DRESSed to Impress

Let's talk about the dress! We all know how important the wedding dress is to the bride. It is one of the first things purchased for almost every bride to be. Just because your wedding will be taking place on the trails it does not mean that the dress loses its importance. It might actually be even more important now that you are eliminating & scaling down all other classical aspects of a wedding.

Before you choose you dress (even for classic venue-bases weddings) it is important that your dress matches the "theme" of your venue or outdoor setting. When you think about someone having their wedding on the beach, do you immediately imagine the bride having a whispy, light, and delicately flowing dress? That is because that type of dress matches the "theme" of having your toes in the sand, hair flowing in the wind, and next to the beautiful ocean.

The same thing applies when you are choosing the PERFECT wedding dress for a backpack-wedding! It might matter even more now that you have to consider the fact that the dress will need to remain presentable after it has been packed away in your backpack for the entire hike. This blog will talk about a few main qualities to search for in a dress that leads you to picking the proper gown!

The first quality I want to talk about is LENGTH. The last thing you are going to want is an extra long train. You might want to consider getting a dress that doesn't have a train at all. Of course, the train is always absolutely stunning in photos! So if you can't bare to sacrifice having a train, make sure you are purchasing a dress that is capable of being bustled. Having a long train while you are out on the trails might become an inconvenience for you. Walking through rocks, dirt, sand, brush, and tall grass might become difficult if there is extra length on the gown.

The second quality I want to discuss is MATERIAL. Wedding dresses are precious, and are typically stored with much care, and probably even steamed moments before the bride gets dressed on her special day. This is not a luxury you will have while you are out on the trails. You will not be able to hang your dress in a dress-bag in a closet. Nor will you be able to steam wrinkles and other imperfection out of the dress. Although, what you WILL get to do with your dress is pack it tightly in a backpack, hike with it stored away for multiple hours/miles, and keep your fingers crossed that it looks acceptable by the time you have reached your destination. So pick a dress made out of materials that do not wrinkle easily! From my personal experience, lace materials, and other synthetic materials keep very well after being stored in a backpack.

Lace materials are meant to stick close to the skin. So when lace is worn all the imperfections are suddenly invisible once you are dressed in the material. Lace also tends to be a heavier material; which means the weight of the material pulls most wrinkles out of the fabric. Look at how well the lace keeps in the images throughout this blog post.

Happy dress hunting!!! If you have any questions or comments feel free to contact me through the 'CONTACT' page on my blog!