Wedding dress shopping can be hard. You've had the dream dress in your mind since you were five years old yet when you stand in front of a mirror it just doesn't suit your shape. And bridesmaids can be even harder! Not only do you have to find a dress to suit one body shape but multiple.
Here at Forever&Always we spoke to a collection of brides and bridal wear specialists on how to overcome body shapes in your bridal and bridesmaid dress shopping.
Bride-to-be Anna Newell, 23, was shown a dress online with long sleeves and lace but when it came to trying it on it just wasn't right for her body shape. She said: "I just didn’t suit it. I needed something simple to make me look not as short."
One solution to body shape in bridal gowns could be to get a custom made one.
Owner of Special Occasions bridal wear in Sunderland, Lynne Humphrey, 63 said: "Because I pattern cut and design for the girl [body shape] is not really an issue. Girls who are buying off the peg do struggle. We also do alterations on dresses that people have bought off the peg so we make them fit."
Discussing bridesmaids dresses Lynne said: "What is very popular now are for brides to have more than one style of bridesmaid's dress but all in the same colour. You can suit every body shape but the colours aren't different."
Vanessa Faye, 24, did this for her bridesmaids at her wedding. She said: "I had eight adult bridesmaids. I knew I didn’t want the same dress for every girl for a number of reasons.
1. Because each of them needed something to suit them and not a generic dress that would be tough to alter to their shape.
2. I just didn’t want the same dress for each of them, I fancied a mixture of textures and styles and even tones just to tie in with the theme of my wedding.
3. For each of their personalities.
Vanessa found a range of dresses she fell in love with. She said: "They are all different after all - they all looked stunning I was really pleased with they way the all looked, they all felt amazing and comfortable and in turn looked amazing too!"
Vanessa is pictured with her eight bridesmaids below.
How has body shapes impacted your dress shopping? Let us know by tweeting us here.
