How to Prepare for a Trunk Show

A trunk show is a trade: more of the collection, less time to decide. Preparation is what turns that from a pressure into an advantage.

If you are not sure what a trunk show is, start with what is a bridal trunk show. This is what to do in the fortnight before one.

Two weeks out

Book, and book early

Slots are limited by definition — the gowns are physically in the building for a few days. Popular events fill weeks ahead. This is the one step where being slow costs you the whole opportunity.

Call and ask what is actually coming

The most valuable phone call you will make.

Sometimes a trunk show is a full collection. Sometimes it is a selection. If the one gown you have been thinking about for three months is not in the shipment, you want to know that before you drive two hours or take a day off work.

Ask specifically: which Miss Scarlett gowns are you receiving for this event? Then check them against all collections.

Set your real budget

Not the gown budget. The total: gown, alterations, veil, shoes, pressing. Alterations are charged separately and are not a rounding error — how to buy a designer wedding dress breaks it down.

Know this number before you are standing on a plinth with a discount deadline attached to it.

One week out

Build a shortlist of three

Three gowns, from the list the boutique confirmed. Not fifteen.

A shortlist gives the consultant a starting point and gives you a structure. You will still try things they suggest — you should — but you will not spend the first twenty minutes of a time-limited appointment working out what you like.

If you are not sure what you like yet, work through the silhouette guide first. Silhouette before surface.

Decide who is coming

Two people, maximum.

This is not a rule about etiquette, it is about decision quality. More opinions do not produce a better choice; they produce a slower one and a bride second-guessing herself. Trunk show rooms are also busier than usual, so a group of six is genuinely difficult to accommodate. See who to bring wedding dress shopping.

Write down what would make you say yes

The most useful thing in this piece, and almost nobody does it.

Not which gown — what conditions. For example: within budget including alterations, something I can move in outdoors, and I feel like myself in it.

Under time pressure, having defined this in advance is the difference between a decision and a reaction.

The day before

• Charge your phone. You will want photographs, if the boutique allows them — ask first, many don't.
• Lay out your underwear and shoes. Nude seamless, no visible lines, strapless bra if you have one, heels at roughly your intended height.
• Skip the fake tan. It transfers onto sample gowns, and boutiques will not thank you.
• Keep makeup minimal, for the same reason.
• Eat properly beforehand. Long appointments in a warm room on an empty stomach go badly.

What to bring to a trunk show has the full list.

On the day

Arrive on time. Slots run tight during a trunk show and a late start eats your own appointment, not the next one.

Try your shortlist first, while you are fresh and can still tell gowns apart.

Do the practical tests. Sit down properly, walk the length of the room, raise your arms, look at yourself from the side. The minimalist wedding dress checklist works for any gown, not just plain ones.

Ask what the discount is and what it applies to. Get it clearly — the amount, and the deadline.

Deciding under a deadline

The discount is real and it is also designed to make you decide inside the window. Both things are true.

If you were going to order that gown anyway, take the discount. Do not let the discount decide the gown.

If you need a few days, ask whether the boutique can hold the price. Some will and some won't, and either answer is useful information. Trunk show discounts, explained honestly goes further.

A gown you were unsure about, bought to save a few hundred dollars, is the most expensive saving of the whole wedding.

After

If you order, the boutique takes your measurements and places the request; the sample travels on. What happens after a trunk show covers the sequence, and wedding dress fittings and alterations covers what happens when the gown arrives.

To find an upcoming event, see trunk shows, or book an appointment and tell us where you are.