1. Go to a fancy boutique for your first experience. At least for your first wedding dress shopping excursion (if not all of them! ;)), make an appointment at a fancy boutique. Having a private room, pretty couches to sit on, champagne to sip, and a bridal consultant to help run and grab you dresses and give advice will help make your first shopping experience being amazing and special. It's your wedding dress, and some might say the most important fashion choice of your life! Even if you fully intend to go bargain hunting for a wedding dress at a sample sale or overstock retailer, having that first boutique experience will help you figure out what styles and designers you like. And it's fun!

2. Bring 1-3 close family members/friends. Especially for your first time trying on dresses, try to limit the number of people you bring with you to a small number of your closest family or friends. Too many opinions can start to get overwhelming, and isn't super helpful. For my first time dress shopping, I brought my mom, sister, and soon-to-be mother-in-law.

3. Try on styles you don't expect to like. My secret wedding dress Pinterest board was filled with fitted, trumpet dresses. The bridal consultant asked me if I wanted to try on an A-line dress. I agreed (because why not?), but expected that the fit wouldn't be flattering on me and that I wouldn't like the style. I tried on a couple, and absolutely fell in love with one of them (photo above). I was so surprised by how much I loved it! It was definitely a different feel than the other dresses I had been trying on-this one was more romantic and soft, while the others were a bit more glam. While I ended up choosing a different dress in the end, the moral of the story is, be open to trying on different styles!

4. Sleep on it. It's okay to let the consultant know at the end of your dress consultation that you're not ready to make a final decision that day-in fact, you should probably plan on not making your decision day-of your first time trying on dresses. I ended up trying on dresses at a couple other places after my first time trying on dresses, and there was one dress from the first boutique that I couldn't stop thinking about. I literally dreamed about it! When I saw that none of the other dresses I tried on compared to the one I kept thinking about, I knew that was the dress for me.

5. Go with your gut. While it's fun to show friends and family pictures of the dresses you're deciding between, keep in mind that everyone has their own opinions, but what matters is that you love the dress you choose. If you have two beautiful dresses that you're deciding between, some people will love dress #1, and some will love dress #2. At the end of the day, you'll have to decide which dress is the most you.