Determine Your Body Type for The Perfect Wedding Dress

After getting proposed to (and sometimes even before for brides who anticipate the great moment), the next exciting step to that special day is to choose the wedding dress. For some brides, this proves to be a very enjoyable part of the journey, especially when they have a shape that compliments almost any style dress on a rack.  However, let's face it, the majority of women have many different shapes and sizes, and hence turns the wedding dress selection process into a very stressful event.  We need to realize that no matter what our physical make-up, we can definitely look beautiful on our wedding day. With a bit of insight and education, it is my hope that these series of blogs can transform this task from being very stressful to very enjoyable.

Therefore, the first step into finding the right dress is to determine exactly what your body type is. Every woman strives to have an hourglass figure, where their waist is accented and shows proportion The key to dressing each body type is to result in an hourglass figure, even if you don't have one.  Whether you're full-figured, slim, short or tall, there are distributions of weight in every body type that are broken down as followed:

• Pear Shape: This means your hips measure larger than your bust, hence giving you a pear shape appearance. If this is your body shape, the most flattering type of dress would be an A-Line dress where the smaller part of your body is accented and then flows out to cover the fullness of your hips. This will definitely give the appearance of an hourglass figure.  The unique part about an A-Line dress is if your body type is an inverted pear - bust measures larger than hips - it will still enhance your body type and give an hourglass effect. Examples of customized A-Line dresses can be found at Light In The Box

•  Square or Round Shape (also called the Diamond Shape):  This means that all your measurements - hips, bust and waist - are pretty close to one another. In order to create a hourglass shape on this body type, the waist or bust area must accented. Choose a dress that has a concentration on or gathers at that area; for example, a dress with a ribbon around the waist or underneath the bust. Even dresses with a fuller skirt (not exactly an A-line) and a beaded bodice will help to accent the waist.  Fuller sleeves will create a fullness on the upper body by offsetting the waist and hips and giving off a more hourglass shape.   Here are some examples of such dresses found at Jorma Bridal.

• Hour Glass Shape: This means that your bust and hips are almost equal within an inch or so (i.e. 36-24-36), and your waist is smaller than the other two measurements, within 4 inches.  Brides who are blessed with an hourglass shape do have a wider choice range in the dress style.  However, the most appealing dress style to this shape is the mermaid type wedding dress. Here are some examples of such dresses found at David's Bridal.

 In a more general sense, a bustier bride will look best in open neck or off the shoulder gowns, full figured brides also look great in a v-neck gown.

I hope this information has proven to be very helpful.  Our next blog will be focusing on the bridal party and dress selections for them.