Buying a wedding dress is generally a brand new experience for the bride to be, unless she has been privileged to be a bridesmaid to a friend or family member, but the process should not be a daunting task but a fun enjoyable experience.

At Giovanna Couture, we look after brides day in day out with help and advice on suitable styles, colour options and advice about our service, but we appreciate that whilst we are "know it all's" it's all a brand new experience for the bride to be, so here are some really helpful tips to help guide you:

Timing is everything.......

Many brides to be don't always realise the timescale involved with making your dream dress for you, this can range throughout the year from 16-20 weeks, and on top of this you may need to consider time required with the seamstress to make minor alterations to your gown, so alterations generally take place 4-6 weeks before the date of the wedding in order to fine tune your dress to give you the ultimate fit.

So all in all 6 months is the minimum order time that you should allow when looking to order your gown, this is an industry standard, but most bridal shops do like to help brides choose their gown 8-12 months before their big day.  Getting organised this far in advance may sound a little odd, but once you know what style and even colour of dress you wish to have made, then you can start to plan and co-ordinate other details to your wedding day, florist, suit hire, balloons, cake etc. etc..

Also planning this far in advance means that your dress will arrive in plenty of time, giving you chance to relax safe in the knowledge that your dress is ready and waiting for you, at the end of the day who wants to be the most stressed out bride in the world because she thought she had all the time in the world? 

Where to start.

Its advisable that you drop into one of our bridal shops to browse through our collection and get an idea of the styles that we offer, alternatively because we have an upfront pricing policy you can view a large selection of our wedding dresses online through our bridal shop to get an idea of the styles in our collections.

We know that if you dont know what to expect from our collection, how can you consider making an appointment.

Making an appointment.

You can visit or call one of our bridal shops to book an appointment to try on a range of dresses from our collection, if we can ever accommodate trying gowns on at the time of your visit we will always endeavour to do so, but please be aware that saturday's are always hectic and we often don't get chance to speak to every bride to be due to our one to one service that we offer during an appointment.

When making your appointment, one our stylists will be available for a one to one consultation and to offer advice when trying on a selection of gowns to help you narrow down your selection to styles that you feel comfortable in and that could be "the one". 

It's always advisable for you to attend your appointment wearing suitable undergarments such as a strapless bra and underwear that you won't be embarrassed to wear in front of our stylists, as we will be present in the changing room in order to assist you in taking gowns on and off.

We also ask that you please DO NOT wear heavy make up or fake tan for your appointment, we may decline your appointment if you do attend with these items as you wouldn't believe the mess these can make on Ivory dresses and often the make up and fake tan is not removable.  Please appreciate that other brides wouldn't really like to try on a gown with the previous customers face impression or body silhouette on the inside of the gown.  We hope you are sympathetic to this request.

Sizing.

Okay, now you may have heard that "wedding dresses come up small" well that's simply not the case at Giovanna Couture, we pride ourselves on offering a bespoke sizing service without a hefty price tag attached.

The custom sizing option on our dresses is available instore only as one of our stylists will need to take your measurements, online or stock orders will be available in off the peg sizing only.

Bridal shops generally tend to take your bust waist and hip measurements, compare these to the sizing chart, then order in the closest matching size, and then you have to have alterations on receipt to have your wedding dress taken in to fit.

Whilst all of our sample dresses that are held in store are standard sizing, when you order your gown, we also take our bust waist and hip measurements, but the difference is that we make the dress to your exact size, so long as you have left sufficient time between the date of order and the date of your wedding. We don't charge extra for this service, we just feel that if you are making such an important purchase you should anticipate receiving a dress that has been made just for you.

Please note however that you may require seamstress alteration to have the dress hemmed to your desired length, once you have your shoes and underwear available for fitting, and should you change shape through diet, then again you can work with our seamstresses to have your dress adjusted accordingly.  Please note that we do not employ a seamstress but work in conjunction with qualified seamstresses that work independently and will be paid in accordance for any work undertaken.

Payments.

When the bride to be has chosen her dream dress and is ready to order, we ask for a 50% deposit to be paid at the time of order, your dress then goes into production, in your required size, style and colour. 

Once the dress is completed the balance is due on your account, you will be asked to come into the bridal shop with your shoes and underwear, try on your gown and settle your account.  At this point we will be able to assess if you require a booking with our seamstress for alterations.

Also at this time if you have not selected veils tiaras and shoes, you will have an option to try on accessories with your actual wedding dress, and decide to have any items made for you.  Veils and tiaras require a 6-8 week production time, shoes are often held in stock or can be called in from stock to meet your requirements. 

Collecting you gown.

With your wedding day fast approaching, its important to make sure that you are all ready and prepared, when your dress is back from the seamstress, one of our stylists will have steamed, checked and hung your dress in a dress bag ready for collection.

At this point you will be asked to settle payment with the seamstress if any work has been undertaken, and then at least 1 week before the date of your wedding you should collect you bridal gown and any accessories. 

Many brides ask if they can collect the day before, but we don't advise this, there is a potential for unforseen circumstances to arise, so its re-assuring to know that you have your wedding dress with you the week before your special day.

We hope that this gives you a good guide to ordering your bridal gown and how the bridal industry works, but don't be afraid to drop into one of our bridal shops and speak to one of our stylists and make your appointment to start shopping for your dream wedding dress.

Should you have less that 6 months dont worry, we have one of the largest brand new wedding dress stock holdings in the U.K, your choices may be more limited than you would have had, but you can still be re-assured of the option of stock wedding dresses and not ex sample dresses that we can assist you with.