3 Tips to Make Putting On Your Wedding Dress Easier / Irwin, PA

When I was in high school & college, I worked at the KFC down the street from my house. It was my first job, and although not glamorous, it taught me so much. I’d come home covered in grease and smelling like fried chicken, but I loved it.

I had one manager who’s day-job was to manage the KFC (and all it’s little high school workers), but his night job was baking cakes. He was passionate about food, but his love language was wedding cakes. He would tell us stories about the big and little, simple and traditional, and crazy and over-the-top cakes he would bake.

I’ll never forget him looking me in the eye one day and telling me straight up: “Kara, there are 2 things a bride cares about on her wedding day: her dress & her cake.” And through the many weddings I’ve photographed, I have to agree with him. The wedding cake is the first thing a bride will ask about if I tell her I’ve been to the reception space and the first thing she’ll want to see when she enters.

Equal to the wedding cake is a bride’s wedding dress. Guaranteed she has dreamed about that dress since she was a little girl – how it fits, how it twirls, how it makes her feel. There is something magical about the moment a bride puts on that wedding dress.

Believe it or not however, putting it on can be a challenge! It is not quite as easy as it looks in the movies! Zippers, buttons, hooks, ties, tags, loops, corsets, built-in-bras, layers upon layers upon layers, slips, tulle, the train – there is simply SO much that goes into putting a dress on!

Here are 3 quick tips to make putting on your wedding dress easier!

CUT THE TAG OFF – I know that it’s really comfortable to leave the tag on your dress. But, once you’ve bought it and had it altered, you can’t return it anyway. Do yourself a favor & go ahead and snip that thing off. Depending on where you are getting ready, a pair of scissors might not be handy, and there’s nothing scarier than a bride having to break her tag off (while we all pray in the background that it doesn’t catch or tear the dress!) It’s just one less thing to have to think about the morning of your wedding.
WHILE YOU’RE AT IT .. CUT OFF THOSE HANGER TIES – Do you know what I mean? Those silk ribbons that come out of the arm pit that are there to help hold your dress on the hanger. Most seamstresses who alter wedding dresses, put the top of the dress in a cardboard bust form to help the dress hold it’s shape & stay on the hanger. So guess what? Those little silk ties are not needed anyway. When you’re snipping your tag off, go ahead and snip them off too! There’s nothing worse than having to stuff them down in your dress & worry about them sneaking back out during your wedding!
*There is an exception to this – if you have a strapless dress, you may want to think twice about snipping those ties. They may be needed to hang your dress for photos (when the photographer will remove the cardboard bust). If that’s the case, leave them there, but make sure a sharp pair of scissors is on your list of “must have items” the morning of your wedding so you can cut them off right before you put on your dress.
MAKE SURE SOMEONE KNOWS HOW TO SECURE THE DRESS – This is the big one! No matter how your dress is secured in the back, make sure someone knows how to secure it! Don’t just assume that someone will be able to figure it out! Have your Mom or one of your bridesmaids (or both!) go with you to your final fitting so your seamstress can show them how to secure your dress. Whether it’s a zipper, buttons, or a corset back, make sure that they know how to work it! If it’s a zipper, is there a button or clasp at the top? Sometimes those clasps are hidden really well! If it’s buttons, have a crochet hook on hand to help thread all of those buttons thru their loops! If it’s a corset back, practice practice practice with the help of the seamstress so there is no stress or pressure the morning of the wedding. Believe it or not, threading the ribbon through all of those ties, keeping it centered, keeping the ribbon straight, and getting it tight is very challenging!