A Helpful Wedding Planning Countdown List
Whether you are the bride or mother of the bride, planning a wedding is such an exciting time, but can be fraught with anxiety and various hurdles. Here are Bombshell HQ’s top tips on the countdown for planning a wedding!
Timescales when Planning a Wedding
Who doesn’t love a wedding? Getting all dressed up and spending time celebrating positivity and love. Having worked in the wonderful world of weddings and special occasion events, for many years we have all our knowledge of planning wrapped up in this blog to help guide you.
Two fun facts for you:
Did you know the average time from engagement to the special day is between 12 and 18 months?
Did you know that the majority of proposals happen at Christmas? With July and August second in the run-up! 40% of couples categorised wedding planning as “extremely stressful”.
Yes we chuckled at this too! A slight understatement! There was a survey taken out in which 53% of couples said their parents are the biggest stressors. Shock horror! It’s hard however if you are the Mother of the Bride, and may also be paying towards the event and would desperately love to help, this is where we recommend the whole family communicate effectively with each other. This will ease the pressure and stresses, allowing time spent to focus on research, fun and buying those gorgeous dresses and matching accessories! Let’s focus on these popular seasonal weddings because depending on when the special occasion is, there will be requirements specifically for planning and thinking ahead when it comes to style, stock, and colours.
“You need to remember the wedding is about you and your future husband, and the life you are starting.”
Kelly Dellinger - Wedding Planner
The Wedding Countdown Begins…
The wedding day has been set and the excitement begins!
When to buy a dress.
Let’s help give you an example of when you should buy your dress and outfit.
If the wedding is in May, then you should be looking at buying your dress THIS summer.
Why? Because by next Spring you won’t have all the choices for dresses you’d love because not all the spring and summer stock arrives in time into shops.
The problem that we also find can come up is that the Mother of the Bride traditionally gets to choose her colour first after the bride has chosen the bridesmaid colours. So there can be a delay in knowing which colour you can choose….yes, this is where the stress can start to build.
Dieting for a Special Occasion
"Well let's face it, we’ve all been there haven’t we?"
A celebration is announced, it seems a distance in the future, but comes around quicker than we thought and realise that we’d like to lose a few pounds before we slip into our gorgeous outfits. At Bombshell HQ we have been designing and fitting occasion dresses and working with our wonderful clients for many years, and so have a sure fast understanding of what and when you could be thinking about dress fittings and any dieting.
Three Month Rule
12 weeks or a rounded three months is the timescale we recommend when it comes to thinking about any diet. Three months means you are not crash dieting but working your diet into a healthy routine. If and only if, you are going on a diet, please bear in mind your dress size and what can be altered! For the record - we as you know are pretty anti-dieting! We embrace voluptuous forms. For example, if you are looking to lose a little weight, maybe think about 4 pounds a month, which is realistic without changing your body drastically. Think about it, you have bought the most exquisite dress and it was tailored but now it doesn’t fit properly. Not a great scenario, therefore here is where Bombshell parachute in with advice! Let’s talk about the Golden Rule here….
The Golden Rule for Fittings
Always buy a dress that fits you, but one that can be tailored to your size. Never buy a dress “thinking” you might fit into it next year. That’s the trick and it works time and time again. However, be prepared that a great dressmaker will not be able to adjust the dress size more than TWO sizes. Problems can arise on the shoulder line. Waist and hips are usually fine to go down more.
WOW I FEEL COMPLETELY AMAZING IN MY DRESS - TRICIA 56, SIZE 18
The Order of Buying the Entire Outfit
The questions below are ones that are asked of us all the time and so appreciate that the order of purchases sometimes causes anxiety in the wedding planning conversation! “What should I buy first, the hat or the dress? The shoes or the dress? The hat or the shoes?” To answer simply buy a wedding outfit in this order:
Dress - Hat - Shoes - Accessories
Your chosen dress style and colour will impact the whole outfit, and it can be very limiting to build choices around a hat or a favourite coat - not impossible but definitely limiting! We’ll touch upon colour palettes later in the post, but as a rule of thumb, before you choose any of your outfits, check in with the Bride because the last thing you must do is colour clash or throw a spontaneous style bomb into the equation. Let us spare the blushing bride on her special day!
So you know, when it comes to coats and shrugs - Bombshell HQ is excited to be launching a loose fit duster style jacket and a fitted dress-length jacket. Perfect to complement a Bombshell dress and take your look from classical formal feeling of the precious day to the evening of the party.
Choosing the Right Colour Palette...
Reminder of hierarchy... when it comes to colour decisions: The Bride chooses Bridesmaids' colours, then the Mother of the Bride, and last, but not least, the Mother of the Groom.
Do you have a colour palette that the Bride has chosen?
This has to be factored into the choice of dress because colours are so important on the day, cascading down from the Bride’s wedding dress and shade of her dress; then to the Bridesmaids’ dresses; thereafter the proud Mother of the Bride and then onto the wonderful Mother of the Groom.
Wedding protocol and etiquette are super important when it comes to colours, which is why we suggest having a conversation with the family to ensure that everyone adheres to the colour palette. It makes life so much easier and takes out the stress of worrying if your choice will complement the theme of the day.
Can You Ever Wear Black to a Wedding?
As women, we often head straight to our comfort zones and opt for the black cocktail dress, don’t we? The question here is however, can black be worn at a wedding? Elaine Swann is a wedding etiquette expert and the founder of The Swann School of Protocol, and says:
“....while black dresses and gowns are perfectly acceptable for most formal weddings, you might want to consider another hue if you've been invited to noontime nuptials or a casual, seaside ceremony.”
We have also seen an American “look” trending, where the wedding party are in black cocktail dresses, with the mothers in long black sequinned gowns.
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