Our top 5 tips to find the Perfect Elopement Wedding Dress

Your wedding dress is hands down one of the most important parts of your wedding or elopement, and it’s often the things that you start thinking about the moment the planning commences (or even before!).

Maybe you have had an idea about your perfect wedding dress since we were a child; you may have watched all these rom-com movies and taken note of all these amazing dresses, or maybe you even saved folders of a whole bunch of dress ideas, or you already have a Pinterest board set up with inspiration!

Elope Wedding Dress: How to find the one

Your dress essentially sets the tone for your elopement and there are a lot of things to consider before you can start the actual shopping. Finding the perfect elopement dress can be scary, exciting, time-consuming and sometimes even stressful, which is why we thought it would be important to give you pretty wives-to-be a few little tips and tricks to keep in mind as you start shopping for elopement dresses!

 1. Choose your venue before you choose your elopement dress

Do you have any ideas about where you’re thinking of eloping? Of course, we love the idea of destination elopements and running off to so many of these beautiful places. But it’s really an important thing to find an appropriate dress for your venue, so it’ll stick in line with your theme and work with your environment. You don’t want to be eloping on a sandy beach, wearing a huge meringue dress that makes you sweaty, just because of how heavy it is.

Sticking inline with your style and theme makes the overall look of your elopement tie together beautifully and ensures that all elements of your elopement tie together perfectly (including your photos!). You want to be able to capture the moment and memories, so finding a complimentary style is key to your overall elopement aesthetic.

2. Buy the elopement dress first

If your dress is something that’s really important to you and you know you have to get a dress that you’ll fall in love with, start budgeting for it after all your big expenses, like flights and accommodation. Your dress is most likely going to be one of the most expensive items at your wedding, so we suggest buying this first and then splurging on décor and your elopement essentials. You don’t want to find the perfect dress and then realize it’s not going to fit your budget because you’ve invested in the little things that maybe weren’t that important after all.

3. Work your way up

Try the simplest, most affordable ones first and then work your way up; it’s the most cost-effective way of dress shopping. Give the small boutiques and “out of date” runway dresses a chance, you may end up surprising yourself.

4. Dress budget: prepare for the unexpected

If you’re eloping abroad, one of the things you have to consider is your wedding dress – how will you transport it safely to your destination? If you chose a big dress, travel arrangements might be tough. You’ll also need to be prepared for dry-cleaning arrangements, for those “just in case” moments. Taking care of your dress is a top priority; your dress is now your new little baby! You’ll also have a suit that’ll need taking care of too!

Tip: take a mini steamer with you for emergency wrinkles!

5. Be true to you

This applies to all aspects of your elopement!

You’ll always be happiest when you’re doing the things that make you happy! Remember to know who you are and what you want. Being true to you also means being true to your body, and knowing what looks good and what doesn’t. We’re all women with different shapes and sizes, and this is something we all need to be aware of. Often you’ll be looking through magazines or runway shows with models showing off different gowns, but what looks good on one person, might not look good on another. So go with what looks and feels good on you!

This also means knowing what you want for your elopement dress, without other people influencing your decision. Eloping means you get a lot of stress out the way, in terms of who you’re inviting, everyone’s food needs, plus ones, and all those arrangements that come with a traditional wedding… so don’t be tempted to let people who aren’t going to be there, determine what dress you’ll be wearing.

Your day, your rules!

We hope these simple tips helped you in finding the perfect elopement dress and we would love to see some of your very own elopement wedding dresses! Tag us on Instagram, dreamelopements, so we can see what you eloped in. We’d also love to hear about your experiences while shopping for a dress – tell us in the comments below!