It helps to have established a wedding date and venue to ensure that the gown is appropriate for the season and location, especially for the Sacramento Valley’s sizzling summers.

“A lot of dresses out there have so much structure that they’re very heavy and very hot. Sometimes [brides] forget when they are in a store where it’s air-conditioned,” says Carn, whose own designs are sewn exclusively from silk.

“Yes, it’s sparkly and beautiful. But the bottom line is that when you are dripping with sweat, you’re not pretty.”

The venue is also important to match the gown to the tone. A more casual dress, such as a tea-length dress, might work for a destination or smaller wedding, where a more formal look would be de rigueur for a large church ceremony.

The best wedding shopping starts at home: browsing through books and magazines, surfing the Internet and establishing a budget.

“It’s real important to make sure the bride has a clear idea of how much she is willing to spend,” says Jennifer Davis-Murai, assistant manager of House of Fashion. The midtown Sacramento bridal gown shop carries some 1,500 styles. Prices start at $500 and top out at about $5,000 at House of Fashion, though the national average for a wedding gown is between $800 and $1,000, says Colorado-based wedding expert Alan Fields.

As brides browse images of dresses online and comb through magazines, Elena Carn of Lana’s Bridal Studio in Carmichael suggests they start a scrapbook to keep track of likes and dislikes, then bring it with them once they start shopping. “From there, we can add and subtract to flatter,” says Carn who, with her mother, Lana Haggard, specializes in custom wedding designs and alterations.

Alan Fields who, with wife Denise, is author of Bridal Bargains: Secrets to Throwing a Fantastic Wedding on a Realistic Budget (Windsor Peak Press) and owner of the website, bridalgown.com, advises frequenting message boards to connect with other brides. He also puts a lot of stock in spending time learning how the industry works—and searching for discount alternatives.

Big hips? Short frame? Ample curves? Wedding dresses come in enough cuts and silhouettes to flatter a variety of figures (though usually with professional alteration).

The “A-line” gown hugs the bust and waist, then flares from the sides. It is a very forgiving cut, particularly for the pear-shaped or hippy figure, says Desiree Brown, a bridal alterations specialist since the mid-1980s and owner of the “Perfect Wedding Dress Finder” website (perfect-wedding-dress-finder.com).

A basque or drop waist falls about two inches below one’s natural waistline and often dips to a point in front. This look can appear to elongate the torso—good for shorter brides, says Davis-Murai of House of Fashion. “Believe it or not, I think the strapless gown looks good on the curvy bride,” she adds.

Then there’s mermaid or “fit to flare,” which hugs the body and widens just below the knee. The style cycles in and out of fashion, Brown says, “and is not [one] that most brides can wear.” “It’s all about how something fits you,” says Jeannette Weaver of PS Bridal, an online retailer of plus-size bridal gowns. (PHOTO BY ARTISTIC IMAGERY)

Don’t procrastinate in finding a dress. Most bridal shops only carry one dress per style, and in a single size. That means most brides will have to order their gowns. (David’s Bridal, with some 300 stores to its name nationwide and a large off-the-rack inventory, is a notable exception.) It routinely takes three to four months for the dress to come in, and longer if working with a top-end or European designer, says Fields.

Some manufacturers will expedite the order, but charge as much as $300 to do so.

Bridal wear sizing is a tricky beast, and can affect some shoppers’ self-esteem. So before you head out, remind yourself not to fixate on size, and try to find something that fits. Each manufacturer calculates things differently. A 36-inch bust line may correlate to a size 12 for one company, a 10 for another and a 14 for a third. The quicker a bride learns to go by the dressmaker’s sizing chart, the better. Accurate measurements of the bust, waist and hips do not mean alterations will not be needed, but they do ensure that the most fitting size will be ordered. And if one’s measurements fall between two sizes, opt for the larger one to be safe, Brown advises.

Nearly all gowns will need alternations, and this stage requires more than one fitting and adds more time to the process. Alterations-specialist Brown, who’s based in Virginia but consults with brides all over the world, says her clients are increasingly ordering dresses through online retailers or auction sites such as eBay, all but guaranteeing extensive alterations.

“By the time they come to me, they don’t realize they bought the wrong size or are seeing wrinkles and crinkles,” she says. “Or they would just not read the size charts right, and I’m dealing with a dress that’s three or four sizes too small—and they can’t send it back.”
Don’t let this discourage you entirely from shopping online. Just beware of sizing and inquire about condition of the gown.
Wherever you get your gown, expect alterations. “Some women assume that when their measurements are taken that the dress will come in to fit perfect to those measurements,” says Davis-Murai, who estimates that 90 percent of House of Fashion’s bridal clientele require alterations. “[But] bear in mind that not everyone is proportioned like the designer's size chart, so a size must be chosen that will fit the largest part of [the bride’s] body and then be altered down.”

Not every bride-to-be will get bridal gown burnout, but some will. You visit so many stores and see so many dresses that you can’t remember what you liked at what store, or if you even tried on anything that would work.

Roseville resident Alexis Greenhut, 29, can relate. She will marry Michael Narodovich in March 2010 on a Mexican beach near Cancun, in a strapless mermaid-style gown that she picked out just before succumbing to “white out.”

Greenhut was engaged for a year or so before she started shopping for a wedding dress; the couple’s relocation from Philadelphia and new jobs delayed the mission. Her mom and two sisters flew in from Ohio to join her when she finally set out in February, 13 months before her wedding.

Four or five stores and nearly two dozen dresses later, Greenhut was done. She bought her ivory-toned dress at David’s Bridal in Roseville for $1,000. And she considers herself lucky to have gotten out so quickly.

There are more dress styles for the plus-size bride than there were a decade ago, but shopping for a plus-size gown can be a logistical and emotional headache, says Kimberly O’Ney of Citrus Heights. (For those of you who can relate, check out plussizebridal.com, an online retailer for larger brides.)

O’Ney, 29, has envisioned her wedding day since childhood. She began browsing for a dress before her engagement to Casey Tucker last April. Still, it took four months to visit a store because she knew few, if any, shops would have size 24 gowns.

“Lots of people . . . think if you’re big, you need to cover yourself up. But really, that makes you look worse,” says O’Ney, who works for Blue Shield of California.

O’Ney continues to do her homework. She knows an A-line with a sweetheart neckline or v-neck halter will be most flattering. With the wedding set for Oct. 10, 2010, O’Ney believes she has enough time to be and feel radiant on her special day. She also has the support of her fiancé. “He loves me just the way I am . . . Sometimes he just stares at me and says, ‘How did I become so lucky?’”