Bridal Rush Hour: Buy Your Wedding Dress Before Your Gifts

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Fact: Rush hour truly does exist – especially in DC. We all know the phenomenon: leave right now and get to work in 20 min vs leave in 20 min and get to work in 1.5 hours. Timing for ordering a bridal gown is kind of like rush hour, and January is the start of that rush hour.

The start of winter holidays marks the start of Engagement Season. And why wouldn't you want to get engaged at this time of year? There's a joyfulness in the streets, a happier energy in the air... at time, you can literally feel the love in the air. This kind of romance makes me weak in the knees!

Of course, once these brides get engaged, many of them will rush to get their dress in time for the summer wedding they always dreamed of. Consequently, the designers (and us) get SWAMPED.

So here's the secret: if you are already engaged, buy your dress now. It is much more likely to take 6 months or more for your wedding dress to arrive than if you order before the New Year. And trust us on this, the less time you have to wait for your wedding gown to arrive, the less stress you will feel before your own wedding.

As an additional bonus, you may find the shopping experience to be more relaxing instead of visiting a salon at the height of Bridal Rush Hour.

So give yourself a little extra holiday cheer by purchasing your wedding gown before the New Year. This will leave you with less stress all around, and crossing this item off your Wedding Checklist will give you even more to celebrate with your loved ones this holiday season.

The DC Ladies Recap: The Long and Short of Wedding Planning

The other day Kellie dished out some guidelines for where to start in the overwhelming world of wedding planning. What we didn't mention was how the length of your engagement may affect how you approach your planning. Luckily, Margo has this topic covered. We have Margo's recap below; the full article is here. Margo is the owner of The Bright Occassions, a local boutique wedding planning company.

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Long Engagements

  • Enjoy being engaged, but stay away from wedding magazines or blogs!
  • Budget and save.
  • Set a general wedding date and planning start date.
  • Do not ask your bridal party before you start planning.
  • Use your time wisely.
  • DIY projects.

When couples first get engaged, they are often bombarded with questions from family and friends.  One of the advantages of a longer engagement is that you can take your time before answering all of their questions.  If you know your engagement length will be well over a year, avoid jumping into planning, reading wedding magazines or browsing blogs/Pinterest for ideas.  Take a few months to enjoy being an engaged couple before you start to overwhelm yourself with all of the options and planning.

Short Engagements

  • Consider Hiring a Wedding Planner.
  • Start with the Who, Where, When, and How.
  • Know what you need to do first, enlist help.
  • Discard the unnecessary.
  • Limit your options, and move on once a decision is made.
  • Consider the untraditional.

If you are planning a wedding in 6 months or less, there will be a lot of decisions to make and not a ton of time.  Having a Wedding Planner can help in a lot of ways!  Perhaps the biggest way, is that as a professional they are not planning a wedding for the first time, they can move quickly providing the appropriate venue and vendor options that are available your date and budget.  In addition, they can help manage your time, provide design solutions, as well as contact and negotiate with vendors on your behalf.