Components of a Wedding: BEFORE you go Gown shopping

Would you go into a retail store, try on 20 pairs of jeans, find the PERFECT fit and then walk out without purchasing them but hoping that in 4 months the jeans would still be there?

I don't think you would.

So why should it be any different for a wedding gown?

It baffles me when Brides expect a dress to stay for a year or even a month.  It's still retail ladies, and we all know how fast fashion changes.

Please don't take this to the extreme and think that because fashion changes so much you should wait till the last possible minute to buy your gown because something might come along that you like better... Most Wedding Gown Experts will tell you 6-9 months before your wedding is when you should start (and finish) wedding gown shopping.

So here is the point.  If you are going to go spend your time and the time of your friends and family trying on dozens of gowns why would you not be ready to purchase the one you fall in love with.  Or worst yet, why would you go gown shopping sans a crucial opinion (i.e., if you can't buy the dress without your mothers consent, why go unless she will be joining you)?

So make yourself a list of people whose opinions (or approval) mean the world to you. For the sake of everyone's sanity, I hope that list isn't more than 5 people, for most people its one or two names.  Those people should be with you when you try on gowns.

If someone from your "important people" list cant make it you need to ask yourself the following:
"If I find a dress I absolutely love and know that it has to be my wedding gown without any doubt, will I be ok buying it without this person? Or will I not be able to purchase the dress and risk coming back at a later date and not be able to get the dress AND have to start the process all over again?"

If those aren't things you are willing to do, you should probably not be going in to try on gowns.

Now I get that sometimes really important people live far away or someone is visiting and that's the only time they can come.  There are always going to be exceptions and extenuating circumstances.  What I am saying is that if you are going to try on gowns, be prepared to fall in love and buy it.  Don't go into it with a closed mind thinking its going to take 5 or 6 attempts. COMMIT!