Something Borrowed, Something Blue, & Something Styled for You
And something different than what 27 Dresses meant for Katherine Heigl in 2008.
I’m in the mood to start acting like a bride.
You might be slightly scared by this statement, like my fiancé was when I casually said it in the kitchen last night. But fear not, because if you're close to me, you know I've deliberately kept my wedding (and the other events associated with it) at arm's length, terrified I'll morph into a bridezilla or someone whose entire personality becomes talking about their wedding. That's probably something to unpack with my therapist, not with you, sweet reader. Nonetheless, I'm here to tell you I'm changing my laissez-faire tune because in no time, this fleeting chapter of my life will be solely memories. So here I am, stepping into my bridal era. Call me out if I get out of line.
We’re doing some unique things for our wedding from destination celebrations to intimate family gatherings and a lineup of events that require more than just the quintessential dress. I've already said yes to "the" dress, but I have quite the fashion journey ahead spanning multiple events, locations, and vibes that I need to figure out. And I’m not the only one in this camp—of the other seven weddings I’m attending this year, most involve multi-day affairs or various events where I know the brides are feeling the same wardrobe pressures.
What would save my sanity and my style (but not my wallet) is an investment in a bridal styling service. From Real Weddings in Vogue to tips from podcast guests on Liv Perez’s Let’s Get Dressed, the evidence is clear: brides are on the hunt for their big fat wedding wardrobe. And the smart stylists of the world have noticed, creating an entirely new category of service to bridge the gap between Pinterest and panic.
Industry: Styling
CX Themes: Simplicity, Personalization, Expertise, Status
TL;DR: What used to be exclusive for A-listers is now available to just about anyone with a smartphone. The new fairy godmothers of fashion are connecting the dots between saved folders and “where do I even start?” for brides-to-be who are consumed with juggling seating charts and family drama. With a few taps on your phone and an extra line in your excel budget, you can go from 17 open tabs to personalized outfit recommendations suited to your unique aesthetic and venue(s).
From Church Punch to Champagne Towers
When my grandparents got married in 1961 in Nashville, Tennessee, their reception was in a church basement. No bachelor/bachelorette trips, no destination weddings, no second dress—just cake, some punch, and the beginning of a marriage they’ll be celebrating 64 years of in a few months.
While times have changed a bit over the years, some are still keeping it simple and sweet. I’m always reminded of this when I swipe past this screenshot I snagged on Christina Viviani’s (RIP The Great Eros) Instagram story from September of 2023:
Simple and sweet is probably not how my friends and family are describing our affair, though, and I’m fully aware of the irony at play here. If you’re a friend renewing a passport to come to our wedding… I love you!
The Business of Bridal Styling
When I was little and thought of getting married, I dreamt of a Vera Wang dress that I assumed I’d find at David’s Bridal. In reality, I ended up going to a boutique shop that one of my stylish friends had recommended and bought the second dress I tried on (not Vera Wang). I’m almost bummed I found the dress so quickly because I had such a great time drinking champagne while trying on dresses in front of my mom and grandma. Luckily I still have more shopping to do—a statement that would give Father of the Bride’s George Banks a heart attack if his daughter was getting married today instead of in 1991.
With five events top of mind related to my wedding, I’m entering a styling journey larger than what crossed my mind when I envisioned Vera as a child. Thanks to social media, there are many inspiring resources at my fingertips. I’ve been taking notes on which ones are doing exactly what I need them to do and which ones leave me feeling fatigued about this supposed-to-be exciting process.
From podcasts to Tik-Tokers to bridal salons, here’s my breakdown of five brands/people I’ve looked to as I seek style direction and what I’d do if I were running their show:
1. Let’s Get Dressed
Podcast by .
I’ve been listening to Let’s Get Dressed for a few years now, but I really fell in love with Liv’s episodes when she leaned into her bridal era and brought in guests to speak about theirs as well. Last summer she wed at Soho Farmhouse in the Cotswolds, U.K. and I thoroughly enjoyed her deep dives in wedding planning and styling leading up to her big day, as well as lessons learned after the fact. More recently, she’s pulled Olivia Culpo and Brooke Puth onto the show to talk about their bridal styling journeys.
What’s Working Well: For starters, Liv is a solid interviewer—not something I can say about all other podcasts I listen to. It’s an art! She knows when to let her guests speak, what questions the audience wants answers to, and when to dive deeper. Her passion for styling and weddings come through authentically, so she’s a good listen because the excitement is genuine and the advice is thoughtful. Having already gone through the wedding process herself, she knows the right questions to ask and is good at pulling out recommendations her listeners can explore on their own. As a CX girl, I appreciated the part of the episode with Brooke where they talked about which platforms were crushing e-commerce and made it easy to find things, like Shop Vintage Collection, Moda Operandi, and Mytheresa, where others require more work to dig for what you’re looking for, like SSENSE.
What I’d Do Next: I know this isn’t a bridal podcast, but I’d love to see the data behind how episodes with the mention of “wedding” perform in comparison to others. I have yet to find a bridal podcast I love, and if I were passionate about weddings (which Liv seemingly is, or at least was for her wedding) and the data shows strong performance on that topic, I might explore creating a separate avenue to focus solely on bridal content. If another podcast is not in the cards, I think Liv should continue a monthly episode related to bridal styling with brides or stylists. Up next, I’d love to hear from Caroline Thorpe Goldberg, Nicole Brydon Bloom, Selena Gomez, Nina Dobrev, and Hailee Steinfeld about how they have or are approaching their wedding styling.
2. Happy Isles
By-appointment vintage bridal salon in L.A. and New York.
Like many other brides, I love the idea of wearing something that won’t be splattered across at least 70% of brides on Instagram and TikTok, which is why Happy Isles is a great choice. Their collection offers one-of-a-kind pieces from the 1930's to the early 2000's with a focus on designer labels.
I have abandoned their booking page more times than I can remember because booking a visit is the exact opposite of easy. And I’m not sure I will ever end up browsing their racks IRL because 1) I can’t get myself to spend $185 on an appointment with their finicky rules and lack of understanding on current inventory and 2) every time I’m in LA or NYC, they’re fully booked up. They claim to “focus on an impeccably comfortable in-person salon experience” but I fear I won’t be experiencing it.
What’s Working Well: From an outsider who hasn’t completed a salon appointment, they’re good at appearing as the exclusive IT girl of bridal salons, and they’re definitely proving to be when I see them featured on Over The Moon or Vogue spots.
What I’d Do Next: While the target audience for Happy Isles is probably not concerned with the appointment price tag, I’m expecting a better digital CX at that amount. Happy Isles is all for a comfortable in-person salon experience, but that should be translated to digital as well.
I feel strongly about the fact that if I could see everything they had to offer, I’d be way more willing to dole out $185 to get in. I want to see more activity on Instagram stories about what’s in-store. Looking at their stories just now, they’ve got a few stories up on one dress, but I don’t think that moves the needle enough. If they did try-on videos with different models on their stories with 10+ dresses, shoes, or accessories per day, I think potential customers would be more inclined to hit “book”. I know I would.
3. Little White Looks
Bridal styling, shopping, resales, & honest reviews on Instagram.
If there’s one account that every bride I know is following, it’s this one. Caroline, the powerhouse behind LWL, almost always has 20+ stories up at a time, constantly helping brides with links to cute looks and sharing honest feedback from other brides about hot pieces.
What’s Working Well: This feels like the most always-on bridal resource that is constantly spitting out new content, tips, and support. And she’s not only posting links, she has a variety of series she does content on. Thursdays are for resales, and throughout the week she also posts screenshots of DMs she gets about how a dress or shoe actually fits or feels from her community. I’d recommend her account to any bride, no matter their style, because she covers it all. It’s like having a group chat with a bridal stylist and other brides who actually respond.
What I’d Do Next: Honestly, my brain is saying “no notes” because she’s covering a lot of bases, but if I were to make a recommendation it would be to bring in guests for AMAs with popular brides that have been featured in larger publications who were passionate about their bridal styling to help other brides. I’d love more insights on lessons learned from real brides who have gone through the process as well—what they’d do 100 times over and what they wish they had done instead.
4. Doji
Mobile app removing the need to try on in-store, with users to leveraging a digitized AI model of themselves to try on clothes before buying.
Doji first piqued my interest via a post
wrote earlier this month, so I hopped on the waitlist to test the app in beta. I got accepted pretty quickly, uploaded selfies and full-body shots and the app got to work styling me. After playing around with the Clueless-esque app, I realized I could upload links from e-commerce sites to try on dresses and outfits from open tabs that’d been collecting dust; a game changer for me and my laptop that had been running slow due to excessive open tabs.What’s Working Well: I remember thinking last summer about how someone needed to build this type of AI-powered capability, so I’m really excited to see it out in the wild, even if it’s not quite perfect. The ability for users to try things on digitally instead of going through the hassle of returning something that looked great on the Barbie-like model but not their unique body is huge.
Most links I uploaded were accepted, so it was great to visualize how a color or style or fabric might look on my body, like these:
What I’d Do Next: I’m sure Doji is already aware, but their AI is still in it’s early days. Aside from my face looking a little different than it does IRL, there were noticeably incorrect visualizations of my body in some of the looks. Some of my outfits had me looking like a Sim character, with extra or missing limbs and mismatched skin tones. In many images, I was some hybrid of myself and the Revolve model—you know the one. While it’s fun to see what I’d look like in a dress if I were a barbie doll, the whole point here is to see what I would actually look like, with the body I do have. If I wanted to see a dress on the model, I wouldn’t need this app.
5. Cat Spianti
Tik-Toker doing a series called “Would You Trust Me With Your Wedding?”
My TikTok algorithm fed me Cat’s content earlier this month and I thought her twist was simple, yet unparalleled. She randomly selects a winner from her comments and then gets to creating a game plan for their look. There are plenty of personal shopping services, but her Would You Trust Me With Your Wedding? series sticks in my mind because she brings a concept to life, not just a link to a dress.
What’s Working Well: As someone who reviews creative concepts for campaigns as part of their 9-5, I respect a good brief. She doesn’t just throw a handful of “aesthetic” links at people—she crafts a vision. Recommendations are tailored to the bride’s style, guest count, venue, and even season, making it easy to picture IRL.
What I’d Do Next: More of this! I get that the TikTok grind can be exhausting, and maybe she doesn’t have time to churn out multiple videos a week like LWL, but I’d love to see a set cadence. Imagine if every Sunday, brides knew a new Would You Trust Me With Your Wedding? episode was dropping? I think it’d go viral pretty quick.
How to Copy + Paste This Into Your Own Business
You might think lessons from bridal styling don’t apply to you and your business, but I think you could steal at least one idea here:
Cut the clutter. Identify where decision fatigue might play a role in your customer journey, similarly to how a bride feels with the many decisions linked to wedding planning and shopping. Too many options = decision fatigue = abandoned customers. Hone in on your data to see what people are going for, and get rid of the rest.
Make it relatable. Speaking of cutting the clutter, using the same model that Revolve copy and pastes across each product does not help users narrow down saved items to complete a checkout. Product photos that lack diversity of customer segments means you’re missing out on users who don’t see themselves fitting into your product. Say what you want about Skims and Miss Kim K, but they follow through on showcasing products for every body. Showing your product in ways that make it click for different people will move the needle.
Series-ify your content. What type of content could you do on a consistent basis that would get people excited for a certain time/day of the week and associate it with your brand? For example, Wednesday night at 9pm EST is for The Big Silly Trivia Game (cc
) and I know on Thursdays I’m gonna see resales from Little White Looks on Instagram stories. Give people a reason to come back at the same time every week.
Thanks for reading! If you’ve got any additional bridal resources or inspiration I should check out, comment below.
Xx Kate
Reading you're in the mood to start acting like a bride was A SIGHT TO SEE! SO excited for you to step into these moments <3