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Oh the bridal fashion plan. It’s one of my favorite wedding planning hacks out there. Brides forget about everything else besides the wedding dress. They end up scrambling and overspending on last-minute items for their wedding and other wedding related events. Worse, they don’t feel their best because they are forced to wear something they aren’t comfortable and confident about.
With a simple wedding fashion plan, all of the drama can be avoided. In today’s wedding planning advice post, I’m going to teach you how to make a plan for your bridal fashion. I’m going to show you exactly how to make a plan and (hopefully) explain why making a plan is important and could save you lots of money.
Photo Credit: Michael and Carina Photography
I see this happen all the time: Bride gets engaged and it is all about the wedding dress. The pinning of dresses on Pinterest and the endless scrolling on Instagram, and the dress shopping appointments at countless stores, and the bride tribe all loving your amazing dress helping you decide, and you saying “yes to the dress” taking that cut picture, and it is so much fun. Isn’t it?
(Pro Tip: Don't miss my post on how to plan your wedding on Pinterest.)
But, that’s where it tends to end.
You stop at the wedding dress. You forget about all of the other events for your wedding where you are going to want to look and feel your best. Then it comes time for said event, like your bridal shower, and you have nothing to wear or you are running around (probably paying for rush shipping) to throw together a look, because you deserve to feel amazing at your bridal shower. You’ll be the center of attention at your rehearsal dinner, you want to feel amazing.
Looking your best and feeling your best for your wedding events, doesn’t have to be full of drama. It’s all about the plan and making a plan in advance. When you have a plan, you’ll feel confident and comfortable, because you just stick to the plan and go back to living your life and doing everything else that you love to do besides plan your wedding.
Enter the bridal fashion plan. Before you go dress shopping (or very quickly after) you need to make a plan for the other events. What else, besides the dress, will you want to wear on your wedding day? How about shoes, undergarments, veil, hair accessories, your garter, of course, and so much more.
What will you wear for all of the other wedding related events? I’m talking about the bridal shower, engagement party, bachelorette party, rehearsal dinner and possibly more.
Don’t forget the wedding weekend and the day of the wedding too. You’ll need something to wear the morning of your wedding and after your wedding is over and something for the next day, especially if you are having a going away brunch.
And, I’m not even talking about what you’ll wear on the honeymoon. Honeymoon packing and deciding what to wear is a whole other post for a whole other day. Today, we are just focusing on making a plan for what to wear in the events leading up to and immediately following your wedding.
You most likely have a timeline for the rest of your wedding. Such things like when to book the caterer or when to send out invitations. You’ll want to add your bridal fashion plan to your overall wedding timeline. This way, when you are going through your general timeline, you’ll execute your bridal fashion needs at the same time as your wedding to-do's.
I created The Ultimate Bridal Fashion Timeline to show you exactly what to order when so you don’t miss out for your wedding. This timeline will help you not only create a bridal fashion plan, but it will help you with the overall timing of when to order certain times and/or when to begin research. For example, when you are going through your wedding planning schedule, you’ll see that two months before your rehearsal dinner, you need to start looking for what you’ll wear. This will give you plenty of time to research and order things or borrow items from a friend and so on.
Photo Credit: Michael and Carina Photography
I created a free printable version of a bridal fashion plan in my Ultimate Bridal Fashion Timeline, but it really is just as simple as getting out a piece of paper. You can get my timeline and one of of the pages is blank bridal fashion plan with prompts for different events. You can print out the page and fill it out for yourself.
Here are the easy steps to creating a fashion plan for your wedding:
Yes, get out of a piece of paper or use that fancy wedding planning journal that you have and brainstorm all of your wedding events that you have coming up. I’m talking about everything. I’ve mentioned lots of them here in this article already, such as bridal shower, wedding morning, day after brunch and much more.
Go through step-by-step before your wedding and on the wedding weekend and think about all of the different times you’ll need to be dressed in something other than your wedding dress.
And, don’t forget all of the other accessories for the day of the wedding besides your dress, such as veil, undergarments, shoes, and garter, of course.
In addition to the general outfit that you’ll want to wear, don’t forget to add to your plan basics like shoes, bag, undergarments (especially if they are specialty), jewelry and more. You don’t want to make the effort to make a plan and then forge to bring some shoes for your bridal shower!
You don’t need to know right away exactly what you are going to wear to put it on your plan. For example, you just need to know that you’ll want to wear shoes or that you might want to wear some earrings to a certain event. It all goes on the plan. Then when it comes time to start shopping or researching, you already know a general idea of what you are looking for.
Just because you have a fashion plan, doesn't mean that you have to go out and buy all new things for your wedding events. It is perfectly find to rent, borrow or wear what’s in your closet already. The most important thing is that you think about it in advance so you can plan. If you have a dress in your closet that you love, that makes you feel amazing, by all means, wear that dress! Put it on the plan and then it’s one less thing you need to think about.
Certainly, if you are going to rent, buy new or borrow from a friend, you’ll need to plan in advance so you can do the research and allow time for shipping and possible returns. Paying for rush shipping because you were last minute on something is an easy way to really drive up the costs of a wedding.
Photo Credit: Michael and Carina Photography
So, that's it! Do you wish it was more complicated to make a plan for your wedding fashion?? You don't have to know exactly what you are going to wear at each even - and you definitely don't need to buy all new things - you just need to make a plan in advance. Making a plan will not only save you money (and who doesn't want to save money on their wedding??), but it will definitely save you stress and drama.
Don't forget that if you want to know exactly what to order when for your wedding and so much more, get your FREE copy of The Ultimate Bridal Fashion Timeline right here. This has a printable bridal fashion plan with prompts to get you started, plus loads of information and insider tips on everything from how to cut costs on your wedding fashion, where to find unique bridal accessories and definitions for the most common bridal fashion terms so you can speak "bridal" at all those dress fitting appointments!
To looking your best and feeling your best for ALL of your wedding events Happy wedding planning!
Remember, you can shop for blue, vintage, classic and modern garter heirlooms anytime in my garter shop or get in touch with me at info@thegartergirl.com for information on custom designing a garter just for you!
If you have any more garter questions, check out my garter 101 blog series or find all of my wedding planning advice here on my blog.
