Wedding
DRESS FITTING 101
ONE APPOINTMENT THAT SHOULDN'T LEAVE YOU FIT TO BE TIED
BY MIRANDA LIGHTSTONE
Alright, so you’ve found your wedding gown. Kudos to you! Finding
the perfect wedding dress to fit your style, personality, wedding
locale and budget is not an easy thing. Often, the dress is the
hardest piece of the wedding puzzle and brides agonize over this
purchase for months, sometimes even years. So, congratulations
on checking that one off the list.
But it’s not over just yet... Sure, you’ve purchased the gown and
ordered the size, but now you are eagerly awaiting your first fitting.
And that’s when the panic usually sets in.
Your first fitting shouldn’t be stressful, but it often is.
Why? Brides tend to either forget what their dress looked
like to begin with (and so they doubt their choice) or it’s
a weight issue (have I gained, or have I lost?) or it’s just
general anxiety of “Did I make the right decision?” thoughts.
So, let’s put some of those restless thoughts to rest right now.
FIRST AND FOREMOST
Do not order your wedding dress a few sizes smaller than you
normally wear on the street. Wedding dresses are made small.
26
2016
Generally, wedding dress sizes run 2-3 sizes larger than you would
normally wear. So, if you’re a size 4 and you’re told you need a size
7 wedding gown, now is not the time to become an anorexic, nor
is it wise to order your gown in a size 4 because that’s what you
always wear. This will only end in disaster. No one is looking at the
size tag of your wedding gown, what they will be looking at is how
you can’t breathe or sit down because you ordered a gown that
was clearly too small.
Ordering a gown a few sizes smaller than you should to prompt
yourself to work out and lose weight is also a poor judgment
call. Women often feel they need motivation to lose weight, and
I have to agree. A big event, a pair of jeans we’ve been dying to
get back into, a sickness we want to overcome… I get it, I really
do. But stressing yourself out over a gown you know you won’t fit
into unless you lose 20 lbs in 11 months is not going to make your
wedding planning and prepping any easier.
NOW, ABOUT THOSE FOLLOW-UP FITTINGS...
Seamstresses can be pushy. It’s not a universal fact, but it seems
to generally be the case. They know their trade and you don’t,
therefore if they tell you something needs to be pinned, sewn or