Try-at-Home Wedding Dress Party Ideas

Perhaps you’ve heard about try-at-home wedding dress parties and how they’re an excellent alternative to traditional bridal salon shopping in this digital age. With all of the bridal necessities at our fingertips thanks to online shopping, more and more brides prefer to get samples online so they can try wedding dresses on at home before they buy their dream gown. In fact, there are try-at-home bridesmaid dresses too, so now you can get the whole bridal party together for one big celebration while everyone tries on dresses together from the comfort of your own home. Beginning to see the appeal? In case there’s any lingering doubt about the perks to throwing a try-at-home wedding dress party, let’s take a look at why you should have one. Then we’ll dive into party planning ideas so you can make the most of your experience with trying on wedding dresses and bridesmaid dresses at home.

Why Should I Have a Try-at-Home Wedding Dress Party?

In this day and age, there are so many reasons to consider having a try-at-home wedding dress party instead of going on an old-fashioned bridal boutique trip. It’s so easy to have a better overall experience trying on wedding dresses from the comfort of your own home, and here are just a few reasons why that’s the case:

With a Try-at-Home Wedding Dress Party…

• There’s No Rush. Try before you buy wedding dresses make it possible to take your time with friends and family. You can try things on at your own pace without rushing through an appointment to explore as many samples as you can before it’s the next bride’s turn.
• Sizing is Better. When it comes to a salon, what’s there is what you have to work with, no matter how much bigger or smaller the sample style is compared to your actual size. When you try on wedding dresses at home, plus size to petite options are more readily available among online sample catalogs, so you’re more likely to find a try-at-home wedding dress that’s close to your size.
• You Skip the Crowds. Why wait in a crowded salon for your turn in an equally crowded fitting room when you can throw your own try-at-home wedding dress party? Then the crowd is as big or small as you wish it to be because the only people you’ll be around are the ones who you invite! Bump elbows with people you want to be near instead of complete strangers vying for the same samples you hope to try on too.
• You Get an Intimate “Say Yes” Moment. With try-at-home wedding dresses, there are no other brides and their entourages around to distract you and your loved ones from that special moment when you fall in love with your yes dress! It becomes an intimate, cherished moment shared only by you and your chosen guests.
• You Can Be Yourself. When you plan a try-at-home bridal party, there’s no need to agonize over what you can or can’t wear in public, what you should or shouldn’t drink while out and about, or what the proper etiquette might be at certain bridal salons. At home, you can be as comfortable or dressy as you want to be, eat and drink what you prefer, and simply be yourself…you’re at home! And you know what they say: Your house, your rules!
• There’s No Pressure. After all of the help and support of a salon specialist and trying on multiple samples at the salon, many brides feel an unspoken pressure or expectation to make a purchase, whether they’ve fallen for a special gown or not. You can avoid that push to buy entirely with try-at-home wedding dresses. In fact, with Avery Austin, there’s zero pressure through the Try at Home Program. If they don’t fit, you simply return them and can select a new batch of dresses to try. If you find the one, then you can deduct the cost of your Try at Home box from your purchase (but more on that next).
• It’s Affordable. Try-at-home wedding dresses at Avery Austin are only $15 per sample to try (up to three dresses at a time). So for $45, you can try on three stunning wedding dresses at home before you buy, then if you choose to buy one of the styles you liked, that money spent on the sample box can be deducted from your purchase, making it free to try on the wedding dresses at home! Even if you don’t fall for the initial samples you tried, there’s a good chance you’ve learned more about what you're looking for after seeing what doesn’t work for you. That makes it even easier to build your next Try at Home box with styles more suited to you.
• You Can Keep the Sample If You Love It! Maybe that sample fit you so perfectly that you want to keep it instead of ordering a brand new gown in that style. Avery Austin’s Try at Home Program allows you to purchase the try-at-home wedding dress sample! Since it is a sample, there’s a 15% discount applied to the purchase, but you are encouraged to closely examine the gown beforehand since it has likely been tried on many times before you. Learn everything you need to know before buying a sample wedding dress in Avery Austin’s sample wedding dress blog.
• Bridesmaids Can Join Too. Try before you buy bridesmaid dresses are an option too! Instead of just a try-at-home wedding dress party, it can become a try-at-home bridal party! Along with all the fun that comes with dressing up with your friends, just imagine how great it would feel to say yes to both your wedding gown and bridal party dresses all in the same day. Be sure to check out Avery Austin’s try-at-home bridesmaid dresses too before you finish checking out with your try-at-home wedding dresses, then you can get to planning your party around the arrival of both boxes!

Whether you choose to just focus on trying your wedding dresses on at home or you want to explore pairing that experience up with trying on bridesmaid dresses at home too, you’re sure to save both time and money in the process. You can also keep the stress low when planning your try-at-home wedding dress party with a little advice from Avery Austin! Read on for more details about who to invite and how to plan.

Who Should I Invite to a Try-at-Home Wedding Dress Party?

When it comes to inviting guests to join you for a try-at-home bridal party, the same rules apply here as they would for shopping at a salon: Invite those you want to make memories with! Focus on people who will help you feel confident, proud, and happy and leave out those who only bring negativity, criticism, and judgment. Invite as many as you feel comfortable having in your home (since there are no salon room limits to consider). You can include people who might not have been able to easily travel to a salon by setting up virtual options (like a video call).

One final piece of advice when it comes to deciding who to invite to your try-at-home wedding dress party: Trust your gut. If you know you can handle navigating through a sea of conflicting opinions on bridal styles and stay true to yourself, then go ahead and invite those contrary friends or cousins who like to play devil’s advocate with you. On the other hand, if inviting certain people to your try-at-home wedding dress party fills you with dread, then trust that feeling. It does not matter if certain family members are insisting that you invite specific people. It is YOUR home and YOUR time to find a bridal gown to love. If your gut is telling you that certain people will make you uncomfortable or trigger your self doubt, then it is absolutely acceptable to draw your boundary and hold firm to your decision.

How to Plan a Try-at-Home Wedding Dress Party

You’ve ordered your try-at-home wedding dress (and maybe even try-at-home bridesmaid dress) samples, so now it’s time to get down to the nitty gritty details of planning your try-at-home wedding dress party! We’ve already covered the “why” and “who” of try-at-home bridal parties, so now let’s dive into the what, where, when, and how of party planning for try-at-home wedding dresses and bridesmaid dresses.

• What to Serve: While food and drink are not a requirement for try-at-home wedding dress parties (and might even be a bit of a spill/stain hazard), most get-togethers include something to snack on or sip. You can keep it simple with snack or food options that are easy to grab and consume in one bite to minimize the mess risk. Alternatively, you can plan for a full meal to be enjoyed together after trying on wedding dresses and bridesmaid dresses at home. One thing we strongly recommend is to keep the bubbly nearby! You’ll likely want to make a special toast the moment you’ve found your yes dress.
• Where to Have the Party: Although it might seem obvious that a try-at-home wedding dress party should happen at home, it’s still good to consider whether or not you’d prefer to have it at your home or someone else’s. There’s no rule that says you have to be the hostess. It’s a lot of work to host, and you might not feel like you have the adequate space for it. Even if you don’t want to have a try-at-home wedding dress party at your own home, it’s still possible to have one. Check in with your family and bridal party members to see if someone might be comfortable hosting the get together with you.
• When to Schedule the Party: Think about the special guests you hope to have with you as you try on wedding dresses at home. Are some of them college students with limited free time except during holidays and summer break? Perhaps others work nights and would do better with an early morning or brunch gathering. Try to find the best compromise to include as many of your guests as you can. Of course, you also want to make sure to time things so that your try-at-home wedding dresses and bridesmaid dresses arrive before the event, but not so early that you risk the return time window. For example, Avery Austin try-at-home wedding dresses and bridesmaid dresses need to be dropped off within 7 days of delivery, so you’d want your try-at-home bridal party to fall within that time frame.
• How to Liven Things Up: Want to make your try-at-home wedding dress party fun and memorable? Start brainstorming party themes or games, much like people do for bridal showers! Maybe your try-at-home bridal party will be late in the evening and everyone can come over in comfy pajamas and have a sleepover after. Prefer something more risqué for you and your friends? Combine your try-at-home wedding dress party with a lingerie shower so you’ll not only choose your bridal gown but also end up fully prepared for your honeymoon with flirty undergarments and sleepwear!

The real key to planning a successful try-at-home wedding dress party is to be true to yourself. Go as big or as intimate with your gathering as suits you. Since this is all about you finding your dream gown, and possibly your bridesmaid dresses too, plan a try-at-home wedding dress party that will make you comfortable, relaxed, and happy. For a few more final tips on how to prepare for wedding dress shopping and trying on wedding dresses at home, check out Avery Austin’s how to prepare for wedding dress shopping blog. Then build your own try-at-home wedding dress sample box through Avery Austin’s Try at Home Program.