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If you’re a bride planning your wedding, there’s a good chance you have a Pinterest board dedicated to your big day. And if we had to guess, there are probably quite a few wedding dresses saved on that board, too. Maybe you’ve been pinning dresses for months, or maybe you’ve had your dream gown saved since long before you were even engaged. You may have a very specific vision in your head of what your wedding dress is supposed to look like, and honestly, we love that! Pinterest can be such a fun place to gather inspiration and start figuring out what catches your eye. But here’s something we want every bride to know before she walks into a bridal boutique: your Pinterest board is inspiration, not a promise. The dress you’ve been saving over and over may not be the dress you ultimately choose, and that is completely okay! Your Pinterest Board Knows What Catches Your Eye, But It Doesn’t Know You One of the interesting things about Pinterest is that you can look at hundreds of wedding dresses without ever actually putting one on. You see a beautiful bride in a fitted crepe gown and immediately save it. Then you see a romantic lace A-line and save that one, too. A few scrolls later, there’s a dramatic ballgown with a gorgeous train, and suddenly that’s your new favorite. Before long, your Pinterest board may have a little bit of everything. That doesn't mean you don't know what you want. It simply means you are discovering what you like. A picture can tell you that you love a certain neckline, fabric, silhouette or detail, but it can't tell you how that gown will make you feel when you put it on. That is where trying on wedding dresses becomes so important. You may walk into your bridal appointment convinced you need a fitted wedding dress because that's what you've been pinning, only to discover that an A-line gown makes you feel incredible. You may think you want a simple, clean wedding dress and end up falling in love with lace. You may swear you don't want sparkle and then find yourself standing in the mirror completely in love with a gown that catches the light from across the room. And that isn't a failure of your Pinterest board. It's the fun part of discovering your bridal style. The Dress You Love Online May Feel Completely Different in Person There is something very different about looking at a wedding dress on a screen and actually wearing one. A photograph doesn't tell you how the fabric feels, how the gown moves when you walk, how comfortable you are, or how you feel when you look in the mirror. It also doesn't show you how a particular silhouette works with your own proportions and personal style. That's why we encourage brides to come into their wedding dress appointment with an open mind. Bring the Pinterest board! Show your Bridal Bestie the dresses you've been saving. Those pictures can actually be incredibly helpful because they give your stylist an idea of the details you naturally gravitate toward. Maybe every dress you've saved has an open back. Maybe you're always drawn to a defined waist. Maybe you keep pinning clean satin gowns even though you originally thought you wanted lace. Your stylist can start noticing those patterns and use them to help you find gowns that incorporate the details you love. But then comes the best part: you get to see what you love on you. Your Wedding Dress Has to Work for Your Real Wedding, Too Pinterest doesn't know your wedding budget, your venue, your timeline or how you want to feel on your wedding day. A gorgeous gown online may look perfect for a grand ballroom wedding, but maybe you're getting married at a beautiful barn venue in Central Texas. Maybe you've always pictured a dramatic ballgown, but once you start planning your outdoor summer wedding, you realize you'd rather have something lighter and easier to move in. There is nothing wrong with changing your mind. Your wedding dress should make sense for your actual wedding and, most importantly, for you . At Sloane Bridal, we work with brides to find gowns that fit their personal style while also considering their budget, wedding plans and overall vision. Our bridal gowns typically range from $1,800 to $4,500, giving Central Texas brides a variety of beautiful options to explore. What If You Fall in Love With Something You Never Pinned? This happens all the time, and honestly, it's one of our favorite parts of being a bridal boutique. A bride walks in and says, "I don't want an A-line," and then an A-line gown is the one she can't stop thinking about. Another bride says she absolutely doesn't want sparkle and ends up saying yes to a gown that lights up the room. Someone else comes in looking for a completely different style and discovers that the gown she never would have chosen from a rack is the one that makes her feel like a bride. Sometimes your Pinterest board gets you to the appointment, but your bridal appointment introduces you to something you didn't even know you were looking for. That's why we don't want you to feel like you have to have everything figured out before you come in. You don't. That's what we're here for! Don't Compare Your Body to the Brides You See on Pinterest This is one of the most important things we want to say to every bride who is wedding dress shopping. The woman in the Pinterest photo isn't you, and you were never supposed to look exactly like her! Wedding dresses are photographed in specific lighting, with professional styling, posing and angles. Your body doesn't need to look like the bride in the picture for you to look absolutely beautiful in the gown. When you come into Sloane Bridal, our goal isn't to recreate a Pinterest photo. Our goal is to help you find the gown that makes you feel beautiful, confident and completely bridal. Because when you look in the mirror, we don't want you thinking about whether you look like the woman from the photo. We want you thinking, "I feel like a bride!" Your Pinterest Board Is Allowed to Change So, what should you do with your Pinterest board before your wedding dress appointment? Keep it! Save everything you love. Save the dress with the sleeves. Save the fitted gown. Save the ballgown. Save the clean crepe. Save the lace. Save the dress that makes absolutely no sense with the rest of your board but somehow keeps catching your eye. Then bring those ideas with you. Your Pinterest board doesn't have to become your wedding dress. It simply gives you a place to start. Once you step into a bridal boutique and start trying on gowns, your vision may become clearer. You may discover that you love a silhouette you never considered. You may realize that one tiny detail from five different Pinterest dresses is actually what you've been looking for all along. Or you may put on the exact gown you've been dreaming about and know immediately that it is your dress. There is no right or wrong way for it to happen. Finding Your Dress in Central Texas If you're searching for wedding dresses in Central Texas, Sloane Bridal in Temple, Texas, is here to make the experience fun, personal and as stress-free as possible. We welcome brides from Temple, Belton, Killeen, Waco, Austin, Georgetown, West and surrounding Central Texas communities, and we love being part of such an important moment. Our personalized bridal appointments give you time and space to enjoy the experience with your favorite people while working one-on-one with your Bridal Bestie. We'll listen to what you love, pull gowns based on your inspiration and help you explore styles you may not have considered! Most importantly, there is no pressure to walk through the door already knowing exactly what your wedding dress needs to look like. Bring your Pinterest board. Bring your ideas. Bring your questions. Bring an open mind. Because the dress you say yes to may look exactly like the one you've been saving for months. Or it may look absolutely nothing like it. And either way, that's okay. Your Pinterest board was never supposed to predict your future wedding dress. It was simply supposed to inspire you. Your dress is the one that makes you stop looking at the picture and start picturing yourself walking down the aisle. And we can't wait to help you find it. Ready to Start Wedding Dress Shopping? If you're looking for a bridal boutique in Temple, TX or Central Texas , we'd love to be your Bridal Bestie. Schedule your private wedding dress appointment at Sloane Bridal and let us take some of the stress out of finding the gown you've been dreaming about. You bring the Pinterest board. We'll bring the gowns, the fun and a whole lot of bridal love!