Depending on your wedding dress search you may have discovered bridal sizing is so much smaller than regular sizing. You may be wondering how on earth are you a regular size 10 in dress but a size 14 in bridal. Almost all wedding dresses run small, and most times brides find themselves sizing way above their street size.

First, let’s go over why that is and we’ll start off with the history of wedding gowns. Weddings gowns first started in Europe in the 1940s, unlike the rest of the wedding industry not much has changed when it comes to sizing. Since wedding gowns began in Europe and their size charts run much smaller than American sizing chart, we have an entire industry based on different sizing charts. The European size chart for weddings was created so many decades ago, and all human body types have evolved since. Most of the time brides are required to wear two sizes larger than their American dress size and depending on the gowns sometimes even bigger. The last thing the bridal industry is trying to make you feel is larger than you actually are, all designers and retailers want you to feel confident and beautiful in wedding gowns!

Our advice at Beloved Couture Bridal is to completely forget about the sizing, and let the bridal stylist figure out that part for your during your appointment. We want all our beloved brides to focus on our stress-free environment all while guiding brides to be and providing support throughout this process. We understand wedding planning can be stressful and overwhelming, but wedding dress shopping should be the exciting part!

Here's a guide on how to measure for all beloved brides to be!

To begin here’s our favorite all time measuring tape which makes this process 100 times easier! It features a lock pin, allowing you get the most accurate measurements.

Measuring Tape

Step 1: Begin with a full-length mirror and measuring tape, if possible, get someone to help you out! Tip: Do not pull in too tight or leave out extra tape. If someone is not around to assist you make sure to wrap from the back to the front so you can read the numbers!

Step 2: You want to start off with your bust measurements, to get an accurate measurement wrap the tape around the fullest area and under your arms.

Step 4: Now for the waist, unlike the bust area you want to measure at the slimmest part of your waist. Which usually tends to be right above your belly button and under your ribcage.

Step 5: Next is the hips, like the bust you want to wrap the fullest area of your hips which includes your bum.

Step 6: Finally, you want to measure your length. Unlike what we may believe this begins at the top of your shoulders and you should measure from the front of your body to the floor!

Recommendations:

For body-hugging styles, like mermaids, fit and flares, trumpets gown we recommend selecting the size that best matches your measurements. For more free flowing styles such as A-line, ballgowns, and princess gowns we recommend focusing on your waist and bust measurements. The trick is to choose the size that’s the biggest of the two. That way you have a little bit of wiggle room!