Bridal Tip #4

Right ok, before we start I can guarantee this Bridal Tip is going to ruffle a few feathers, but hey..... it's what I do! So sorry, not sorry!

Bridal Tip #4............. Don't Shop Until You Are Ready To Buy

By this, I don't mean, every boutique you make an appointment at is expecting you to buy your dress with them..... trust me, we're not, but what we absolutely are expecting is that IF you find your dream dress with us , you're in a position to put the deposit down and commit to buying the dress you want to get married in, naturally!..... I mean why wouldn't you?

Well here are a few reasons why brides don't and these are ultimately the reasons for this Bridal Tip

- You aren't engaged yet!!!!!!! Seriously.... this has happened! So You're expecting your long term partner to pop the question and you want to be prepared so you can jump in to wedding planning head on so you think it's ok to visit a few Bridal Boutiques to 'get some ideas'...... it's not ok!

You are WASTING the boutiques precious time, when they could be dedicating themselves to brides who actually are planning their weddings, but you've taken up valuable time to 'get some ideas' for a wedding that isn't currently happening!

- You are buying your wedding dress online and you want to see what suits you first before you illegally buy counterfeit goods from China on the internet!!!!! THIS IS NOT OK!!!

Again completely WASTING the boutiques time and in all honesty the very action of buying your copied wedding dress from China may ultimately be the reason small independent Bridal Boutiques are no longer around in a few years time, as this is a HUGE contributing factor of why so many are closing, because people are wasting their time with absolutely no intention of spending any money with them and at the end of the day they are a business and need money to survive..... Bridal consultants professional service and expertise are not their to be abused for free for you to then use it against them to put them out of business..... Oh and did I mention it's Illegal?! (I'll move on, but I may dedicate an entire blog post to this in the future)

- It's the first appointment you've been to.

Fair enough, we understand that you may want to shop around before you make such a big decision and purchase, as I said before we don't expect every bride who walks in the door to put a deposit down as they leave.... that's a little ambitious! BUT we do expect you to come to the appointment with the intention of finding your dream dress..... because, that's what this is all about right?! We expect you to treat this first appointment like it's your last and you will honestly benefit more from doing so. By this I mean, don't tear through trying on as many dresses as you can in the smallest amount of time, each dress you try, ESPECIALLY at your first appointment should be analysed, what do you like, dislike etc, how could it be better, do you like the fabric, is the skirt to small? too big? this is the time to narrow down the choices, not think 'Well it's my first appointment, I'm not going to find a dress straight away, this is just for fun'

We often find ladies who do take their first appointment seriously, do find their dream dress, yes they look at other places too but they often come back to the first few they tried on

- You actually don't yet have the funds to pay for your dress or deposit

Then why are you looking??? We understand it's exciting, we really do. We do this everyday and trust me, it's exciting! But you are torturing yourself if you start shopping too early and you don't have the money to secure your dream dress, because if that dress is suddenly discontinued or, and this does happen, there is a dramatic price increase you will be devastated and every dress you try on following that will not seem insignificant to the dress you lost.

You don't start viewing houses until you've saved a deposit, you don't test drive a Ferrari because one day you plan to buy one, so why would you try wedding dresses on when you have no means to pay for them yet? It makes no sense and will ultimately lead to heart ache and again is wasting the boutiques precious time, and may well take the shine off wedding dress shopping when you are ready to buy, your bridal party may well be bored by then!

Well there are probably LOADS of other reasons why you shouldn't shop before you are ready to buy, but I feel I've dragged this on long enough!

Ultimately, from a boutiques point of view, it is incredibly frustrating when ladies book appointments 'just for fun' and it is completely unfair of you to waste their time in this way, as I said they are a business and NEED to make money to survive to ultimately give you the choice to shop around in the future.

And from a brides perspective, if you shop too early or aren't serious when you do start, you will take all the excitement out of what is truly a wonderful experience, your bridal party will lose all interest, I'm assuming they don't want to give up EVERY Saturday to be dragged around bridal boutiques and you may end up bypassing 'The One' because you just weren't serious to begin with and you settle for a dress further down the line.

Thank you once again for taking the time to read my ranting! haha I do try to reign it in but it's difficult when I'm very passionate about certain topics (china dresses!!!!)

Until next time folks..... have a great week and happy wedding planning x