By Priscilla, founder of The Real Bride
I sat in my car after my fifth wedding dress appointment and cried. I felt ugly. I felt huge. I had just been squeezed into multiple sample gowns that were many sizes too small, then sent out to a mirror in the center of the store, in front of strangers and their families.
I hated how I looked, bursting out of the necklines and armholes of these $5,000+ dresses. I hated the looming presence of the sales associates, who constantly reminded me that I needed to make a decision soon or risk paying a rush fee, even though I was shopping a full year out from my wedding.
And ultimately, I left without a wedding dress.
This experience is why I created The Real Bride and built our Try On at Home process.
How The Real Bride provides a Different Experience
I built The Real Bride to have the shopping experience I wish I'd had when I was a bride:
- Visibility into wedding dress prices from the very beginning, so you know exactly what to expect before trying on
- Flexibility to try on dresses from the comfort of your own home
- Privacy to decide who you want to be there
- Consideration that brides come in many different sizes, and that a one-size-fits-all sample is inconvenient at best, and disrespectful at worst
- And time to really consider if you love a dress enough to spend thousands of dollars on it
Ultimately, I wanted to build a wedding dress shopping experience that works around you, instead of one you have to conform to.
How To Try On at Home
I designed this process to be as simple as renting through Nuuly or Rent-the-Runway.
- Choose the samples you want to try on from our Try On assortment, select the size closest to your measurements, and then schedule a 3 day target window for your Try On.
- Pay a small shipping & handling fee, and your pieces will ship straight to your door. If you choose to make a purchase, this fee will be applied as a credit toward your cost.
- Your samples arrive at your door with dress clamps, hangers, and instructions.
- You get three days to try everything on.
- Use the prepaid return label included in your Try On box to ship the pieces back on the 3rd day.
You can also book a free consult with our team before, during, or after your try-on if you need additional support!
Our Try On samples come in multiple sizes ranging from size 0 to size 22. This means you won’t have to worry about squeezing into a sample that’s multiple sizes too small for you. And you can use our dress clamps to help tighten your pieces so that you can get a better feel for how the final, tailored look will be on you.
Wedding dresses are harder to get into than regular everyday clothes, so we recommend having someone there to help you zip up and use the clamps. While not necessary, it helps make the try-on smoother.
How to Order After Your Try On
If you loved what you tried on, you can easily order your final pieces on our site.
- Choose a standard size OR select “Custom” if you want it made to your measurements. There are no upcharges for made-to-measure pieces.
- If you selected “Custom”, we’ll send you an email with the measurements we need. We recommend having a professional tailor or seamstress measure you to ensure your pieces will be made accurately.
- Once we receive your measurements or confirm your order, your pieces will be delivered within 5 months from that date, guaranteed. So you don’t have to guess when you’ll receive your wedding dress!
We always recommend leaving time for tailoring even if you select “Custom”. Since our made-to-measure process is done completely online, it cannot guarantee a perfect fit, but rather a better fit than standard size.
What Real Brides Said About our Try On Experience
You are Not the Problem
If wedding dress shopping has made you feel huge, broke, or invisible, I need you to hear this: It is not you. The process is broken. I lived it, and then I built a different one.
I ended up scrapping wedding dress shopping completely and decided that the more enjoyable endeavor would be learning how to make my own wedding dresses from scratch, just 6 months before my wedding (I know, I know, absolute insanity). That's a long story for another day......but I have no regrets.
