Happy Holidays and Wedding Thoughts

Posted on January 14, 2013 by PerfectBridal

Happy New Year from Perfect Bridal!

All of us here at Perfect Bridal hope you had a wonderful holiday season, and a safe and happy New Year celebration! Perhaps you have become engaged over this holiday season, and we would like to let you know that we are here to help you with your wedding gown, bridesmaid’s dresses, a gown for your mom, and even pretty dresses for your flower girls!

Wedding styles from Alfred Angelo, Available at PerfectBridal

First, decide when you and your Fiancé would like to get married. After you’ve chosen a time frame, you can then let your consultant know how much time there is to work with. Bridal gowns can take up to six months to come in, and you will need to allow six to eight weeks for any alterations that you might need as well. Keep in mind that summertime and early fall are the most popular seasons for weddings, and that bridal gown designers and seamstresses alike may experience longer production and wait times due to heavy demand during this time of the year!

Wedding dress from Casablanca bridal

It may also be helpful to have a venue in mind (even if you have not completely booked one yet). Are there any special considerations to take note of when selecting your bridal gown? For example, might you be getting married in a church, on a beach, or perhaps in a garden? Will it be warm weather outdoors, a chilly winter or late fall wedding, or in a temperature controlled ballroom? Specific details about your potential venue may help in narrowing down what details of your wedding gown might be perfect for you and your wedding, such as how long the train might be, whether it is satin or chiffon, or even what silhouette might work best for you. Of course, there isn’t anything to say you cannot wear a ballgown on the beach, or a satin dress in the summertime- so feel free to choose whatever your heart desires!

Allure Bridals Style 8803, photographes by Red fly Studio, from Bailey + Josh Wedding

When you head into your first bridal appointment, try to bring along any inspiration you might have seen in your wedding research- any clippings from magazines, photos from shop windows and Pinterest boards can be helpful in showing your consultant what you’d like to look like on your wedding day! Also, having an open mind and some imagination will help here too. Bridal shops usually only receive one sample of each style in a size between 10 and 16 to work with for all of the brides who come in- so the sample dress might not fit you perfectly. However, rest assured, your consultant should be able to work with you and the sample to give you the idea of what it might look like in your size. It’s also helpful to bring anything else you might wear on your wedding day, such as a strapless bra, any special undergarments (like Spanx body shapers), and high heels to help you get an idea of what your gown will look and feel like for you.

body shape wear and high heels are popular accessories for a dress

When you order your wedding gown from PerfectBridal, we will also include a free veil or headpiece from BelAire bridal to help you complete your look (up to $200 value!). Also our wedding gowns ship for free to Continental US addresses, and we will not charge sales tax for gowns shipped to addresses outside California, as of January 2013.

After you’ve said yes to your dress, it is time to imagine what everyone else might look like for your event. Bridesmaid’s dresses, mother’s gowns and flower girls can all take up to four months to come in, depending on the season, so make sure to plan ahead! It may also be helpful for your bridesmaids and/or mom to wear similar undergarments to what they might wear on your wedding day if going to a salon to try on the dresses before you order. We have great prices here at PerfectBridal for your wedding party and many designers ship for free to Continental US addresses. Please feel free to give us a call at 1.888.88.DRESS to ask one of our consultants if you have questions about these offers.

5 Essential Facts about Bridesmaid

Posted on October 4, 2012 by PerfectBridal

In addition for the brides, we sell many bridesmaid dresses. Naturally, there are lots of questions relating to bridesmaids, and here we summarize the top 5 bridesmaid Q&A.

Why do we have bridesmaids?

The purpose of bridesmaid is to honor the bride. In the old days, no lady goes out unattended, and on the wedding day, it is especially important that the bride has her ‘people’ around her. It is equally important for the bride’s best friends to honor her one last time as a maiden.

In addition, there are also myths that in ancient days, having a group of bridesmaids at the wedding is required to outsmart evil spirits or ill-wishers, who get confused by the number of people in the wedding party and misses the target bride. However, that required bridesmaid to dress the same as the bride, which obviously does not happen any more…

How many bridesmaids is too many?

There are no rules on how many bridesmaid you should have. However, there are limits for various reasons. Consider the aesthetics of the altar; if you are having the wedding in a small church, then having a large group standing up there with you is probably not a good idea. Typical number from my informal survey would indicate anywhere from 2 to 6 would look good at most venues.

What are the bridesmaid’s responsibilities?

In the US and probably Europe, bridesmaids are customarily expected to assist the bride with wedding planning, wedding reception, organize bridal shower, and the bachelorette party. Of course, other than attending the wedding ceremony and assist the bride on the day of the wedding, all this is optional. There is usually a foreman for this group of merry bridesmaids, and that would be maid of honor, or matron of honor if she is married.

Then there is the financial and time obligation as the bridesmaid. She needs to be there for the bride, picking out bridesmaid dress, etc. That is why it is important for the bride to show appreciation for the bridesmaid with a bridesmaids luncheon and appreciation gift. It would probably be best for the bride to communicate her expectations before a bridesmaid accepts this responsibility as it can change from bride to bride.

What is the story with bridesmaid dresses?

The joke is that bridesmaids wear their dresses to enhance the beauty of the bride. As the myth for origin of bridesmaid suggests, bridesmaids dresses are supposed to be similar to wedding dress. However, that is probably only true before white became the standard color for wedding dress in the 19^th century.

Today, bridesmaid dresses comes in many elegant styles and it may really be possible to wear the bridesmaid dress again at another function.

How to select the perfect bridesmaids dress?

Unfortunately, with different body shape and sizes and personal preferences amongst the bridesmaids, ‘perfect’ is likely just wishful thinking. Priority of the bridesmaid dress is really to enhance the wedding. This needs to start with picking out a theme and color for the wedding ceremony and reception. Elegant, floor length bridesmaid dress should go well with formal, lavish, or evening weddings or reception, simpler bridesmaid dresses should go better with smaller, intimate weddings.

Color of the dress should coordinate with color theme of the wedding or reception. Often brides would purchase additional bridesmaid dress fabric to help with decoration or color matching for the reception.

Lace up your wedding

Posted on September 23, 2012 by PerfectBridal

Writer Mary Wilson Little once said, “It is difficult to see why lace should be so expensive; it is mostly holes.” Nevertheless, it is precisely these intricate holes that enabled lace to be in fashion since before the 16th century. Nowadays, Lace can be especially prominent in weddings, most notably on wedding gowns and veils.

Here is an example of a beautiful wedding dress that uses lace to form high neckline as well as applique throughout the bodice and skirt. It is from Casablanca Bridal, style 2023, available at PerfectBridal.
Casablanca Bridal style 2023 wedding dress with lace

In addition to wedding dresses, there are other creative ways to use lace in wedding decor.

Lace can be part of the wedding long before the wedding. Example below from invitationsbyajalon.com shows how elegant the wedding invitation can be once lace is used to add intricate details.
lace weddign invite

Simpler, possible DIY lace invite is also possible. Picture below is from Flickr.com, but details of how it is made is unfortunately lacking.
lace wedding invite

During the wedding, lace can also bring more elegance to the brides ensemble. Below is an image from Bellethemagazine.com, showing an example of an elegant bouquet wrap. You may be able to ask your bridal consultant to order extra lace from the wedding dress designer so it will match with your dress.
lace bouquet wrap

Another way to accent the bouquet is pictured below (from Stylemepretty.com). Simply weave your lace with the bouquet to give it a totally different feel.
lace and bouquet

Finally at the reception, lace can still be there to leave guests with a lasting impression. Again from Stylemepretty.com, lace runner for the reception table adds elegant, romantic look.
lace table runner

On the table, lace and votives is a romantic combination that is tough to beat, and if mixed with rustic style, the contrast would be amazing. Image below is from tradewindtiaras.blogspot.com.
lace covered votives

More Hearts for Your Wedding

Posted on September 14, 2012 by PerfectBridal

There are plenty more decoration ideas involving the heart. Note that you want the hearts to be noticed, but not have it overwhelm everything else.

Imagine the guests coming to the reception, on the table outside the reception hall, they see what appears to be butterflies or little hearts blown onto the table top by a careless breeze. Those would be escort cards showing the guests which table to go.

heart escort cards

For this project, you will need to visit a local craft shop and get a heart shape paper punch, in addition to paper, pen, etc. Full instruction can be found at MarthaStewardWedding.com.

When the guests get to their tables, they would find their place cards sitting neatly in a, you guessed it, heart shaped pocket, standing elegantly at the placemats.

heart shape place card holder

Again, this project is instruction is at MarthaStewardWeddings.com. The instructions are fairly easy to follow, but since there are no step-by-step pictures, it may take a bit of trial and error, but it will be totally worth it!

The last DIY heart idea we will talk about today is a chair decor for your reception. If you find paper stock with the right pattern, it will greatly enhance your wedding theme. Use your imagination, be playful, be serious, or be sentimental, and pick a color, picture, pattern, or symbol that will highlight the theme.

hanging heart decor diy

Detailed instructions, as well as more pictures, can be found at the WeddingBee blog.

Put Hearts in Your Wedding Decoration

Posted on September 9, 2012 by PerfectBridal

For the romantic ones among us, heart is synonymous with love, as in I ‘heart’ you. On the wedding day, when you are committing to life for better or worse with your partner, who would not want some hearts in the decoration to represent the love that will keep you together?

Luckily, heart decorations do not have to be completely over the top. It can be a small accent here and there; always there, but not smothering, sort of like real love. Below are some ideas for simple DIY hearts you can use in the wedding, or reception, or in your favor bag.

weaved hearts

These weaved hearts are great because they look like they took a lot of skill to make, but they are actually pretty easy. In fact, this is a project you can put your young nieces or nephews to work! Full instruction on how to make them can be found at ChildmadeTutorial blogspot.

heart bookmark

Perhaps you have a multi-page wedding program, or you need to mark passages from a book to read in the ceremony, or you love reading with reminder of the wedding. In any case, this is a simple project anyone can do. The one paragraph instruction can be found at MarthaStewart.com. Remember you need to glue the decorative top piece securely and cut through the bottom stock for a durable bookmark.

heart garland or wreath

Picture above shows a wreath, but the same craft can make chains of heart garland for hanging anywhere you want. Look closely and you can see that each heart is simply made by gluing or stapling (easier) strips of paper together. Does not get much simpler than this, but just in case, instructions in more detail than expected can be found at arts for life site.

heart confetti

Finally, for those who are already tired from reading the DIY ideas, something you can buy! Concerned about having to sweep up confetti after your wedding? These dissolve in water, so they will probably disappear after a rain. You can find them at Etsy.

There are lots of ideas with heart for decoration or wedding. Another blog post will share more ideas on another day.

Brides, bridesmaids, and weddings

shop wedding dresses and bridesmaid dresses at PerfectBridal.com