Following our insightful event, The Wedding Collective, with Rachel Morgan, founder of The White Gallery, we sat down with Rachel to bring further insight into her work.
1. How did you decide to open up a bridal boutique?
An endless love for fashion, building a beautiful home that had space to create something special and becoming a mum all provided me with the opportunity to change my career and choose something that would provide me with a better work and life balance.
2. What’s your favourite thing about what you do?
The sheer joy in a bride’s face when she finds her #dreamdress. I’m very much a people person and I love to be kind to everyone and get great enjoyment from spending time with brides at one of the happiest times in their lives. I love putting looks together for our brides, listening attentively to what they love about styles they try on, what they don’t love so much, and then choosing a dress or accessories to create their dream dress.
3. What’s the first thing a bride-to-be should think about when starting the search for their wedding dress?
Time is so precious and we are all so busy. My advice for brides is to do their research and choose one or two boutiques that they would love to visit. You can get a vibe from the Instagram & reviews on Google to ensure that you choose your most suited boutiques. We often get brides that only come to The White Gallery as we stock a beautifully curated edit of designers that are each so different.
I think it’s really important to have a clear idea of what you would like to set aside for your wedding dress spend and ensure the boutiques you’d like to visit have designers that are within your budget.
Wedding dress shopping should be a beautiful experience and you should keep an open mind and allow the stylist to recommend some styles for you to try!
4. How far in advance of the wedding should brides be choosing their dresses?
Most of the designers we stock, the lead time is 6-8 months and we love to have our brides’ dresses arrive two months before the wedding…so 10-12 months before the wedding is perfect. We are finding that more and more brides are being super organised and start looking for their dress about a year out from their wedding date!
5. What are some common misconceptions about wedding dress shopping that you often encounter?
Everyone always says that you’ll choose something you never thought you would wear! It’s one of the most common phrases I hear; but it doesn’t relate to our brides so much. TWG brides are quietly confident girls, that want something that is quite timeless yet has a little bit of drama so that it can reflect their individual personality.
6. What factors should brides consider when setting their wedding dress budget?
We have chosen to work with luxury brands who use the most amazing fabrics and the quality is in the finer details. Therefore the prices of dresses that we have in our boutique start at €3,500 and go up to €10,000 for a Vivienne Westwood Couture Ballgown style.
My advice to brides is to be realistic and truthful to yourself…if you’ve got a particular figure in mind then try to stick with it.
The only other cost to consider and factor in when decided on your wedding dress budget is the alterations. We are one of the very few boutiques in Ireland that offer this extremely important part of your wedding dress journey in-house. You can expect to pay an average €300-€350 depending on what alterations are needed.
7. Are there any interesting dress trends for brides-to-be to follow?
To be honest, our designers each have their own very specific looks, fabrics and tailoring – meaning that they are instantly recognizable without the need to follow trends. Some of the trends for next year that we’ve seen at New York & Barcelona Bridal Week are; dropped waists, ruffles and textures, bows are still having a moment and bumble hems are something to look out for!
8. What style do you associate with each brand of wedding dress you offer?
The Vivienne Westwood signature look is her incredible corset which is incredibly flattering whether you are disguising a small chest or need to support a larger bust! The draping in luxurious fabrics also features in this collection.
Halfpenny London is the Queen of bridal separates…allowing brides to choose an incredibly bespoke look that has all the bits that they love to create the perfect wedding look for them!
Christie Nicole is bridal couture meets high fashion using really strikingly unique, stunning fabrics – think handsewn pearls and floral appliques, dreamy Ostrich feathers and layers upon layers of tulle.
Laure de Sagazan is Parisian Chic, understated, romantic and effortlessly beautiful.
Rime Arodaky is for the modern bride looking for something that’s fitted, super sophisticated yet sexy and has gorgeous details.
9. For you, what role does the wedding dress play in the smooth running of the wedding?
I truly believe that once a bride has chosen their dress that they can really start to enjoy all other aspects of planning their wedding! They can start to plan their bridesmaids style, they can start honing in on colour schemes and they can start thinking about what way they’re going to style their hair & make-up. The dress also dictates the style of shoe and how they are going to accessorise…which can really elevate a bride’s look!
On the actual wedding day, the most important thing to consider is if you are comfortable in your dress? If you’re comfortable then you’re confident! As well as looking fabulous, you want to ensure you enjoy wearing your dress and to do that you’ve got to feel comfortable. Having your dress tailored to perfection will also ensure that you can move around with ease and party all night!
