From how to prepare for your appointment to how to know you’ve found ‘the one’…

If you’re reading this article, the likelihood is you – or someone close to you – is getting married. So first up, congratulations. There’s lots to consider when planning your wedding in Dubai, and among the top of the bridal to-do list is finding the perfect wedding dress.

There’s something understandably daunting about choosing an outfit for one of the biggest days of your life, but luckily if you’re a Dubai-based bride there are a string of fabulous bridal boutiques where you can shop for your dream dress.

But before you get there, there’s several ways you can prepare for wedding dress shopping. To help you get ready to say ‘I do’ to the dress, we asked Nicole Elia, Operation Manager of renowned bridal boutique  Esposa Group for the best ways to get prepped.

What are your 3 top tips for brides to be heading to their first appointment?

Definitely keep an open mind! Do not stay fixated on one design and try on more options and styles. I’d also recommend listening to your bridal consultant, she’s here to help you. Lastly, be sure to allocate a fixed budget for your wedding dress. This will help you narrow down your options and will make the rest of the planning easier on you.

How can a bride prepare for her first wedding dress appointment? 

When it comes to wedding dress shopping, it’s ideal to start the journey between 6 to 8 months prior to the wedding date. Before booking her appointment though, it’s important that she does her research so she doesn’t go into the journey blind. This way she can get a sense of what she likes in terms of silhouettes, cuts, embellishments and color. Once she has this ready, she’s good to go.

What 3 questions should she ask?

If I had to pick only three, I’d say:

  • What’s the ideal silhouette for her body type?
  • Does she want to purchase or rent a wedding dress?
  • How much of her wedding budget is she willing to allocate to her dream dress?

These questions will help her put everything into perspective and make her bridal shopping journey much easier and a lot smoother.

What is the thing that surprises people the most when they come to an Esposa appointment?

A bridal appointment at Esposa is special in many ways, as the bride will get the ultimate bridal treatment. The best part though is the wide collection of wedding dresses available in our showrooms, which caters to all styles and tastes.

What are the options with Esposa and Esposa Prive? What are the differences?

Within Esposa Group we have two concepts: Esposa Privé, luxury stores where you can buy designer dresses from the likes of Monique Lhuillier, Vera Wang, Viktor and Rolf, Marchesa and Esposa Privé, our own couture brand; and Esposa, our accessible multi-brand stores that feature wedding and soirée collections as well as our own couture brand, Plume by Esposa, designed by Kristie Romanos.

In Dubai, brides can visit Esposa Privé on Al Wasl Road to purchase the perfect dress, or Esposa rental store in Jumeirah 1 if you’re keen to try on a wide range of more accessible dresses and rent one, rather than buy.

How many dresses would you recommend someone tries? 

There’s no recommended number of wedding dresses a bride-to-be should try on. Whether she tries on 2 wedding dresses or a dozen, one specific wedding dress will trigger her bridal emotions, telling her that she has found the one.

esposagroup.com

Lead image: Katelyn MacMillan/ Unsplash