Top Six Wedding Dress Trends for 2009/2010

Our current wedding fashion trends feel really diverse – you can have a wedding gown style based on pretty much any era of fashion and still be extremely fashionable.

So what’s in store for this year and next? What wedding dress styles are hot, or going to become hot? Some leading wedding gown designers were asked that same question, and the following are what they predicted.

1. Sexy Slinky Silhouettes
If you’ve got a fab figure (or fantastic suction underwear!), now is the time to do a victory dance – sexy, figure-hugging wedding dress silhouettes will be hot for the next couple of seasons.

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2. Ballgown Styles
For those who loved the wildly ridiculous yet fabulous gowns in Gone with the Wind (*blush*), and for many of us who want to disguise our thighs, ballgown style wedding gowns are back. Fabulous! Ballgown wedding dresses have many rather wonderful upsides, including squishing you into the shape you desire, giving you fabulous cleavage, and being impossible to remove on your own .





3. Fifties style wedding gowns
This is the one I’m really very pleased about – I always have and probably always will love 50′s style glamour. There’s something about the whole belted waist idea that makes me happy. And the Stephanie Allin gown on the left is probably my current favourite gown of any I’ve seen (…and I see a LOT).


4. Mermaid Style Wedding Gowns
Apparently mermaid style wedding gowns are also a fifties influence, and thinking about it, one of my favourite dresses of all time is the dress Audrey Hepburn wore to the races in My Fair Lady – an extremely tight-fitting mermaid style gown.



5. Tea-length wedding dresses
Tea-length wedding dresses are fabulous for a more casual, less traditional wedding, especially if you have a nice pair of pins and some knock-out shoes. Once again, the 50s influence is shining through!



6. Grecian Goddess wedding dresses
Are you in touch with your inner goddess? Grecian style wedding dresses are hot at the moment – high-waisted with floaty materials, they would make me look like a mountain, but if you’re slim and smaller breasted, it’s a style that could look stunning.

Wedding Dresses and Body Shape Part

Body shape plays such an important part in what wedding gown you will suit. If you go to a decent wedding shop, they should be able to give you a look over and recommend a style, hopefully in a more tactful manner than Trinny and Susannah!

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So what suits the hourglass figure? Well, as the bearer of an hourglass figure (yippee!), though sadly with short arms and legs and a long torso (curses!), I can start by telling you what hourglass figures DON’T suit, and that is anything that doesn’t go in at the waist, but rather hangs from the chest. It creates a rather unfortunate ‘shelf’ illusion, which will only make you look pregnant. So avoid empire line dresses (ala Jane Austen), and box jackets – they’ll do you no favours.


On the other hand, us hourglassers can embrace the fifties styles with relish – anything that pulls in at the waist and emphasises it is superb. Corset bodices will also make you look wonderful, and your groom’s eyes pop (just don’t do it up too tightly, or your eyes will pop too…!).



Fishtail skirts will make your legs look longer (big tick!), but avoid bias cut skirts – they’ll add a bit too much curve to your bottom half. Also avoid lots of pleating and ruffles, as they’ll make your bottom look bigger than your top half, turning you into a pear! A-line skirts are fab on hourglass women.

Wedding Jewellery for a Square Neckline

Today we have a guest post from Susan who owns Wow Tiaras – I met Susan at a bridal trade show, and was thoroughly impressed with how beautiful (and intricate) her jewellery is. You can buy her jewellery online at her Etsy store – go check it out for a drool (and purchase!) session. Anyway, over to Susan.


I absolutely love this elegant gown by Ana Cristache. It caught my eye whilst checking out the website for Emma Payne’s new Knightsbridge bridal boutique, and on closer inspection its definitely my favourite dress from the new collection. It’s beautifully understated and to my mind the simple silhouette evokes forties hollywood glamour. The unusual square neckline presents a couple of issues when thinking about accessories and as someone who designs jewellery, I wanted to share a few of my thoughts.





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The neckline on this gown is quite high and as it’s a definite feature I would avoid wearing a large neckpiece which will only detract from it. A ‘Y’ shaped necklace or one with a large central ‘drop’ will only fight with the bodice edge. If you absolutely must have a necklace with a square neckline I’d go for either a single strand of smallish pearls worn at the collarbone or a dainty pearl choker worn higher around the throat.

My own preference would be for alternative finishing touches such as a substantial bracelet, glamorous earrings or a sparkling hair comb or clip. (I’d probably wear all three being a bit of a magpie!). Choose earrings that are on the dainty side and keep the true ‘shoulder-dusters’ for a strapless gown. I’d avoid spoiling the polished look with a tall spiky tiara and would instead suggest pinning your hair up softly or catching back one side above the ear and adding a sparkling hair jewel. Finally, a heavy cuff bracelet will add a touch of decadence for those who feel that ‘sparkly headgear’ is just not their bag.

Picking the Dress

I am very happy to say that the dress has been picked!! I am not going to give it all away that easily though…

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As many brides before me I have become obsessed with tuning into TLC each Friday night to watch Say Yes to The Dress and have been prepping myself for this moment for some time.

I have always had a specific image in mind when I imagined what my wedding gown would look like. I wanted strapless, a sweetheart neckline, lace with a little bit of sparkle and something that screamed timeless beauty.

Unfortunately, in my initial search at David’s Bridal (in July 2009) I didn’t have much luck finding anything that fit that description. There was one dress that came close, but it didn’t give me that feeling I needed to know it was “the one”. In fact, I can’t even recall what other dresses I tried that day because I was so disappointed with the whole experience.




So my search continued and I scoured the web for inspirations and designers that I liked. Of course I came across some of the most gorgeous Jim Hjelm gowns and fell in love with the pictures I saw. Here was one of the favorites that I found, but never sought her out to try on (I knew I could never afford one of these beauties.)
And then I found Maggie Sottero’s gowns and had a feeling that I would be able to walk down the aisle in one of her gowns. The designs are stunning and they offered many that would appeal to my criteria and the kicker was that they are very affordable for the look and quality you receive. In my initial searches I fell hard for these two gowns.


At the time I had yet to see either in person so I made plans to visit a bridal shop in my hometown that sold Maggie gowns. Unfortunately, when I called to ask about the two gowns they didn’t have either. They did however have something in-between both and assured me it was worth the trip. I figured it couldn’t hurt to try what they had out and on the Monday before Thanksgiving that is what I did.

It was the third dress I tried on and Mom began to cry and I got that giddy feeling thinking it might be the one!

Now there is one thing you must know about me, I am a slightly very indecisive person and have reserves about every decision I make. This was one of those moments. I loved the dress, but I wasn’t 100% sure. Not because I didn’t think it was the one, but because I wanted to see it in its perfect fitting form on my body right then and there! I wanted the satisfaction of knowing exactly how this dress would fit each curve of my body and I didn’t want to wait 6 months to find out. And, after sitting on the thought for a day I could not shake the dress from my mind. So a day later I went with Mom and Dad (had to make sure Dad approved) and made my final decision.


And, because I have a sneaky groom , you will have to wait to find out what dress I have chosen. What I will say is that it is everything I could ever want in a wedding dress and that I can’t wait to walk down the aisle in it!

Did indecision get the better of you when you were trying on wedding dresses?

Latest Wedding Dress Fashion – Ballgowns

For all closet Disney Princess dress style lovers, you can come out – ballgown is back. Top designers all agree that ballgown is going to be a dominant style this season, so if you drooled over Gone With the Wind, you’re in luck!

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Of course, if you really are a mad keen Disney Princess style lover, you could always go for the real thing – Disney have launched their own bridal range…!