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Wedding dresses; they’re tricky aren’t they? We can’t all be Kate Middleton and have gorgeous dresses designed by Sarah Burton – dresses which then end up being nominated for the best fashion design of the year award. A bride’s wedding dress needs to be perfect, but getting it that way can be a journey into hell. Let’s look at four of the most common problems brides encounter in their quest for wedding dress bliss.

1)     Finding the perfect style. 

Avoid Wedding Dress Problems

Some brides have had a picture of their wedding dress in their heads since they were eight years old, and some don’t know what they want until it jumps out at them from the hundreds of magazines, dozens of shops, countless wedding directories and innumerable wedding expos designed to provide inspiration. Either way, once you have an idea of what you want, you have to be brutally honest and find out if the style you’ve chosen suits your body type.

We’ve all seen it; the chunky bride with shoulder boobs hanging over her tight strapless bodice; the skinny bride trying desperately to fill a mermaid dress. You don’t want to be that. While some styles are better suited to certain body types – mermaids are great for curvy women and column dresses suit more athletic figures – most dresses can be adapted to suit your body type. To do this, however, you need a good dress maker who you can trust. Not only must you trust them with needle and thread but you must also trust them to tell you the truth. If, after they’ve done that and you still decide to go ahead, well, so be it.

2)     Finding the perfect colour.

Wedding dresses are white, right? That’s where it ends, right? Well, no.

Stroll through the paint aisle at your local hardware store or try and pick a colour for your business card. You’ll soon find out that white actually comes in ivory, eggshell, cream, seashell, vanilla, cornsilk, blond and bone. And that’s only the tip of the iceberg – so to speak.

So, you need to pick a white that complements your skin tone, matches your wedding colours and, according to some people, doesn’t clash with your venue (don’t ask us, we just reporting what we’ve read).

Then there is the question of all white or white with a splash of colour. Many brides these days are opting to relieve the all whiteness with vivid bits of peek-a-boo colour. Bright green petticoats that hang just below the hemline, for instance. Or a scarlet sash around the waist. Or sky blue straps. Or canary yellow shoes. Just bear in mind that no clashing with the venue rule, we wouldn’t want to violate that.

3)     Getting the right length.

This is also tricky. Some styles call for spunky just below the knee lengths, some women like the cocktail dress length, some like to mix it up with tapering lengths, some like ‘em trailing on the floor and some like ‘em just plain short. Once again, consider your body type. If you have chunky knees, calves and ankles then maybe a short dress is not for you. On the other hand, if you’re very short, a long sheath dress with a train could make you look even shorter.

If you’re going long, think of the shoes you’re going to wear. How high will they be and where will you be walking. Lawns don’t treat stiletto heels very well, as you sink in your dress will start to hang in the ground. Will you be ok with that?

4)     Store bought or custom made.

There is nothing wrong with a store bought dress, especially if you’re not especially creative in the fashion design sense or you’ve ever been called a fashion victim. That way you can be assured that some professional thought has gone into the design and the quality will be reasonable.

You can go the custom route if you have a very particular style in mind, especially if it involves beading and embroidery. To save some money, some dress makers will give you a discount on the condition that you return it afterwards for them to rent to other brides. They’ll only do this if they think the dress will have mass appeal. You’ll only do this if you aren’t overly sentimental or need to save a buck.

Sandy writes on behalf of My Wedding Directory, a complete online wedding directory for couples planning their big day in South Africa.

When I got married, I wasn’t particularly close to the clerics in my church, and so I decided it would be nice to have someone a bit special perform the ceremony. Wouldn’t it be nice to round the circle a bit and have the priest who baptized me also perform my wedding ceremony?  I went about finding him and although it was not easy, (this was years ago, before the days when computer searches made such quests so easy) I was very happy that I did.  He was serving as an army chaplain, and was very happy himself to have a chance to get away.

Besides the sentimental value of having this priest, I can tell you that it made for a lot of interesting conversation at the wedding. Wouldn’t it be nice if you could have some long lost people from your past to celebrate your happy day with you? Luckily, today this is not only a fun idea, but can even be an easy one with the websites now available.  Just who would you like to invite to your wedding?

Wedding Invitation Lists Can Be Small Or Large

Childhood friends

Just imagine being able to share your special day with your best friend from when you were six years old!  Those sweet, innocent days will come back to you in a heartbeat as soon as you see her.  The first step will be to Google her name and see if you get any hits.  If she is married, this will make it difficult, but often people keep their maiden names, especially if they are in certain professions, such as nursing.  If you have no luck there, you will have to see if you can use the “degrees of separation” theory.  Somewhere out there, is someone that you know that also still knows your friend.  Get in touch with stores in your old neighborhood: perhaps same family owns it and knows where your friend moved, or if she got married.  It may even be as simple as going to her old house; perhaps the new owners know where her family moved.  Do you know where she went to high school? Maybe you could contact the alumnae association.

High School friends

A site has been developed for this exact purpose.  If you haven’t done so already, you can get a membership on HighSchool.com, find your school and locate students from your class.  If your friend has kept in touch with the school, even if she is married, she will be listed there with her high school name.  If she is not registered, it will be a little more difficult, but you can post a message that you are looking for her. And then, of course, there is Facebook. Many high school groups have formed pages to keep in touch with one another, so look for the name of your high school, as well as the name of your friend.

Relatives

Sadly, some people have a falling out with a relative and decide not to keep in touch.  Perhaps your mother and her sister had a falling out over Grandma’s jewelry (this is not as uncommon as you may think) and so you lost touch with your aunt and your cousins.  The day of your wedding should be a joyful time of reunion, so this may be the perfect time to ask mom to bury the hatchet and help you find them.  This may be the easiest search of all, since other relatives have probably kept in touch, and they can be contacted.  If not, sites such as peoplefind.com or even ancestry sites can help you find your relatives, the ones who are alive as well as the ones who have passed on!

In case you ever found that your loved one has been put to prison to whatever reason, read the main article on Bail Bonds Nation which should help you find a good bail bondsman for your state.