How To Choose Perfect Maternity Bridal Gowns

Hello, I'm Ellie. And I'm Charlotte, and we own a bridal boutique in Southwest London called Ellie and Charlotte. We've been making wedding dresses for the least ten years and we're going to show you some of our top tips on finding your perfect dress, and accessorizing.

I'm going to talk to you on how to choose a maternity wedding dress. First you must decipher how pregnant you're going to be on your wedding day, because this is obviously going to affect the shape and the style of your wedding dress, and what size to get. You also need to check with the shop the lead times on ordering because you obviously want to order as close to the mark as possible to make sure you're getting the correct size.

Or if you're getting something made especially for you, your fittings will be quite close to your wedding. So, let's talk about shape. Something as traditional as this isn't really going to work as a maternity dress simply because it has something around the waist, which is going to restrict over the bump.

Or you can choose, ideally, a traditional empire line which is great because all the detail is at the top of the dress and the fabric should sit nicely over the bump. A few key things to think about when choosing an empire line is for one to make sure if you're buying off the peg, that it is a maternity dress. So you need to make sure there is going to be enough fabric catered for in the pattern over the bump, and also to make sure that the length is correct.

If you're having a specific dress made, we'd obviously cut these so that's not something you'd need to worry about. And the other shape is our traditional sort of empire line which comes into the waist. Just because you're pregnant, doesn't mean you have to loose your shape.

So this has the detail at the back. Again, a really nice idea because it's emphasizing on the waist and you can wear a bra and this is always comforting at this time in your life. The other thing is, as Ellie seems to be modelling here, you can see how well the empire line suits the bump.

It's also nice to have a low, round neck simply because it proportions the body nicely over the bump. Anything too high is going to sort of disproportion your body and the dress isn't going to sit so nicely. So, what we're doing here is framing the bump, we're not disguising the fact that Ellie is pregnant but we're framing it and still giving her shape.

You also need to consider fabric. A structured fabric over a pregnancy bump is not so ideal because it will stand away and just make you look fat. We always suggest using a more fluid, slinky fabric which frames the bump beautifully and again isn't disguising it, it's showing off that you're pregnant.

and that's how to choose a maternity wedding dress. .