I never really dreamed of a big white wedding as a child. I did, however, think often of my future wedding dress. I viewed it as the ultimate fashion purchase, and like so many brides before me, I pictured myself finally settling on the perfect dress surrounded by my bridesmaids and my mum, all nodding enthusiastically and confirming that, yes, this one was the one.
I’ve loved dresses since I can remember. They make up the vast majority of my wardrobe and my daily uniform can pretty much be summed up as “something floaty”. So when my now-husband proposed, after the initial giddiness subsided and we came back down to earth, my thoughts turned immediately to what I would wear on the day. This was it: I’d finally get to be the girl trying on those fairytale creations.
I started by searching social media and Pinterest for inspiration, and while so many of the trending styles were beautiful, they didn’t make my heart skip a beat. No matter, I thought – I just needed to try some on in an actual shop. But in the end, that experience left me deflated, too. After visiting a handful of the most-recommended stores in London and beyond, and trying on dozens of dresses, I mostly just felt… overwhelmed. The giggly, giddy scenes I’d imagined never quite happened, instead, the majority of appointments felt generic at best, and highly pressurised at worst (when I started shopping nine months before my wedding, multiple sales associates informed me that I was running out of time). While many of the styles I tried were objectively beautiful, and some were even tempting, none felt right – they were either too expensive or didn’t feel like me.
