14 Things No One Tells You About Wedding Dress Shopping

You're gonna find more than one dress that feels like "the one," sorry!

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1. Even a fun dress shopping appointment with zero drama can be emotionally exhausting.

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Yes, you will have fun! But also, you are:

a) Making a major decision that you will presumably only make once,

b) While staying in your budget,

c) While making sure your friends and family feel included,

d) While being honest about your own feelings, but not so honest that you seem rude,

e) While dealing with a salesperson who really, really wants to sell you a dress.

Be kind to yourself! As any toddler can tell you, it's really easy to go from "I'm having fun!" to "I've climbed into the sewer, which is where all that screaming is coming from!" if you don't take care of your emotional needs.

2. You are not a failure if you go to a wedding dress shopping appointment and don't like anything there.

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It's super common for bridal salons to create a "Let's find you the perfect dress!" environment — aka the "We will obviously be making a sale today, because whatever you need is surely in this store!" type of attitude. Plus, when you have an audience of loved ones, there's the pressure to perform — grandma didn't fly in from the North Pole just to see you shrug at tulle for seven hours.

But I promise, if you walk out with nothing, no one is going to be mad. It happens all the time. Just walk away.

3. You might not get ~Special Magical Feelings!~ when you put on the winning dress.

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And that's because...

4. There is actually more than one "perfect dress" for you.

You may try on 2-5 dresses that all look and feel fantastic, which may cause you to take your looking fantastic for granted. If I've found this many perfect dresses, you might be thinking, SURELY there is an even more perfect dress to rule over all these other perfect dresses!

This is false. If there are four amazing dresses that you're torn between, it really just means that you've got four winners, and not a four-way tie for second.

5. Unlike on TV shows, the people you bring dress shopping with you may not want to tell you which dress to pick...and it can be super frustrating.

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I know what you're thinking. Not me! My family will make it VERY CLEAR which dress is the winner, and if I don't pick their choice, I'll be forced to wear a dress made of old McDonald's wrappers! Which, for some of you, will definitely be the case.

However, if you've got a relatively functional bunch coming along, you may find that you mostly get just general ooooohs and ahhhhhs (or hmmmms and I don't knows) from your group. And they may be reluctant to tell you which dress is, in their opinion, the winner.

Put yourself in their shoes: They want you to be happy, and what if their least favorite dress is the one you eventually pick? Nobody wants to be that person on record as not liking the dress you get married in, because that opinion that will follow them around forever.

6. Your dream dress might look really weird on the hanger.

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This is especially true if you're more curvaceous, but a dress that is made to hug your curves might look lifeless and sad without your magical body to fill it out. Try on the strange dress — you won't regret it.

7. There's a good chance that the dress you *think* you'll look best in is actually your least favorite.

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This can be disappointing, and it may lead you to believe that you will look as not-magical in all wedding dresses! This is also false! It just means you have to throw your preconceived notions about what your bridal style is into your mental garbage disposal.

8. In fact, if you're convinced that you have to find a dress in a certain silhouette for your body, it may make finding the perfect dress much harder.

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A lot of what we think of as "problem areas" are things that jerks said to us years ago that have tainted our entire clothing experience. If you're not wowed by any dresses you're trying on that are "good for your shape," it's because you know in your heart of hearts you're being safe. Be open to new silhouette adventures!

9. Don't get super fixated on trying to find a cheaper copy of a more expensive dress.

A wedding dress really is more than the sum of its parts. Unless it's explicitly a designer rip-off (which you should avoid anyway), you are never going to find a dress that exactly captures that same feeling, and you'll drive yourself crazy trying to find it. And, more importantly, you'll cut yourself off from different options you might like just as much.

10. Just because you like a dress when you're standing on the little modeling pedestal doesn't mean you'll like it when you've stepped off.

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The modeling pedestal is designed to make you appear taller, but it's not necessarily how tall you'll be in heels. The best way to combat this is to bring a pair of heels that is similar in height to what you'll be comfortable wearing on the day.

11. Sometimes it's easier to just go dress shopping alone.

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Yes, you may not be able to get out of doing the big trip with your family/friends, but doing even just one trip alone means the shopping experience becomes just about you making a decision, and not you making a decision that you think will make everyone and the pope proud of you. Also, you don't have to TELL anyone you did this — it can just be your little secret.

12. Make sure you're happy with how your dress looks on you from the side, because there are gonna be a LOT of photos of you from the side.

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Unless you plan on delivering your vows to the audience and not your intended spouse.

13. You may feel regret about the dress you choose. This is normal, and it doesn't mean anything!

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Wedding Dress Regret is a common thing that is exacerbated by "The Sheer Number of Dress Choices" and "The Huge Amount of Time Between When You Order Your Dress and When You Finally Receive It." Those two things combined just give your brain a lot of time and opportunity to freak out.

14. You might even feel regret about your dress AFTER your wedding. Unfortunately, you are wrong. You made the right choice.

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Because there is a 100% chance you will look back on these photos 10 years from now and be like, "LOOK HOW YOUNG AND HOT I WAS."