One of the first things you think of when you start planning your wedding is the dress, and for good reason: all eyes will be on you all day, so you want to wear something that not only suits your unique style but makes you feel absolutely beautiful. While finding your dream wedding dress is a fun process, a lot of brides don’t realize just how long special ordering a wedding dress can take. To give you a better idea of what to expect when ordering your dress, we’re giving you a breakdown of a typical wedding dress timeline.
After You Get Engaged
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Once the initial excitement of getting engaged calms down a bit and you begin planning your wedding, you’ll need to make an appointment to find your dream wedding dress as early as possible so you have some wiggle room to find the one. We recommend waiting until you’ve pinned down a venue, so that you’ll be able to picture yourself in the dress at your venue. This also helps you narrow down what style you may want: if you’re planning a beach wedding, you’ll likely want a much different dress than if you were planning a traditional church ceremony.
9 Months Before Your Wedding
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Purchasing your dress 9 months out from your wedding date may seem long, but when you purchase your wedding dress, it’s made to order. Every embellishment, carefully placed pleat, and tiniest detail has to be sewn, and the process takes a lot of time—especially for designers who order their materials from around the globe and need to wait on certain high-end laces or crystals to come in for your dress. So yes, a long wait—but well worth the quality.
Fittings
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Once your dress comes in, you’ll need 6-8 weeks for fittings. You’ll have at least three fittings to ensure everything is fitting exactly as it should. The first fitting, about 6-8 weeks out, takes care of any major adjustments (think: tightening a strap, hemming your skirt, etc), and every bride will make minor adjustments at this point. You’ll come back again 4 weeks before the wedding, then 2 weeks prior, to finish making any minor adjustments necessary so that you have a gown that fits you perfectly.
Realizing you need to book an appointment to find the perfect wedding dress sooner than you expected? Book an appointment at The Ultimate, and let our dedicated staff help you find the perfect wedding dress in time for your wedding!