Tattoos and Wedding Gowns

Lately, we've had a few brides in our shop who have wanted (or their moms wanted) a wedding dress that would cover up their back tattoos but still be interesting and beautiful. So in an effort to help other brides in the same predicament, I thought I would post a few dresses from our shop that fit the bill. Below are my choices and I love every one of them!

"Callie"

"Kristen"

"Muse" (FYI our version doesn't have the flower appliques)

"Dana" lace jacket- she can go with a lot of gowns

"Jane Shrug" can also be worn with many dresses

"Prima Wrap" again can be paired with many dresses

"The Woods"

Some Things Change: Wedding Dress Vision

When I was young I loved paper dolls and my favorite paper doll book featured wedding fashions through the ages. From these gowns I traced and "designed" my dream wedding dress:

Fast forward about 20 years and my actual wedding dress looked like this:

While my pre-wedding dress shopping visions did not include a pearl border or long sleeves I was a bit surprised that I was gravitating toward gowns with a slimmer skirt. In fact even after I fell in love with "The Woods" by Lela Rose I hesitated to commit because it did not fit the full-skirted wedding dress vision I had for myself.

In the end I decided that it didn't matter. What I had pictured in my mind made little difference to what I loved in reality. My point? As many of our newly engaged brides start shopping for their wedding gown, keep an open mind and don't be too worried if the actual dress of your dreams doesn't coincide with what you've dreamed about for years. Maybe your new "dream dress" is even better :)

Dress Shopping Prep

Real Simple Weddings says this about preparing for wedding dress shopping:

As you start your search for the perfect dress, hit bridal boutiques armed with your own “look book,” containing magazine tear-outs, photos from friends’ weddings, fabric swatches―anything that helps you communicate your taste to the sales staff. And be completely candid about your budget from the get-go. That way, you won’t waste a single moment trying on dresses you’ll never end up buying.

Here are a few more tips that we suggest:
- Bring a friend but not a posse: Too many opinions can be confusing. Bring one or two friends or family members who know when to give feedback and when to refrain.
- Spruce up: It's hard to envision walking down the aisle in a dress when you look like you rolled out of bed. While full-on hair and make is in no way necessary avoid shopping for gowns when you're feeling frumpy.
- Try on a variety of styles: Especially in the beginning of your gown search step outside your style box. It's hard to know how something will look until you try it and often something you hadn't considered will turn out to be surprisingly perfect.

Happy shopping!

Wedding Update Wednesday: The Dress

SPOILER ALERT: If you are Chad, or otherwise don't want to see what my wedding dress looks like, do not scroll down :)

And now for the post:

As you can imagine, shortly after I became engaged friends and family began to ask which of the gowns in our shop I was going to get for MY wedding dress. Surprisingly I really didn't know. Sure there were dresses that I knew would be under consideration but I think it is hard to choose your wedding gown until you are actually planning the big day. Then when I actually started trying on gowns it was so hard to choose just one - after all, I love a lot of our gowns!

The Ones that Got Away: I loved these gowns but sadly I could only choose one.
Clockwise from top left: "The Brownstone" by Lela Rose, "Dana" by Caroline DeVillo ID Collection, "Lindsey" by The Vineyard Collection, "Callie" by The Steven Birnbaum Collection, "Laurel" by Amy Kuschel Bride, "Cloud 9" by Lela Rose, "Emily"by Fancy, and "Bella" by Caroline DeVillo Couture.

Here are a few things to keep in mind when dress shopping that I learned during my gown search:
- Not everyone will have that "this is THE dress" moment. So if you find a dress you love but don't start crying about it, don't take that as a sign that it is not the dress.
- Wedding dresses by their very nature are pretty and sometimes it can be hard to separate loving a pretty dress from loving a dress for you
- Try not to have preconceived notions. A dress you love should not be discounted because it is not what you pictured yourself in - you never know how you will look in something until you try it on!
- When trying on a lot of dresses they can all start to blur together. We ask brides to rank their top three so that they can narrow down their favorites as they go along.
- If you are having trouble deciding between a few gowns here are some other factors to consider:

• Which dress do you feel better suits your style and personality?
• Which dress better fits your venue and wedding theme?
• Which gown do you think your fiance would like better?
• Which gown better fits your budget?

After taking all of the above under consideration, here is the gown I chose:

"The Woods" by Lela Rose

Let me know what you think! I'm excited!

~Karin

New Designer- Amy Kuschel!

It's official!! After many weeks of fawning over her wedding gowns, we finally chose our eight favorite dresses and placed our sample order with our new designer Amy Kuschel! If you aren't familiar with Amy, she is a boutique wedding gown designer based in San Francisco who 10 years ago had the ingenious idea of making, “beautiful and affordable couture wedding dresses for the sophisticated, modern bride.” Like some of our other designers Amy constructs each gown in her studio and she uses real fabrics- as you all know Karin and I are sticklers for real fabric! We think she is a perfect fit for Something White and we can’t wait for our dresses to start arriving in January!

Dietrich- we love the high neck and low back!

Hope- she would be perfect for a destination wedding!

Kennedy- we LOVE this all over real lace dress!

Piedmont- She will be full length when she arrives at our shop and we
love everything about her especially her lace sash!

What's Your Bridal Style?

At Something White, we feel that our gowns have several distinct personalities and we recently changed the way our gowns are displayed to reflect these personalities. To further inspire our brides we posted ideas that compliment each personality. So the question is...what's your Bridal Style? See below for our styles and an example of a gown in each category.

Glam without the Sparkle

Coco Rocha proves you really can have it all on your wedding day.  Check out the below video to see for yourself.  The wedding is extravagant and glamorous, creating a perfect backdrop for her dress…even though there is not one sparkle to be found on her gown!  Rather, her Zach Posen creation focuses on interesting lace patterns instead of sparkles, making it glamorous and interesting without stealing the focus of the woman wearing it!
 

http://nymag.com/daily/fashion/2010/08/watch_videos_of_coco_rochas_we.html  

Being of the less-is-more mindset ourselves, this is clearly a gown any Something White bride would love.  If you are looking for a gown with a similar aesthetic here are our top picks for gowns that emphasize lace rather than sparkle:

The Lighthouse by Lela Rose

Madeline by Caroline DeVillo

            

Wedding Dress Shopping - the Silhouette

Shopping for a wedding gown can be intimidating to be sure. Upon entering a bridal boutique brides-to-be are met with dozens if not hundreds of gowns to choose from. So where to start? One quick and easy way to narrow the field of eligible dresses is to select the dress silhouette (i.e.: the shape of the dress) that you prefer based on your personal taste and how flattering you find the cut. Below are descriptions and pictures of the most common silhouettes:

A-Line
Shaped like the letter it is named for, this style is often found to be universally flattering, likely because the style is pretty basic. However don’t confuse “basic” with “boring”. The simple lines of this style – narrower at the waist with a skirt that widens softly – make it classically elegant, and nearly a fail-safe choice. When in doubt, start with the A-line.






Ball Gown
Those who are after the ultimate princess dress will be drawn to this style. Narrow at the waist, the skirt immediately flounces out into a full skirt. However if you are petite I caution you to keep the flounce under control- you don’t want to get lost in it!






Mermaid/Fluted
While Disney’s Little Mermaid wore a ball gown silhouette to her wedding (she was marrying a prince after all!) the style of this cut is named after her pre-human figure—it fits snugly at the hips and fits closely up to the knee where it flares out. A fluted style is similar although it is a bit less dramatic.








Sheath
Similar to the mermaid silhouette with one exception – the sheath does not flare out. This cut looks particularly flattering on tall individuals.










Empire
Another option that will flatter many figures is the empire cut. Instead of at the waist, the skirt starts just below the bust, flowing straight to the floor Jane Austen style.







Once the wedding dress silhouette is decided upon, the road to finding the ultimate wedding gown will be that much smoother.

~Karin