| Tips, Hints and Suggestion to finding the perfect dress from Upper East Side’s in-house experts and real brides-to-be.
Finding the wedding gown of your dreams is one of the most exciting and possibly frustrating parts of the wedding planning process. But rest assured the best options for shopping lie on the Upper East Side.
The Upper East Side is home to many famous designers whose flagship stores grace our streets. From the runways of Milan to our sliver of New York City, brides-to-be can shop the finest and freshest looks of the season. Designers such as Reem Acra and Vera Wang, two of the most recognizable names in the bridal industry, have freestanding stores on the Upper East Side. |  | | “It was so overwhelming,” exclaimed Melissa, a bride-to-be who set out on her inaugural journey to find her wedding gown. “I didn’t really no where to start. I bought The Knot’s guide book to wedding dresses and just started tearing out pages….and soon I was tearing out my hair.” The Knot’s book of wedding dresses is as thick as a phone book, featuring nearly 1000 dresses at all different price points from a variety of designers. In the front of the book, a glossary of bridal gown terms is outlined. Cathedral trains, blushers, trumpet silhouette, what is a foreign language soon becomes understandable with the books use of diagrams and pictures. “It was like learning Chinese,” Julie joked about her first day of dress hunting.
“Have an idea of what you want, but don’t close your eyes to other things,” Kya, a gown specialist explained. “Most brides-to-be come into the store with preconceived notions of what type of dress they want. Some refuse to try on anything besides the ones they have seen in magazines or have had a vision of in their head for years. But that’s the worse mistake you can make. Everything looks different on the hanger than it does on the person. Some brides are very surprised by their final choice.” While your tastes may lead you down one path, your body type may bring you down another. Sites such as Wedding Channel.com and Brides.com allow you to peruse the designer’s runway shows and upcoming seasons’ gowns. They give you hints as to what type of dress will most flatter your body type and then allow you to search that silhouette style from all of the designers. “The most important thing to have when you are trying on dresses is the right undergarments. Of course, once you pick a dress it will be cut and sized specifically for your measurements, but make sure you come in with a good bra to try on the dresses,” Kya added.
“I did not think I was a beading bride,” Melissa said still in shock by her purchase. A beautiful beaded Reem Acra A-line gown, Melissa had thought she would choose “something simpler” but there was an elegance that this dress had above all others. “It came down to two for me. We had gone to Bergdorf, Reem Acra and Vera Wang. I was between two, one at Reem Acra and the other at Vera Wang. We ran back and forth between the two stores trying both of them on back to back. My whole family came. But in the end, I knew it was the Reem.” Like finding their spouse, a lot of brides-to-be just know when they found the one, some instinctual guttural sense that this is their dress. Other brides find the decision a lot more taxing. “I went to every store in Manhattan. I had spreadsheets. I had a front runner. I had secondary options. I couldn’t make up my mind,” said Laurel. “You only get married once, you hope, and you just want to make sure that you pick the right dress. No second thoughts down the road.”
While most suggest dresses should be order 6-9 months out, it is best to order the dress as soon as you make a decision. Once the dress comes in, the store’s seamstress will work with you to make sure it fits like a glove for the big day. Tailoring begins 1-2 months out with the last appointment about two weeks before the wedding. “Most brides drop 5lbs the month of their wedding. Call it stress dieting or just the last minute push for perfection, but alterations are usually needed close to your wedding date,” Kya said.
Almost all bridal salons require appointments. Getting one of the weekend may be difficult especially if there is a designer’s trunk show (an event where the designer themselves or someone from the company is there showcasing dresses which the store doesn’t always carry). “We had a whirlwind Upper East Side day,” said Laurel. “My maid of honor and I started at Saks in the morning, then Bergdorf, then Mark Ingram and finally Amsale. We talked it over at lunch at Bergdorf over wine and salads. It was a great bonding day too.” Shopping for a bridal dress should be fun. The bride-to-be should try and cover as much territory in one day as she reasonably can. It is best to try on the dresses as close together as possible since your memory starts to fade and you may not recall the dress the right way. “I thought I loved one I had tried on a few weeks ago, but we went back to the store and I didn’t like it the second time,” said Julie. Each appointment should last about 1 ½ hours depending on whether you are finding dresses which are of interest to you. Schedule your day using that time frame and allowing enough time to decompress between stops. The Upper East Side has a lot of territory to cover, spread it out over a few days if you can.
“Get to know the designers too,” Rachel expressed as an important tip. Most designers have a signature look so you can weed out the ones who don’t fit your style. “We hit the department stores first so that I could see a bunch of designers at one time.” Stores such as Saks and Bergdorf carry many high end labels such as Ulla Maja, Ines Di Santo, Vera Wang, Melissa Sweet and so on. When calling to book an appointment be sure to ask which designers they show as well as any trunk shows that may be happening too. “I narrowed down my look by hitting the emporium type stores first and then I made appointments at the flagship stores of each designer that I loved.”
What is one invaluable piece of advice for brides-to-be, I asked Kya. “Have an open mind, but know your restrictions. Know yourself!” she answered emphatically. “Brides need to know how much money they want to spend.” Dresses at top end designer stores and boutiques can range from $1,500 to more than a car. “I tried on a Valentino gown at Bergdorf,” Laurel said. “I liked it so I asked the saleswomen how much it was – out of curiosity. I had been trying on gowns in the $5-$6K range all day so when she said $26K I thought I was going to bring up my lunch. It is a good thing that I didn’t love it.” You can get overwhelmed very quickly between the different styles, materials, embellishments and options. A dress with one price tag may quickly change if you start to add detail work or change the material to a more expensive fabric. The dollars quickly start to add up. “I brought one dress into the dressing room for a bride to look at. She scoffed and turned her nose up. I knew she would look amazing in the dress and so did her mother, so we pushed her to just give it a try. She slipped it on and it was like magic. She was the most beautiful bride, the dress was perfect for her,” Kya said.
Just like each gown, each bride has her own style of hunting for one. The Upper East Side is the perfect place to commence that hunt. Whether you hate shopping and want to find the right gown as quickly as possible or whether you are the type to linger of each decision wanting to explore every and all options, the Upper East Side is where you want to start. |
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