What to expect at your first wedding dress appointment

The time has come to find your perfect wedding dress, and we can’t wait to help you! Whether you’re feeling a little nervous about the process ahead or you’re filled with excitement and raring to go, you’ll find the team at ACB will make sure you feel happy and comfortable throughout.

Shopping for your dream wedding gown is a very special part of your wedding journey, so we want your experience with us to be enjoyable from start to finish. In this blog, we’ll run through what you should expect from your first wedding dress appointment so you come feeling prepared and ready to savour every moment!

What is a wedding dress appointment?

Your visit to our bridal boutique is an exciting event! Whether you’ve visited other shops before or you’re trying on a wedding dress for the first time, your wedding dress appointment (also called a bridal appointment), is an opportunity to try different styles, discover the styles that suit you, and seek support and advice from your specialist bridal consultant—and ultimately, finding ‘the one’!

A wedding dress fitting usually refers to your later appointment, all about tailoring and sizing your gown to achieve the perfect fit, but this comes later once you’ve said yes to the dress!

When should I go for my first bridal dress appointment?

The ideal time to start shopping for your bridal gown is 12-18 months before the wedding date. This gives you plenty of time to find your dream dress and schedule your various fitting and alterations appointments. However, if you don’t have 12-18 months before your big day, don’t panic! We can help brides with shorter timescales, just get in touch.

It’s best to start searching when you’re ready and able to buy. Dresses can sometimes be discontinued and we wouldn’t want for you to fall in love with a dress, only for it to no longer be available when you come back to purchase. For this reason, it’s also important to have all your special people with you for your appointment! At ACB we welcome up to 6 guests, although many of our brides prefer to bring just one or two trusted people with them to help them choose their gown.

How does the process work?

Contact us - Either get in touch with us or book an appointment on our website. We are open Monday to Saturday and also have some Sunday openings available on request, so if you’re struggling to find a slot that works, just give us a call. You should also decide who you’d like to bring with you and make sure they are available at your chosen time.

Initial call - Before your appointment, you’ll receive a call from one of our friendly team for a quick chat. This is so we can learn more about where you are in your journey, find out if you have any questions or concerns, and discover whether you’ve seen anything you like so far. This helps us prepare for your arrival and means we can spend more time in your 90-minute appointment browsing and trying!
Arrival - You’ll be greeted and made comfortable in our beautiful reception area until it’s time for your appointment.

Your personal consultant will then come and introduce themselves, and take you through to your fitting room suite. You and your guests will be seated and offered refreshments.

Your bridal consultant is there to get to know you and support you in your wedding dress journey, from initial appointment to final fitting. Before going to the dress rails, she will have a little chat with you, so that she can get a feel for your wedding day vision, and check if anything has changed since you chatted on the phone.

Choosing dresses - You’ll go through to the main showroom, and select around four or five initial dresses you like. While we can welcome up to six guests in each bridal party, we recommend that just one guest joins you at the dress rails to choose the dresses at first. This is to minimise the number of voices, and ensure you can follow your own tastes and preferences without feeling too overwhelmed! It’s also a good idea to share your wedding dress budget with your consultant at this stage, as she will then know the right gowns to show you.
Trying on - We’ll move into the changing room and help you into each gown so you can reveal it to your guests. As we go along, we can pull more dresses from the rails to try based on the styles you like best and feel most comfortable and confident in.

While we know that your party will be excited and share their input on each look, your consultant will always advocate for you as the bride to make sure that your decisions are truly yours. Your guests will be treated to an amazing fashion show, and nothing compares to that super exciting ‘Saying yes to the dress’ moment!

Finding ‘The One’! - When you have found your perfect dress it’s time to celebrate! We’ll take some measurements, do a little paperwork along with taking payment, and answer any questions you may have.

After this, you and your guests are welcome to have some photos taken in front of our fabulous selfie wall, so that you can tell the world that you have just said yes to your beautiful dress at Alta Costura Bride!

Next steps - We generally find that the majority of our brides find their wedding dress on their first appointment with us, but if this isn’t the case, that’s okay! We will advise you on next steps - usually, that will be booking a retry appointment, so you can have some thinking time to decide between your favourites, or maybe we’ll be able to guide you elsewhere on your search.

Saying yes to the dress is just the beginning! Your dress will be made to order and in the meantime, we can arrange an accessory appointment, if you’d like one. Once your dress arrives in-store, it’s time for a reveal appointment - and closer to the wedding day - fitting appointments with one of our fabulous seamstresses. We’ll be there to guide you through the whole process.

How should I prepare for my first wedding dress appointment?

Customers often ask us what to wear to a wedding dress appointment but as long as you’ve got something that you can easily change in and out of, there are no hard and fast rules. The perfect bridal shoes and underwear can come later, but it helps to come along with:

A supportive bra, as this will give the best shape under wedding dresses. This is not the day for your comfies! Pants should be simple, ideally seam-free and not lacy, as these can show through some fabrics, such as crepe. White or nude is best.
A hair tie or clip so you can experiment with your hair up and down when trying dresses as this can really change up the look.
Heels of a similar height to what you plan to wear on your wedding day, as heel height can change where the dress sits length-wise.
An open mind - we will never push you in a direction you’re not comfortable with, but brides often deviate away from the style they thought they’d choose once they’ve tried on a few different options.

Why choose Alta Costura?

Having worked with brides for over 34 years, our award-winning team have all the experience you could need to help you find your perfect wedding dress.

We’re on your side

We pride ourselves on our supportive, helpful, experienced consultants. There’s no pushy sales tactics or pressure to buy. The experience we provide at our shop is really important to us and we’ll make sure you’re walking down the aisle feeling confident and beautiful.

Sizing

We stock sample dresses in all sizes from 6 to 32 and have a range entirely dedicated to our beautiful curvier brides, in the Curvy Collection. Once you’ve found the one, all our gowns are usually made-to-order, unless you purchase a ‘ready to wear’ gown. We offer a full in-house alterations service, with our team of super-experienced seamstresses.

Range of styles

Whether you’re looking for an elegant gown, a more edgy look, or somewhere in between, you’ll be spoilt for choice. We stock dresses from talented designers including Morilee and Maggie Sottero, as well as some more alternative styles and colours if you’re after something a bit different.

Affordable pricing

Our dresses are typically priced between £1,200 and £2,500 and you don’t need to pay it all upfront once you’ve said yes to the dress. We will place your order with a deposit and can arrange payment plans if required. For more modest budgets, we can offer a beautiful ex-sample gown, cleaned and finished to perfection, for around £500 - £1,000.