It was almost 7 years ago when I was newly engaged and searching for a wedding dress of my own! I tried on ONE dress and bought it that day! ONE!! That was my first mistake! Why didn’t I try on more than one just for FUN?! I was weird I guess! That’s a post for another time. What I want to focus on today are OPTIONS. When I was thinking about this post I worried that my words would come across wrong and so I have a few disclaimers I would love to share before I continue!
– I don’t dislike strapless wedding dresses! I LOVE them! My very own wedding dress was strapless!!!
– Every bride needs to select a dress that they feel 110% confident in and my goal of this post is to educate and encourage brides to be open to ALL dress options!
– I love ALL of our bride’s dresses because I love our BRIDES!! So this post isn’t about what Katelyn doesn’t like, it’s about sharing and educating on a topic that I don’t hear mentioned very often!
So, lets be honest and talk about strapless dresses. They are gorgeous!! I LOVED my wedding dress. However, when you have a strapless wedding dress, you have a few extra concerns to consider:
– Tighter than Others : Strapless wedding dresses are usually a lot TIGHTER throughout the chest and waist. If there are no straps, the dress has to be held up somehow and it needs to be secure! So naturally, it has to be significantly tighter than a non-strapless dress.
– Beware of Bending Over & certain arm movements : I learned this by my own wedding dress experience! During one of my fittings I had my dress on and I leaned over to grab something and my mom said “Whoa! We have to fix that!”. We tightened the dress under my arms in order to avoid the top gaping open whenever I would lean over! This meant that my dress had minimal breathing room… until I started sweating a little…. which leads me to my next point.
– Sweat = Stretch : Your dress should fit perfectly at your fittings, however, you have to realize that your dress WILL stretch a little bit once you start dancing the night away. If this happens, you want to make sure you’re not having to dance AND hold your dress up at the same time! That’s too much for you to worry about! You need to be having fun!
– Body Types : Strapless dresses usually work best for brides with average to smaller chests and higher chests. This isn’t always true though! I’ve see so many gorgeous strapless dresses that look amazing on those who have larger chests. However, I’ve also noticed that if you have a lower chest, you may want a dress that connects your shoulder area to your chest area instead of having a large amount of open skin.
Again, strapless is not BAD! I love photographing gorgeous strapless gowns! However I want to encourage brides out there that there are SO many options for you!! I WISH that I had taken the time to try on some other options just to see what I really loved. Back in 2010, most brides wore strapless and so I never even considered having straps of ANY kind!!! I kinda wish that wasn’t the case because there are several things that I absolutely LOVE about non-strapless dresses! :
non strapless dresses…..
– Are easier to sit in
– Are easier to bend over in
– Don’t require as much adjusting/pulling up throughout the day
– So classy! Especially with lace sleeves! ah!
– Photograph better on the hanger during detail time!
So! If you’re a bride who has been on the fence about the style of your dress, maybe now you’ll try on a few non-strapless dresses just to see if you like them! If you’re a bride who has a strapless dress, you’re going to look amazing!! I LOVED my strapless gown! I paid a whopping $350 for my wedding dress and I loved it! … If only I could still fit in it!!! #goals. Be sure, no matter what, that you feel like yourself in your dress. Don’t go trendy if you’re classic…. don’t go ball gown if you’re more simple and don’t go strapless if you really LOVE the look of sleeves!!! There are so many options out there!! Look around, take your time and try on a TON of gowns! I mean, you only get to try on wedding dresses once in your life! You might as well take advantage of this season of life and have fun!!!
Thanks for reading!
— Katelyn
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