Your Bridal Appointment Start-to-Finish

The Bella Brides Experience Start-to-Finish

Wedding dress shopping is so different than anything else, and it’s hard to know know what exactly to expect. There is so much more to finding your wedding dress than the purchase. Below is a full guide to what to expect before, during, and after your bridal appointment.

Booking

From the moment you book your appointment, we are busy preparing for you! A stylist will reach out to you to connect about how you’re feeling about dress shopping, your dress vision, and logistics like timeframe, what to bring, and pricing.

We’ll also send you our stress-saving resource guides:

• How to Prep for Your Bridal Appointment

• How to Choose Your Wedding Dress Budget

• What to Bring to Your Bridal Appointment

• Should I Sleep On It? A Guide to Avoiding Dress Regret

Your Appointment

Welcome to your Bella Brides experience! Our entrance is marked with a large flower mural and a pink door, so when you see that you’ll know you’re in the right place. You’ll walk up a large staircase lined with photos of real Bella Brides. At the top of the stairs you’ll find our waiting room where you can check in for your appointment and wait until your room is ready. Once it’s ready, your stylist will greet you and show you to your bridal suite! Panoramic windows line all sides of our shop, letting natural light pour in so you actually know what your dress will look like at your wedding. Overlooking downtown Bend, you and your people get to browse the shop, and touch and feel the dresses.

Your stylist will ask you some questions about your wedding, dress vision and your budget so she can better understand your taste and what timeline you are working with. Our stylists are knowledgeable and fun, but most importantly, down-to-earth. We are not snooty fashion people, and we pride ourselves on that! This process should be easy and fun, not scary and nerve-racking. We are here to lead you through what seems like a big purchase, but turns out to be a life moment. If you don’t have a dress vision, no worries! Some brides find it helpful to look on our social media, website, or explore Pinterest to see what kinds of dresses they are interested in trying on, but that is not necessary if you don’t want! If you want to wait until your appointment to see what styles you like, that’s okay too!

When you are thinking about your dress budget, remember to make a separate budget for alterations! Alterations are a normal part of the wedding dress process, and will be needed for any dress you buy, even if you special order one. When your stylist asks for your wedding dress budget, we assume that that number is your budget for your dress, not including alterations. Check out our resource on how to set your wedding dress budget here!

Once she has an idea of your vision and budget, it’s time to start looking at dresses! We have two ways to shop here: off-the-rack or special order. Depending on your budget and timeline, one of the options may work better for you. We have a large variety of dresses, around 200-250 at any given time, but we will have one size per dress (ranging from size 2-28) so that all brides have an opportunity to try on dresses in their size. Your stylist is trained to use clamps or extenders to give you an idea of what the dress will look like if is is ordered in your size or after alterations. So don’t worry about not being able to try on dresses in your size, because we can help you envision it! As you learn what you like and don’t like, your stylist will evolve your collection until you have a handful of favorites.

At the end of your appointment your stylist will have you try on your favorites back-to-back, maybe adding a veil or bridal scarf to help you envision more of what it will feel like on your wedding day. Some brides want to go back and forth, back and forth, between a couple dresses and that is completely normal! Whatever your process, it’s that gut feeling you listen to. At some point in your dress shopping experience, you will have one that you keep thinking about over and over and you won’t want to take it off when it’s on. Some people cry, some people laugh, some people stand in the mirror and just know. But when you have that feeling, that voice in the back of your head, and that little feeling in your gut, that’s when you know. Once you say yes to your dress, you get to celebrate and take your “yes” picture in front of the Bella Brides neon!

After you find your dress

Once you say yes, your stylist will walk you through measuring, sizing, and ordering. We have two ways to shop in our store so that you are covered no matter what the timeline. You can either take a dress directly from our collection off-the-rack, or you can special order your dress if you need a different size or color.

Most brides pay in full at the time of their appointment, but we do also offer payment plans for up to 6 months for a small fee. If you pay in full and you choose a dress directly from our collection, you get to take your dress home same day!! Special order dresses can take up to 6 months to come in. But don’t worry, we text you a dress update every month on how your girl is doing in production.

When your dress arrives

When your dress arrives, you will come back in to try her on! This is your chance to complete your look with veils or jewelry. We will also talk time frames and recommendations for alterations. Because we have so many brides that travel to see us, we do not have alterations in-house, but don’t worry, we definitely have recommendations for you.

Your stylist will then help you with the final logistics of your dress. We will make a plan for steaming your wedding dress the week of your wedding, and make a plan for cleaning + preserving it afterwards.

After your wedding

Your dress will be dirty, like really dirty, especially if you get married outside. Don’t worry, this is completely normal, and our cleaning and preservation process will get every speck out. Just pop your dress by any time after your wedding, and we’ll take care of the whole process.

Because we care deeply about each and every bride, we would be so honored to add your wedding photo to our bride wall in our entry way and brag about you on social media. You can email your wedding gallery to us, and you will forever be a part of our shop!

All photos graciously provided by MOT Photography (PS. he’s amazing)