Is It Crazy to Say Yes to the First Wedding Dress I Try on?
I have watched brides say yes to wedding dresses for 45 years, and there is one thing that still makes people a little nervous,
When it happens fast.
A bride walks into Formally Yours, puts on the very first wedding dress she tries, looks in the mirror, and thinks, OH MY GOSH, I LOVE IT.
And then almost immediately comes the next thought,
Wait, can this really be it?
Because apparently, somewhere along the way, we decided that finding your wedding dress is supposed to be hard.
You’re supposed to try on 10 dresses, or 20, or maybe 30. You’re supposed to visit several stores, take a million pictures, compare everything, and make sure you’ve seen every possible option before you’re allowed to say yes.
But why?
Why do we distrust an easy decision?
WHEN YOU KNOW YOU KNOW
We recently had a bride come in and try on a beautiful ball gown as her very first dress.
She absolutely freaked out.
SHE LOVED IT.
She tried on a couple more dresses, but pretty quickly she wanted that first one back on. And once she was back in it, she knew.
What I loved about this bride was how confident she was in herself. She knew her style. She knew what she loved. And just as importantly, the people she brought with her knew that about her too.
Nobody said, “You can’t buy the first dress!”
Nobody told her she needed to go look around.
They trusted her because SHE TRUSTED HERSELF.
And sometimes that’s really what it comes down to.
When you know yourself, and you’re confident in your personal style, sometimes you put on a dress and,
YOU KNOW THAT YOU KNOW.
But Don’t I have to Keep Shopping?
Another bride had almost the same experience, but handled it completely differently.
She put on her first dress and started laughing and joking.
OH MY GOSH! I LOVE IT! IT’S PERFECT!
Everybody with her was shocked. They were excited. And she was clearly in love with the dress.
But she couldn’t quite believe it could be that easy.
So, she kept trying.
She tried on several more dresses at Formally Yours. Then she put that first dress back on.
STILL LOVED IT.
But she had two more bridal appointments scheduled that day.
So she left. She went to both appointments, tried on more wedding dresses, and spent the entire time still thinking about, THE VERY FIRST DRESS SHE HAD TRIED ON.
Eventually, she came back to us and bought it.
And later, she told us she went to bed ridiculously early that night because she was absolutely exhausted from running around to all those appointments.
She basically said, I SHOULD HAVE TRUSTED WHAT I WAS THINKING AND FEELING ALL ALONG. THAT WAS MY DRESS.
I love that story because I think so many brides can relate to it.
Sometimes your heart has already said yes, but your brain hasn’t had enough shopping yet.
AND THEN THERE’S THE ENTOURAGE
This is where things can get tricky.
A bride puts on dress number one and loves it. And someone says, “But you have to try on more dresses.”
Usually, that person means well. Your mom, sister, best friend, or bridesmaid wants you to be absolutely sure. They want you to have the whole experience.
But sometimes, without meaning to, the people we love can introduce doubt into a decision we weren’t actually doubting.
Trying on more dresses isn’t wrong.
But neither is stopping.
There is no magical number of wedding dresses you must try on before you’ve earned the right to say yes.
OUR GOAL? WE WANT TO NAIL IT ON THE FIRST DRESS.
I probably shouldn’t give away all of our secrets, but after 45 years, I think I can share this one.
At Formally Yours, we really do want the first dress to be your dress.
That is the goal.
We’re not randomly pulling a dress to “get started.” We’re trying to figure you out before we ever put you in that fitting room.
And our secret sauce?
THE VIBE.
The vibe, the vibe, the vibe.
We listen to you. We ask questions. We look at your pictures. We talk to the people you’ve brought with you. We pay attention to what you’re saying, and sometimes what you’re not saying.
We’re trying to understand your personal taste, your personality, and how you see yourself.
We’re trying to find YOUR VIBE.
Not your venue’s vibe, not Pinterest’s vibe, and not whatever happens to be trending that week.
YOUR VIBE
Because once we understand the bride, we’re pretty darn good at knowing what dress to pull.
Ideally, we’d love to find it in the first dress. If not the first, we’re certainly trying to get there within the first few.
Why would we want you to try on 30 dresses if we can understand you well enough to find THE DRESS in three?
DOES THAT MEAN THE FIRST DRESS IS ALWAYS THE ONE? Absolutely not.
We’ve even had a bride say yes to a dress and then happen to see another gown, try it on and change her mind. It happens!
And that’s exactly why I’m not telling you that you should buy the first wedding dress you try on.
I’m telling you the YOU SHOULDN’T BE AFRAID TO.
Some brides need one dress.
Some need five.
Some need 25.
There is no one right way to get to your yes.
AND THEN THERE’S THE FASHION CRACK, Yes, I call it fashion crack.
If you’ve experienced it, you know exactly what I’m talking about.
It’s that rush when you put something on, and suddenly you feel different. You’re excited. You’re a little shaky. Your adrenaline kicks in. You keep looking at yourself in the mirror.
COULD THIS REALLY BE MY WEDDING DRESS?
And sometimes that feeling happens on dress number 17.
Sometimes it happens on dress number one.
The number doesn’t make the feeling more or less real.
MAYBE EASY IS A BLESSING
Brides have enough decisions to make: The venue, the flowers, the photographer, the food, the invitations, the music, the bridesmaids, and the seating chart, just to name a few.
It can be exhausting.
So, if one of the biggest decisions suddenly becomes incredibly easy,
MAYBE THAT’S NOT SOMETHING TO QUESTION.
Maybe it’s something to enjoy. You walked into a bridal salon. You put on a wedding dress. You looked in the mirror. And you fell in LOVE.
HOW LUCKY ARE YOU?
So, is it crazy to say yes to the first wedding dress you try on?
I don’t think so.
I think the crazy part might be convincing yourself that something has to be difficult before you can trust that it’s right.
If the first dress isn’t your dress, keep going. If the tenth isn’t your dress, keep going.
But if you put on dress number one and everything inside you is, THIS IS IT…
YOU DON’T HAVE TO KEEP SHOPPING JUST TO PROVE THAT YOU SHOPPED ENOUGH.
Trust the vibe.
Trust yourself.
And when you know that you know,
SAY YES!
Formally Yours, Cathy