Define Your Wedding Style
Today's wedding gown marketplace offers a delightful confusion of options and styles. The bride-to-be is faced with selections that veer wildly from sleek, form-fitting sheaths to Glinda-the-good-witch confections. The bride can choose to look like a medieval queen or a fairy princess; she can don a tailored suit or bare her midriff and expose a diamond-studded navel.
Before you start fantasizing about the length of your train or the details on your sleeves, you need to ask yourself a few questions in order to narrow your search. Question 1: What style of wedding do you want? Formal, informal, or somewhere in between?
Whether you realize it or not, you probably have a good idea of the general style of your wedding, even if you haven't yet chosen your location or decided on the size of your guest list. Look at the following broadly drawn definitions and see which one best matches your vision. If you can adopt one of these categories as your own, it will help inform all kinds of future decisions and help you select everything from flowers to guest accommodations.

THE FORMAL WEDDING
"Formal" comes in many packages. For actress Vivica A. Fox, it meant arriving at the Los Angeles Park Plaza in a horse-drawn carriage decorated with flowers and tiny lights. For Melissa Rivers's formal wedding, Manhattan's Plaza hotel was transformed into a scene from Imperial Russia, complete with white birch trees, antique candelabra, and footmen in powdered wigs. But whether it takes place in a palace or in the church around the corner, virtually all formal weddings have a few things in common.

A formal wedding is one in which you will most likely:
Have a religious ceremony in a cathedral, church, synagogue, or other place of worship
Have a full reception in a hotel ballroom, a mansion, museum, country club, cruise ship, or other upscale location
Have assigned dinner seating at the reception
Outfit your groom and his groomsmen in tuxedos, traditional morning coats, or other formal attire
Dress your attendants in matching gowns and shoes

For a formal wedding, you'll probably want to limit your gown choices to those which are:
White or off-white
Floor length
Outfitted with a cathedral-length or chapel-length veil, plus a train in the same length
Made from luxurious fabrics such as silk, satin, velvet, and/or brocade
Graced by a Queen Anne, bertha, or wedding-band collar
Detailed with seed pearls, lace, jewels, beading, sequins, etc.
Accessorized with gloves
Worn with a tiara or other formal headpiece

THE SEMIFORMAL WEDDING
This vast category includes all sorts of weddings, some of which might mix formal with informal. Kate Winslet, for instance, was married in her family church, but she held her reception at a local pub, where guests ate bangers and mash and danced the jig. More often, however, a semiformal wedding is one in which you might choose to:
Have your ceremony in a chapel, garden, private home, or a sentimental or scenic location
Host a sit-down or buffet-style catered reception outdoors under a tent or welcome your guests at a hall, restaurant, seaside pavilion, private function room, etc.
Dress your groom in a tux or a suit with a four-in-hand tie
Have only a few attendants and groomsmen in coordinated outfits
Skip certain traditions, such as the receiving line or announced introductions
For a semiformal wedding, your gown choices might include:
White, off-white, or pale pastel tones
Ankle-length, tea-length (just above the ankle), or intermission-length hem (anywhere between the knee and the ankle)
Styles ranging from costume-historic to ballerina to avant- garde
No train, but perhaps a long veil, short veil, pouf, or a headpiece without a veil
Stylish or festive gown fabrics such as silk shantung, taffeta, tulle, charmeuse, chiffon, or organza

THE INFORMAL WEDDING
Often, an outdoor setting is the star at an informal wedding. However, like its formal and semiformal sisters, the informal affair can take many forms. Consider the nuptials of actor Russell Means, who is of Sioux heritage: At his wedding to Pearl Daniel, who is half Navajo, traditional Native American singers and dancers performed to the sound of drumbeats, and guests dined on buffalo and mutton. The bride wore an eggplant blouse, a velveteen skirt, and moccasins.
An informal wedding might include the following:
Nontraditional or personally written vows recited in a private home, on a pier, on the beach, on a rooftop, in a nightclub, etc.
Buffet-style dinner, or picnic, clambake, barbecue, etc., with nonassigned seating
Groom outfitted in expressive, unconventional attire
Few or no attendants
Creative new traditions in place of the garter ritual, bouquet tossing, etc.
An informal bride might consider wearing:
A dress that strays from traditional shades of white into more adventurous colors such as lavender, pale yellow, blush pink, etc.
A two-piece dress, a suit, a tunic outfit, a sundress, a sarong, a simple sheath, or palazzo pants
A crown of flowers
Earrings and hair ornaments in lieu of a headpiece and veil
Details that reflect or celebrate the setting, such as leaf or shell motifs

TIME OF YEAR
Another important, and undeniably practical, consideration when shopping for a gown is the season in which you plan to marry. In the bad old days, a bride simply wouldn't wear a strapless gown in January; today, those notions of seasonally correct attire have been thrown out. However, there are fabric and style choices that lend themselves nicely to each season.

For winter weddings, you might consider:
Heavy fabrics such as satin, brocade, and velvet
Long sleeves
Higher necklines
Silver or gold accents
Headpieces that incorporate a hat, possibly made from fur or feathers
Fur or faux fur trim, or a stole or muff
Kid gloves
Lace-up wedding boots
Bridal coat

For autumn weddings, good choices might include:
Medium-weight fabrics such as taffeta, raw silk, silk shantung, silk-faced satin, and silk gazar
Sweetheart, bateaux, or scoop necklines
Lighter-weight trains
A snood
Autumn-toned embroidered detail on the dress
A decorative shawl
Three-quarter length sleeves or above-the-elbow gloves
A mantilla made of heavy lace

For spring weddings, you might try:
Fabrics such as silk tulle, organza, or charmeuse
A pillbox hat or a decorated headband, with or without a veil
Tea-length or intermission-length skirts
Cap sleeves or off-the-shoulder neckline with short gloves
Open-toed shoes
Summer wedding favorites include:
Cool fabrics like linen, polished cotton, chiffon, tulle, and organza
Spaghetti strap, halter, strapless, or backless styles
Two-piece dresses with hints of bare skin at the midriff
Short, medium-length, or ankle-length skirts
Wide-brimmed, polished straw hat or picture hat
Fresh flower headpiece, with or without a veil
Strappy sandals

PRICE CONSIDERATIONS
Your wedding gown might be the most expensive dress you purchase in your whole life. Or not. Sharp-eyed, budget-minded brides might be able to pick up a dress on sale, right off the rack, for as little as $300, then pay for any needed alterations. The sentimental bride might honor her heritage-and save a bundle-by wearing her mother's or her grandmother's wedding gown (again, alteration costs might apply). But the average bride can expect to pay a minimum of $800 for her gown, depending on her taste and where she shops. Designer gowns usually start at about $1,500, and can cost upwards of $10,000.

A general rule is that the bride's attire should represent 6 to 15 percent of the entire wedding budget. That final figure should include the cost of a headpiece and veil (about $150 to $400); bridal shoes ($60 to $300); lingerie ($50 to $120); and accessories such as jewelry, purse, gloves, wrap, etc. (allow $100 to $500 or more, depending on the look you're going for).

DEFINING YOUR PERSONAL STYLE
There is a tiny bride that lives inside every woman. She may be very small and very quiet, and you may not have realized that she was even there. But she has been there all along, and you'll know it the minute you walk into a bridal shop. That tiny bride will cause you to do alien things like squeal with joy every time you see a bit of white lace or a cunning cap sleeve. She'll make you attracted to ultra-feminine dresses with gobs of appliqu?d detail; she'll steer you directly toward all kinds of gowns that, ten minutes ago, you would never have been caught dead in. If you're not careful, your inner bride will become so loud and so demanding that she'll take over your entire body and mind. And you will become the Bride Possessed.

We've all known at least one possessed bride. She can become so fixated on a picture she has in her mind that she insists on buying her fantasy gown, even if it makes her skin look sallow and her hips look wide-a fact that she discovers only after seeing herself in her wedding photographs.

So take note: If you wear tailored clothes in your day-to-day life and have a closet full of minimalist suits and conservative shoes, chances are you won't be happy in a frothy gown with miles of taffeta skirt-even if you (or your mother) develop a crush on it while you're in the bridal shop. Conversely, if you're a girl who loves fanciful garb and lives to dress up, a simple sheath probably won't make you happy, no matter how fine the fabric or elegant the cut or how much your best friend loves it on you.