One of the most exciting parts of planning a wedding is what you will wear! Enter ‘The Dress’ (or, ‘The Outfit’ – these days, who says it needs to be a dress?).
But where to start? Shopping for that perfect attire is exhilarating and fun, but can also become quite overwhelming. In this blog post, we’re listing some wedding dress shopping tips and some of the best wedding dress designers in South Africa to help get you going.
Wedding dress shopping tips:
- Figure out your budget first, as this will help you refine your search. There’s no point looking at dress designers that charge R30,000 + for their creations when you have a budget of R10,000 or less.
- Have an idea of the ‘theme’ or style of your overall wedding to help guide your wedding dress choices. For example, a princess-style dress may look out of place in a boho-style setting.
- Choose your shopping mates wisely. Bring a trusted crew of family or bridesmaids, but limit your entourage to three or so people. Having too many opinions can make the wedding dress shopping experience unnecessarily confusing.
- Take a look through the galleries and social media accounts of some of South Africa’s top designers to see whose style you like. Once you’ve found your favourite, contact them to set up a meeting or arrange a fitting.
The best wedding dress designers in South Africa:
Elbeth Gillis has over 20 years’ experience in the wedding dress industry. Her look is sophisticated and timeless. Although she is based in Cape Town, Elbeth is willing to help brides who live outside the Cape Town area. She’ll need at least one physical appointment and will keep you updated throughout the design process.
Emerging designer Sadie Bosworth specialises in creating one-of-a-kind bridal gowns that are characterised by unique ethereal quality and unmatched attention-to-detail. Sadie is based in Durban (originally from our little town of Hilton), but her dresses can also be found in a Cape Town boutique. She makes bespoke garments and has gowns available to view at her Durban studio by appointment.
Exciting bridal couture comes standard with Janita Toerien, a creative enthusiast who is dedicated to unique, sophisticated creations. Her team is missioned to reflect the bride’s personality and show off their body type, whatever either of the two may be.
Cindy Bam is a firm favourite with South African celebrities. This Cape Town-based designer creates luxurious gowns that evoke drama and glamour of past eras, still with a modern edge. Cindy and her team take every care to ensure that her bridal couture creations are carefully fitted and celebrate the sensuality, romance and spirit of women.
Bride&co has long been South Africa’s industry leaders in wedding wear. With ten stores spread around South Africa, the stores offer a wide variety of dresses from designers such as Oleg Cassini and Viola Chan (who design exclusively for Bride&co).
When it comes to a ‘one-stop-shop’, this is it! Bride&co also sell wedding shoes, beautiful jewellery, various accessories, bridesmaids’ dresses and men’s suits.
Kobus Dippenaar is particularly well-known for his skills in creating detailed corsets. He designs and styles your dream dress according to the entire wedding image, considering shoes, make-up, hair and the look as a whole.
Natalia Trisolino’s dresses are handmade individually, known for a feminine, sophisticated and subtly sexy look. She designs dresses for brides as well as flower girls, bridesmaids and mothers. Natalia can also make accessories like waistcoats and ties for the groom and groomsmen.
Demetrios is a wedding dress designer icon. He offers a wide and versatile style of dresses which are loved by brides worldwide. From cutting-edge to traditional, his repertoire is as broad as it is beautiful.
Happy shopping!
On behalf of the Harrington House team, we’d like to wish you all the best with your wedding dress search. It’s just one of the aspects of your perfect wedding day, and we’re ready and waiting to help you with all your venue-related planning and preparation: https://www.harringtonhouse.co.za/contact/
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