Dress Shopping: Online vs In Store
Hello everyone!
I am young and recently engaged, and I keep debating with myself on how I should start shopping for dresses.
Originally, I was hesitant about shopping online, and wanted to start in brick and mortar stores. I figured it would be better to try dresses on then to guess. Just because a dress fits your measurements doesn't mean it will be flattering on you, right? Things always look differnt on tall skinny models. Where different details, parts, and seams land on a person will be different on people of different heights and/or weight distribution (apple shape, pear shape, hour glass, etc.) that's why, when clothes shopping, I always like going to actuall stores where I can try things on first.
But then I found the bridal bargain book, and discovered wedding dresses are a completely different game then other types of clothing. Now I know about sample gowns and weird sizes and quality control issues, and how everything is custom ordered.
So it would seem to me that the benifits of trying on dresses before buying don't even apply when it comes to wedding dresses.
So I guess this brings me to my final conundrum. When it comes to getting a dress that fits well and is flattering, is it better to go to bridal stores, or order online? Or is the risk of getting something that looked great on the model but terrible on you about the same for either one?
For the record, in standard clothes I'm about a dress size 16 or 18, depending on brand. Regular size clothes tend to be too small, but specialty plus size brand tend to be too big. I'm in between size groups. So, when it comes to wedding dresses, should I be looking at stores that are specifically tailored to plus size brides, or stick to regular stores that offer a decently wide range?
Okay this ended up being pretty long, thank you if you're still with me! Please share your stories and opinions on the matter so I can make an informed decision. What do you think I should do, and where should I start my shopping at?
