Random questions 💍

For dress shopping: do whatever you'd like. I went twice. Once with just my mom, and I tried on a variety of dresses to get an idea of silhouettes/necklines and such. Then, the 2nd trip is where I actually found my dress. I had my mom, future mother in law, MOH, and 1 bridesmaid (the other 2 bridesmaids lived out of state) with me, so it was really nice to find my dress when I was with (almost) everyone. Just remember, you may find the dress on your 1st trip or you may have to make more than 2 trips to different stores before you find what you love. However, nothing says you need to buy the dress the same day if you want to come back with other people. For the processional song: same thing--up to you! Some people like having only 1 song for everyone. Others like to have a song for the bridal party and a separate one for the bride. I opted to have a separate song for myself, but I've seen it done both ways on a number of occasions.


Make sure to check out all the free planning tools on Wedding Wire and The Knot. I primarily used The Knot when planning my wedding, and it was great. I prefer the forums here, and there's tons of lovely brides in a similar situation of planning their wedding without a professional planner.

Dress shopping is totally up to you; you might find too many opinions many skew your own. I wouldn't separate your girls vs your mom, MIL-to-be, I'd just plan on one trip with those you think will support you and give you loving, honest opinions. Then, if necessary, follow up trips as needed with who is available when you are.

The processional is totally up to you! I had different songs for me/bridesmaids because I had been dreaming of my bridal/bridesmaids processional songs since I was a teen. But if there's one song that you want to hear a good chunk of and would prefer continuing from bridal party to you--totally fine!

October 2022 bride here too! For dress fittings, since I had absolutely no clue where to even begin, I booked a style only appointment with a boutique near me and invited my MOH and a bridesmaid who live closer to me. I did that because I had very little confidence that I would actually find "the dress" and me and my girls got to just have some fun for a few hours looking at everything. They gave me some advice, but a lot of it was me just deciding what I liked by myself.

I have another appointment coming up at a different boutique that I'll be going with my mom and grandma. I love them, but I also know they have some pretty different opinions on stuff than I do. I wanted to look without them first so I know what I actually do prefer and will feel better about putting my foot down if needed with them (my mom got married in a dress she didn't like because my grandma refused to pay for the one she did like. I don't want that happening to me.)

I booked my first dress appointment while I was visiting home (I live in NJ but am from Nebraska) and took my step mom, sister and MOH, and that really was to give me ideas of what styles I like and what works with my body type. I plan on scheduling more appointments here in NJ and since those three are in Nebraska, I'll go with two bridesmaids and my FMIL.

My sister just got married and had two different songs for wedding party processional and her walking down and it was nice. She had a solo guitar player for all the music in the ceremony and it worked well.

I had my mom and my two MOHs go with me. I thought I would end up needing more than one day of shopping, but I ended up finding my dress at the first store and loving my experience. The way I did it was I booked my appointment first and then directly after we did the bridesmaid appointment since I had both of my MOHs there and they could try on twice the number of dresses at once. They also have completely different skin tones/hair and eye colors, so I knew if I could find something to look good on both of them, it would look good on the rest of my girls as well. My mom & I have very similar taste and my MOHs are great so I didn't have a problem going with the 3 of them at all. It was a super smooth and happy experience. I think the place you shop will end up affecting your experience as well. I know it certainly made my experience all the better.