How to Avoid Dress Regret
How to Avoid Wedding Dress Regret
Okay, let’s talk about dress regret, because yes, it’s a real thing. Wedding dress regret is basically when you buy your wedding dress, go home, and start wondering, Wait... did I choose the wrong one? It’s probably one of the biggest fears we hear from brides when they’re shopping.
The funny thing is, avoiding dress regret actually starts before you say yes, and arguably before you even start trying on dresses.
Wedding dress shopping is this weird combination of emotional and logical. You’re making a big purchase, there are a million options, everyone has an opinion, and you’ve probably already spent months seeing wedding dresses online before you ever walk into a bridal shop. You may still have a moment of second-guessing after you buy your dress, because you’re human and it’s a big decision. But there are a few things you can do from the beginning that make dress regret a whole lot less likely.
#1 Stop Trying to Find The Dress on Pinterest
We love Pinterest. It’s SO helpful for figuring out your general wedding dress vibe and showing your stylist what catches your eye. I like flowy skirts. I love a cool back. I want a long train. All of that is genuinely helpful information.
Where Pinterest becomes unhelpful is when you find one specific dress and decide you need to find something exactly like it.
There are some pretty unrealistic wedding dresses floating around online. Super couture $20,000 gowns go viral on Pinterest all the time, and brides understandably fall in love with them without realizing what they’re looking at or what that dress actually costs. And we won’t even open the can of worms that is AI-generated wedding dresses, because that is a whole other conversation.
So use Pinterest to notice patterns instead. Maybe almost everything you save has a flowy skirt, or you keep coming back to interesting backs or long trains. Bring those ideas with you, but give yourself permission to be surprised once you start actually trying dresses on.
Brides come into Bella all the time convinced they want one thing and end up falling in love with something completely different. If you’re open-minded about what you try on, you’re able to choose a dress based on how you actually feel in it, rather than how closely it matches a picture you saved months ago. That is a much better place to make your decision from.
#2 Know Your Wedding Dress Budget
I knowwww, this sounds obvious, but it is suuuuper important.
Before you start shopping, have a real conversation with whoever is paying for the dress and decide what you’re actually comfortable spending. Then tell your stylist. At Bella Brides, we won’t ever pull something over your budget without talking to you about it first.
And please, please don’t try on dresses outside of your budget. Once you see the $8,500 dress, you can’t unsee the $8,500 dress. Suddenly you’re comparing the $2,000 dresses you could actually take home to a dress that was never really an option in the first place. This can be extremely confusing and disappointing.
There are beautiful wedding dresses at all different price points. Give yourself the chance to fall in love with one that you can also feel good about buying.
#3 Be Intentional About Who You Bring With You
Your people love you and they have the very best intentions. But wedding dresses are incredibly personal, and sometimes the people who know you best have a hard time separating what they pictured you wearing from what you actually love.
You can be standing in a dress feeling absolutely incredible, and then someone says, “Hmm... I just pictured you in something different.” Suddenly, you’re questioning something you loved 30 seconds ago.
Your dress doesn’t have to be everyone’s favorite dress. It has to be your favorite dress.
#4 Don’t Wait for the Reaction You Think You’re Supposed to Have
Not everyone cries when they find their wedding dress. Some brides absolutely do. Some laugh, some get really quiet, some immediately say, “Yep, this is it,” and some need to stand there for a minute before it really sinks in.
There is no correct reaction to finding your wedding dress, and not crying definitely doesn’t mean you haven’t found it.
One thing we do at Bella Brides is keep your favorite dresses aside throughout your appointment so you can come back to them. The first time you put a dress on, you’re usually looking at all the little things. Do I like this neckline? How do I feel about the skirt? Do I like this more than the last one?
The second time you put it on tends to feel different because you already know you like the dress. Now you get to pay attention to how you actually feel in it. Do you feel beautiful? Do you feel like yourself? Can you picture yourself wearing it on your wedding day? Do you maybe just... not really want to take it off? Those things tell us a whole lot more than whether or not you cried.
#5 Do You Really Need to “Sleep On It”?
Sometimes, yes. But you don’t need to just because sleeping on it seems like the responsible thing to do. Or because the internet told you that you should. We see many, many more brides that shop themselves into confusion and decision paralysis than brides who actually regret their dress choice.
If you’re wondering whether you’re actually ready to say yes, do a gut check:
✓ I feel beautiful. ✓ I feel confident. ✓ I feel like myself. ✓ I feel like a bride. ✓ I like everything about this dress. ✓ I keep comparing every other dress to this dress. ✓ I don’t want to take it off. If you’re checking all of those boxes, you might simply have found your dress.
There are, however, some really good reasons to give yourself more time:
✓ There’s something about the dress you don’t love. Maybe you wish the neckline were different, you’re unsure about the fabric, or there’s something that keeps bothering you. ✓ You’re truly stuck between two dresses at two different stores. If you can’t put them on back-to-back and compare them, a little space can help you figure out which one you keep thinking about. Protip: Make a follow up appointment at each shop back-to-back on a different day. This gives you a moment to reset and see only your top two dresses that day. ✓ Your decision depends on a customization that hasn’t been confirmed. If you only love the dress with a specific change and your stylist needs to confirm with the designer that it can actually be done, wait for the answer. You don’t want to buy a dress based on a maybe.
Basically, sleeping on it is helpful when there’s an actual question you need answered. If nothing is holding you back, you love how you look and feel, you keep comparing everything else to this dress, and you really don’t want to take it off, you may already have your answer.
#6 Once You Find Your Dress, Stop Shopping
This might be the hardest one, especially when your entire Instagram and Pinterest algorithm has figured out that you’re getting married.
Once you’ve found your dress, do your best to stop shopping for wedding dresses. There are literally millions of dresses in the world, and of course you’re going to see another one you think is beautiful. That doesn’t mean you chose the wrong one. It just means there are lots of beautiful wedding dresses in the world.
You probably can’t completely unsubscribe from the wedding algorithm, but you can stop intentionally searching for dresses. And here’s our slightly hot take: delete the photos of the dresses you didn’t choose.
It is way too easy to look through your camera roll six months later, find one randomly great photo of a dress, and think, Wait... why didn’t I like that one?
But remember, you were there. You saw that dress from every angle. You walked around in it. You knew how it felt on your body. You compared it to your other favorites. There was a reason you didn’t choose it, even if one random photo looks really good months later.
And really, that’s the biggest thing we want brides to remember about dress regret. There isn’t one objectively perfect wedding dress hiding somewhere in the world that you have to find. You’re looking for a dress that makes you feel beautiful, confident, like yourself, and excited to get married. When you find that dress, trust the decision you made, stop looking for something better, and let yourself be excited about what you chose.
All photos graciously provided by MOT Photography and Bridget and Ryan Photography
(PS. they are both amazing)
Still researching? Read more helpful resources below!
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A guide to the full Bella experience
A guide to what to bring and what not to
A guide to what you get for your money
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