With just over three months until my wedding day, I’ve begun the dress fitting process. And it is quite some process...

I’m having a couture gown by Phillipa Lepley which requires between 6 and 11 fittings. For some their idea of hell, for me, controllers or those nursing fallen designer ambitions, pure heaven. It goes a bit like this: the first is a quick appointment to take many more measurements than I knew existed. At the second I stepped in to my toile - the cloth version of the dress - and we looked at the neckline and shape, tweaking as we went, the results of which will be made in to another toile which I’ll try at the next. Then the perfect toile becomes paper which then becomes silk and the fun flourishes are added.

At each you meet these wonderful brides in the waiting room buzzing with excitement and eager to tell their tale. Here it’s totally acceptable to wallow in the magnitude of your good fortune and boy, do we.

Phillipa Lepley's The Owl and the Catherine Wheel dress

But whether you’re going for made-to-measure (2-3 fittings) or couture (6 plus), it’s important to get the most out of them.

Wear flattering, up-lifting, modesty-covering underwear.

Hopefully you’ll have photos of you in the shop sample from the day you decided it was the one. Take these with you. While it won’t have fit properly, it will act as a reference of the shape you liked and why you chose it. It’s always embarrassing to pose for pics in the shop but it serves as an important reminder later on. After all, you wait months for your first fitting and the dress’s detail is often a distant memory by then.

Have your wedding heels to get the length perfect. At Phillipa Lepley they store them at the studio until your final collection. Ask if your atelier can do the same as it saves you carting them around to each fitting and keeps them spotless.

Have the confidence to say if you’d like something changed. If a marginally loose skirt or strap is bothering you now, it will on the day and its memory beyond too. This is perfectionist territory and quite right too.

If you want a second opinion, take the person who attended the dress shopping with you.

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