I’m getting married in May to my beloved Cornel in England. I moved to England 3 months ago and have been planning my own wedding in the same time as I work as a wedding and portrait photographer.

Last week my mum was visiting me and Cornel. My little sister had a nasty cold so she stayed home in Sweden. My mum came to visit because I needed help to find my wedding dress. I had two places to go and we went to the first place where I thought I might find THE dress.

We had a quite hectic morning me and my mum. We arrived at the store and got help by a lovely Scottish woman. I picked three different dresses, I pretty knew what I wanted but I was not sure how it would look because I have never tired on a wedding dress before!

The first dress that I saw and picked out (out of three dresses I tried on) was the one I bought the same day! 1,5 hour I tried all the dresses that I liked and then thought about it before I decided to go for it with the first dress!

I will not show or give too much away about my own wedding dress but I learned some valuable lessons. And as a wedding photographer going through planning my own wedding, I have a whole new understanding for my brides!

1.  Do your research about different shapes of wedding dresses. This helped me a lot to be able to explain what I was looking for and also see what works for my body type. (Don’t forget to wear a strapless bra in white or nude!)
2. Don’t try on too many dresses, there it is a lot of beautiful dresses and it easy to get confused what you want. Less is more! Try on 3-4 dresses first.
3. When you try on 3-4 dresses, try to keep in the same shape you want but one without straps, heart neckline, sleeves etc. I’m not going to discuss the material, because there is A LOT of them!
4. We say that you decided that the shape of the dress is not for you, then choose 3-4 dresses with another shape, with sleeves, heart neckline etc. This helped me to decide what shape I liked or disliked.
5.  If you love one dress but you are not sure, try on with a beautiful belt or a veil. This helps a lot to see how you can change a dress and make it yours. Some dresses need a underskirt, this is also very good to try with and without just to see how the dress falls.
6. Can you sit? Can you dance? Can you walk in it?! Test the dress because remember you need to feel comfortable and be able to sit! It’s a long day and you want to move freely! (At least I want to!)
7. Have someone taking picture of you in the different dresses, from the back, from the side, the front and a close up. This helps a lot to see how you look on picture even if it just through a smartphone camera.
8. Don’t stress, take your time, think about it, don’t buy if you don’t love it or feel anything about your dress. You are going to wear it once on one of your biggest day of your life! I pretty knew what I wanted before I went to the store, I didn’t have any expectations that I actually would find my dress! I was very happy and little bit in shock that I actually found my dress!
9. Have a clear budget, a minimum and a maximum what you want to spend, so you know what you can work with and do pros and cons when it comes to the price. (Don’t forget to include the accessories in the budget!) For me I wanted something not too expensive because I don’t want to think about how expensive the dress if I need to walk through a field of wheat to be able to take the wedding pictures I want to have in our album! I’m very happy about the amount I spent on the wedding dress. AND I’m happy that I didn’t fell in love with a dress out of my budget! ( I didn’t even tried on a dress that was not in my budget).
10.  When I tried on my wedding dress, I felt beautiful. I was surprised that I chose the wedding dress I did. But honestly it is the dress I have been dreaming of when I was a young girl. The dress I want to marry my handsome fiancé. The dress I want to look at on our wedding pictures to come. The dress I want my kids asking me about and how I felt about it. The dress that makes me feel like a woman, marrying her dream man that she has been praying so long for. The dress is the one I want to dance in, laugh in, cry in and hug my loved ones in. I want to be able to pick up my nephews and niece in and dance with them. My biggest tip is to choose something that you love. Of course, I was thinking what my fiancé will think, but I think he cares more about how I feel about it and I know he will love to see me in my wedding dress. Don’t think about everyone else and what they want to see you in. It’s your day and your future to be. It is you wearing the dress, not the dress wearing you! Don’t second guess yourself, it can make any person crazy of all the selections of wedding dresses there is! Be confident and enjoy your dress!

 

After buying my dress, me and my mum celebrated with tea and cake! It was a lovely day and I’m so happy that I had my mum here!