Your engagement ring is shining on your left hand as you stand in your undergarments in the fitting room of your first bridal appointment. Your stylist brings an array of beautiful options into your room. One of the dresses catches your eye, could this be one? You start to feel excited to try on your first dress. Suddenly, all of that excitement comes to a halt when you see the number on the tag. It is at least two sizes higher than your normal dress size.
As your stylist zips, clips, and pannels you into your first dress you start to feel a mix of emotions clouded by a number. You are not alone, almost every bride has had those exact thoughts. Even with the cautionary tales and warnings, your dress size can still come as a shock. Let’s demystify bridal sizing!
There are two main reasons for needing a larger wedding dress.
Reason #1
No, wedding dress designers aren’t purposefully making the dress smaller so you feel bad. Historically many wedding dress designers have been based out of Europe. It has become a common practice in the wedding dress industry. Even today many US-based designers tend to take on these sizing practices. European size charts tend to run smaller than American size charts.
Reason #2
Most wedding dresses are special orders, not custom-made. You will try on a sample of a special order gown. Wedding dress designers don’t keep a lot of stock, instead, they make the gowns as the orders come in. Those orders are given based on their design size chart.
Each designer has a unique size chart used for their dresses. Wedding dresses are typically made with only 1-2 inches of the seam allowance because of that it is standard practice to order to the highest size a bride measures to.
For example:
You could be a size 12 in your chest. Size 14 in your waist. Size 10 in your hips.
We would order you a size 14 wedding dress because it is much easier to take a dress in than to take it out.
Those two reasons make it common for brides to order a dress a few sizes larger than what they are used to wearing. Just remember that the number on your dress tag does not define you. If you don’t want to see it, simply cut the tag out. Your dress will be custom fit to you during alterations anyways.
Are you ready to find your dream dress? Gretchen’s Bridal Gallery has the biggest designer wedding dress selection in Indianapolis. Book your bridal appointment today at Gretchen’s Bridal Gallery.