream wedding dress. Actually, that helps your bridal consultant to know the kind of dress you want. However, don't be too rigid and stick to that exact gown in the internet pictures because a thousand of other gowns exist.
So many brides come to our bridal shop in Uganda and Kenya with Instagram pictures of models wrapped in those high-end wedding gowns. They assume that once they get the same gown, they will look the same way as the model in the pictures.
We always advise the brides we dress to try on the wedding gown before they decide. This is because models in those pictures have different body features than you. For instance, height, size, skin complexion, makeup, and the gown's fitting.
All these aspects contribute to how the final picture looks like. If you chose a gown just because of the Instagram images you saw, you might likely select the wrong gown that doesn't perfectly suit you.
2. Unrealistic Budget for a Dream Gown
Often brides come to us with an already made-up mind about their dream gowns before knowing the actual price. Hence, they are specific on the type of gown they want. However, you will feel disappointed after noticing that your dream gown costs way higher than your budget.
For that case, we recommend setting a realistic budget for your dream gown before you come for shopping. It would also help if you kindly communicated your budget to us before being too specific.
There are thousands of wedding gowns at all our bridal shops in Kenya (Nairobi) and Uganda (Kampala) with different price ranges. Hence, we can help you find the perfect gown without breaking the bank.
3. Judging a dress on its hunger
On the other hand, some brides come without a specific grown type, and they request we take them through thousands of gowns at our bridal shop so they can choose the best outfit, which is okay. Actually, we recommend this.
However, challenges arise when brides reject every gown on the hunger before trying them on.
Firstly, you can only know which gown is best for you once you try it, feel the details, and the embellishments. Secondly, you probably don’t know how the dress looks on the body. And we do. Trust our bridal consultants when they suggest a wedding dress for you to try on. Note that you might have to try several of them before finding your dream gown!
4. Too excited about other Wedding Gown Options
In addition to shopping from internet pictures and having unrealistic budgets, many brides are too excited about the endless options of wedding gowns on the market. For instance, after realizing their dream gowns are way beyond their budgets, some brides resort to other vendors who sell identical dresses cheaply.
However, by doing this, you’re compromising the quality and authenticity of your dream wedding gown for a cheaper fee. You might feel relieved; however, there are consequences.
The downside is that you will invest more than you should have for the same dress (cheap is expensive). For example, you might have not considered the shipping fee, taxes, and washing fees where necessary. Additionally, you will end up buying a duplicate wedding gown.
To avoid all that mess towards your most melodious day, don’t be swayed by low priced gowns. Have an idea why some gowns cost higher than others. Also, you can ask our bridals consultants at our shops Uganda and Kenya for guidance. They will tell you everything that goes into the cost of a Wedding dress. For instance, the fabric details, hand-placed embellishments, etc.
5. Having unrealistic expectations
It’s okay to have expectations that can be achieved. However, unrealistic ones hurt at the end of the day. For instance, brides choose wedding gowns because they saw someone else (most probably celebrities) rocking in them. Unfortunately, such wedding dresses are too expensive, and you would feel like we are overpricing them.
A wedding gown should be personal. So, have an individual basis while choosing your dream gown. Don’t worry about quality and authenticity. All our wedding dresses come from official designers in the USA and Europe. Once you have selected your gown, the original designer will customize it and incorporate your special requests. Also, it comes with a certificate of authenticity from the official designer that affirms the dress is original and of high quality.
Conclusion
These are some of the mistakes you should avoid while shopping your wedding dress. We hope this guide will help you shop better for your most important day. If you need more information, please book a fitting appointment to have a detailed talk with one of our bridal experts. See you soon as we help you find your dream wedding gown!