Finding The Best Wedding Dress Experience
How do you find the very best wedding dress boutique for your wedding in the North West?
As a wedding videographer in Lancashire I’ve been filming weddings all over the Northwest since 2010 and had the pleasure of working with SO many incredibly talented wedding suppliers all over the North West. From photographers and venues to florists and dress designers, the ones that stand out for me are the ones that are all about creating an incredible experience for their couples.
I recommend all my favourite wedding suppliers around Lancashire, Liverpool, Cheshire and beyond on my ‘Wedding Suppliers I Love’ page if you want to check that out.
But with all my experience I thought I could help you find out more about some of the very BEST wedding suppliers I know. And first off, I wanted to chat about wedding dress boutiques (or shops!)
Best Wedding Dress Shopping Experience (according to me!)
How do you even start with the search for ‘the one’? The search to find the dream wedding dress?
Over 10 years ago, a little before I became a wedding videographer, I began my search for the dream wedding dress and it didn’t quite go as expected!
Read on to not only find out a bit more about how you can make the most of your wedding dress shopping experience but also see a wedding video vlog with Clare Suzanne Bridal.
We share our tips on how YOU can enjoy the experience and find ‘the one’ with the right help!
Finding ‘The One’ with Clare Suzanne Bridal
The high end bridal boutiques made me feel…well, less than welcome.
One boutique didn’t even welcome me, I finally found them in the back knitting and telling me to just have a look around!
And I became a bit too fearful of trying anything on over 1k in case I fell in love with something I couldn’t afford.
I stuck a little bit too closely to the wedding ‘rules’ set by the wedding magazines at the time I guess…
Dress Shopping – When ‘The One’ turns out not to be ‘The One’
Now 10 years on one of my biggest regrets is not enjoying the wedding dress shopping experience more, especially because I hear all about the amazing experiences my Brides have had finding theirs!
But I also hear the odd horror story too, or a story tinged with a little regret like mine.
Don’t get me wrong, I LOVE my wedding dress (my Nana picked it out the window for me to try on, she has great taste it seems!).
However, it felt rushed and I didn’t enjoy any of the ‘perks’ that come with this once in a lifetime experience of finding what is essentially a luxury item for most.
‘The One’ I’d picked from the magazines was totally different to my final wedding dress. When I hunted it down and finally got to try it on…it did nothing for me. Gutted.
But what made it worse is that no-one then really helped guide me to find something better. To help me understand what would work really well with my style, personality, wedding plans and body shape!
I felt completely lost (and I realise now that sounds a bit dramatic but it turned out to be harder than I thought after that haha)
It got me thinking, what should it really be like?
Did the wedding magazines rightly or wrongly scare me in to not trying on more dresses?
Did I paint the wrong picture that it should be fun and I can actually enjoy it…?
Should I of gone in with such a strong idea of what I thought I wanted or been more open minded when it came to wedding dress shopping?
Were those ‘wedding guides’ all a load of tosh and really I should of been more open minded and tried EVERYTHING on?
Shopping for the dream wedding dress in Liverpool – How it SHOULD be!
What should a bridal boutique be doing to help YOU in your search for the one?
What should you expect from a wedding dress shop and their owner/staff?
Well, 10 years on I got to experience wedding dress shopping how I now feel it SHOULD be.
Clare Suzanne Bridal (on Allerton Road just outside Liverpool) welcomed me in for a chat (and a bonus brew) so I could find out more about what her offer is as a bridal boutique.
If I was a bride to be all over again, what should I expect but more importantly how could I make the most of that wedding dress shopping experience…?
It was even more than I could imagine.
And this time, I realised I probably would’ve gone with my heart and bought the stunning rose pink dress AND not taken 2 years to grow my hair out… #justsaying
I hope you found our wedding vlog super helpful and it give you some ideas and even reassurance before you get stuck in to your own wedding dress search.
Do head over and follow Clare Suzanne on Instagram as I’m sure she’ll be sharing lots more inspiration in the future.
Hopefully I get to film even more Clare Suzanne Brides in their beautiful wedding dresses next year too!
If you’ve now found your wedding dress and it’s on with the search for ‘The One’ wedding videographer then I’d LOVE to hear from you.
You can contact me here, or feel free to have a nosy around my website for a bit first.
I highly recommend the ‘Portfolio’ page for some of my favourite wedding videos!