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Wedding Dresses: No Pain, No Gain?

bridal dresses

As a bride, in choosing your wedding dress, you want to look your best in the bridal gown and will be willing to make certain sacrifices for it. The question is that is it really necessary? After all, women have thrown out the whalebone corset a long time ago, and comfort need not be given up for beauty.

A Lifetime Decision

In choosing from the thousands of wedding dresses available from thousands of designers, there are a few things that you should remember. First and foremost is that just because it looks good on the model or mannequin, it does not mean it will look good on you, or vice versa. Second, you will be in that dress for the better part of the day or night, and you would not want to remember your wedding day as the day you looked great but felt so uncomfortable.

Tricking the Eye

While it is true that most brides will look their prettiest in their wedding gowns because of the natural glow and beauty of happiness, a little help from a few fashion tricks will not hurt anybody. There are designs that draw the attention towards what you think are your best features. A low cut dress to show off beautiful shoulders, or knee length ones that show off the shapely legs.

There are also wedding dresses that are designed to “correct” body types, like if you feel that you need to shorten the way your torso looks, you could opt for the empress cut on your dress. The main point is that you should get an unbiased opinion of what your body type is, and ask around which design would look good on it. You don’t want to end up with ruffles in places that need not be emphasized.

Getting Comfortable

The comfort factor in wedding dresses does not rely mainly on the design but on how well it fits you. Even if you are getting a wedding dress straight off the rack (which really is a good idea because you can already see what the dress looks like in reality), you should not wear it straight off the rack. Have it altered and give it a dry run and imagine yourself if you can survive in that dress for at least eight hours. While you’re at it, do the same for your wedding shoes.

Another alternative that some brides take advantage of is to have different dresses, one for the walk down the aisle and another for the wedding reception after. This is also probably one of the reasons why many wedding dresses survive the wedding party. You can have the “reception” dress patterned after the “ceremony” dress, but in a simpler version.

bridal dresses

Wearing White

Tradition dictates that wedding dresses are white, and according to Ms. Manners, everyone has the right to wear one. That doesn’t mean that you cannot get married in anything but. If you really feel that white is just not your color, then pick one in the color that you think suits you better.

For wedding dresses, bridesmaid dresses, and mother of the bride dresses, Toronto only turns to one place. Visit BestForBride.com today.

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Wedding Dresses Emergency Solutions

Murphy’s law states that “If something can go wrong, it will” and even if it seems like such a pessimistic point of view, bad things have happened to wedding dresses on wedding days. You can’t prevent everything from happening to your wedding dress, and if you are one of the many unlucky brides who have wedding dress disasters, make sure you can fix it.

The Wedding Dress Kit

It’s not hard to create a kit that will fix most wedding dresses and most of what you need will probably fit in a small vanity bag. If you plan it well enough, you can even fit enough in there for your bridesmaids dresses as well. You don’t have to hold the kit yourself, so hand it to someone who will know what to do with it when the time comes.

wedding dresses

Giving Your Dress CPR

Here is a list of a few useful things that you can stick inside the kit:

Double sided tape- ever see the red carpet on those film awards nights and wonder how the celebrities keep the dress in place like it was defying gravity? Well, this is how most dresses are held in place and how many actresses are saved from discomfort as well as embarrassment. This tape can also be used to fold hems and edges that may have unraveled.

Safety pins- don’t go for the dressmaker’s pins because you are not a dressmaker’s mannequin that can stand being pricked while wedding dresses are made. Safety pins are also more likely to hold whatever it is that needs to be held in place better.

bridal gowns

Stick-On Crystals- these are especially useful for wedding dresses that are embroidered or with little gems sewn into the design. It’s also good for covering up little stains.

Stain Remover Sticks- obviously to get bigger stains out from wedding dresses that have met accidents. You can find these near or on the detergent aisle at the supermarket.

Talcum powder – if the stains are too tough for the stain removers, you can cover it up with talcium powder if your dress is white.

A Small Sewing Kit- like the ones you find in hotels, or just improvise one. All you need is a needle, some thread and a small pair of scissors to cut it with. Scissors are also useful for wayward threads on bridal gowns.

A Little Effort Goes a Long Way

It’s not expensive to create your own wedding dress emergency kit, at most it will cost you $20, even if you don’t have any of the items readily available at home. It will also keep your mind off your worries because you know that if something goes wrong, you will be able to take care of it.

For Keeps Having a story to share about how you fixed your wedding gown will be a trip one day, and you can even show the “scars” on your dress to prove it. One thing that you should do before putting the dress away and make sure that it will not end up ruined is to have it dry cleaned before storing it.

For evening dresses, Toronto only has one source. For wedding dresses and bridesmaid dresses in Toronto, visit BestForBride.com.

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Unique Accessories for Your Wedding Dress

Your wedding dress will be the center of attention during the wedding ceremonies, and you want to make it as special as you possibly can. There are many ways that this dress can be made, but sometimes the lynchpin is in the accessories to give that wedding dress that more special appeal. You know what they say: the littlest things may actually be the biggest.

bridal dress

Little Things that Mean a Lot

The accessories that you will use on your wedding dress do not have to be big and garish to be noticed. Sometimes subtlety is the name of the game. It really is a good thing to be spectacular on your wedding day, but there is a thin line between being spectacular and ending up as a spectacle.

Glitters and Garlands

There are quite a few ways that you can add to the beauty of your wedding dress, and some of these ways made as part of the dress itself, while others are applied on to the dress. Obviously since the dress is your foundation, choose one that fits you well, not just in terms of physical comfort but one that fits your personality as well. Here are a few ways that you can give your wedding dress a few extra touches:

1. Crystals and seed pearls- these are the most common embellishments that are put on the wedding dress. Good quality crystals and seed pearls will add just the right amount of shimmer and sparkly when the light hits them.

2. Intricate embroidery- gives the gown a “heavier” feel.

bridal gown

3. Different colored cloth- it can be something as big as a waist sash or just piping around the dress. The color is usually the motif of the wedding reception and you can choose to make the colors bold or in pastel.

4. Butterflies- live butterflies can be made to land on the veil or the dress by putting on little dabs of honey. There is no guarantee that they will stay there but the more often than not make it through the walk down the aisle.

5. Fresh flowers- choose flowers that are not too delicate and will last a couple or so hours without water. Orchids and roses are very resilient and ideal for this purpose. Mums and daisies will also give your dress a certain cheerfulness.

You can even place accessory not on the dress but on yourself, like body shimmer or decals. If you want to consider a bit of body paint, just make sure that the kind you put on will not end up on your dress as well.

Add to It, Not Take Away From It

In accessorizing your wedding dress remember that the centerpiece is still you and your dress. Do not put on something that is so distracting that it will be the only thing that people will notice. In the best case scenario, people will love what you put on. In the worst case? People might ask “what on earth was she thinking?”

For your wedding dress and bridesmaid dresses, Toronto only has one reliable source. For these and evening dresses, Toronto recommends BestForBride.com.

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Wedding Woes and Bridesmaid Dresses

It’s every woman’s dream to have the perfect wedding, but the idea of being a bridesmaid and wearing one of those hideous bridesmaid dresses is another thing altogether. Ask yourself this simple question, who do you know has actually successfully reused a bridesmaid dress after a wedding?

The Bridesmaid’s Costume

In truth, most bridesmaid dresses look a lot like costumes, sometimes they remind one of dresses that a fairytale princess would wear to a ball, and could end up as a passable prom dress for a younger sister. Needless to say, these bridesmaids are the lucky ones. The unlucky ones are those that look like they are at the receiving end of the bride’s bad joke or at the very least her bad taste.

bridesmaid dress

The Bride: the Dictator or the Benevolent Leader?

Of course, once your bridesmaids have said yes to be your bridesmaid, they are at your mercy. The common mistake that you can make is to make them wear what you think looks good on them, or what you think will fit better into your picture of your ideal wedding entourage. The end result will be that they will wear the bridesmaids dresses but you will not have happy bridesmaids.

You can take the higher path and ask for their input on which type of bridesmaids gowns they think will look good on them. If you are lucky, some of them will have good taste and come up with a reasonable compromise. In the worst case scenario, you will have bridesmaids dresses accessorized by grateful smiles from your bridesmaids. They will also feel a lot more comfortable in them and that is something that no designer dresses can guarantee you.

In choosing a style for your bridesmaids dresses it would be practical to have one that is simple and can easily be altered into something that is wearable on some other occasion. Leave the extra touches to the accessories that they can add to make the dress look better. These embellishments are also less expensive, and if the bridesmaids are given their freedom to choose which accessory to use, it could be something that would make them really “own” the dress.

bridesmaids gown

Why Worry?

Aside from the fact that it would be better to have your bridesmaids on your side on your wedding, bridesmaids dresses do not come cheap. Even if they are not as expensive as your wedding dress, it will still be a waste to have a dress made to be worn only once, when you can just as easily have one made that can be altered to be useful again.

Where Bridesmaid Dresses Go

The dresses that cannot be used after the wedding only have two ways to go, one would be at a discount store rack and the other would be to be hidden in a closet to never be seen again. You can give the poor dress another option by having one made that has a chance of being of use to someone else.

If you’re looking for bridesmaid dresses and mother of the bride dresses, Toronto has plenty. For wedding dresses, Toronto relies on bestforbride.com.