So, you’ve decided it’s time to start shopping for your dream dress?! That’s great! We might be a tad biased but dress shopping is the BEST part of wedding planning. Have you noticed the phrase: “Trunk Show” popping up in your dress shopping research? Are you wondering what the heck that means? Well today we’re going to break that down for you and give you all the tools you need to shop for your dream dress efficiently!
Traditional Dress Shopping
Before we can breakdown exactly what a Trunk Show is – let’s talk about the traditional dress shopping experience. The most common way to shop for your dream dress is to visit a boutique and shop through their carefully hand-selected inventory of wedding gowns! Each bridal store carries a variety of designers and stores will select the designers that fit their price point, style and desired quality. Each season a store’s buyers will be tasked with the difficult task of choosing a handful of gowns from their designer’s unique seasonal lines to join their store’s inventory. Often designer’s will roll out collections comprised of upwards of 30 gowns each and it's unrealistic for a store to bring each and every one of those gowns into their inventory. So buyers must narrow it down to to what pieces from each collection will fit best into their in store inventory.
Now, when you, the bride, come into a bridal store you’ll get to try on gowns from different designers that were selected from a larger pool of gowns for you to try on! This is great because often the store has narrowed down to the best possible options from the new collections making sure you’re seeing the best pieces available. Your bridal store has done the homework for you and found the best options for their inventory making it easier for you when it’s time to try on! Your bridal stylist will navigate the selection and show you what matches your style from their already curated selection of gowns.
As you start to try on gowns you’ll likely find a silhouette you love, or a vibe that fits your style best and in some cases you may even notice that you’re gravitating towards a specific designer! This is when a Trunk Show opportunity becomes a great tool for your dress journey.
Trunk Show Breakdown
So as we now know, designers produce a pretty large selection of gowns each season. It’s amazing to see all the different designs they continue to come up with year after year. Since a store can’t realistically choose every single design from each season to join their ranks of stellar inventory, designer’s will offer to host Trunk Shows throughout the year to showcase their full collection of designs. What this means, is that a designer will send a store their full collection of gowns for brides to try on often for just a weekend at a time! This provides both the store and their brides to sample more gowns in store than they would typically carry. This widens the selection for brides trying on and gives the store an opportunity to test newer designs before making the choice to carry them permanently!
If you’ve been shopping and have discovered that you love a particular designer – shopping at one of their trunk shows is a great option. You’ll have the chance to see a full collection rather than the handful that a store had selected. Another special aspesct of a Trunk Show is the timing! It's common for a designer to send a Trunk Show to a store early in the season, sometimes before the line has even fully launched which means that when you shop at a Trunk Show, you could be the first real bride to see some of their designs! How cool is that?! On top of getting to see MORE gowns than usual - Trunk Shows are also often the only time a designer authorizes extra discounts on orders. So overall that means more gowns to try on, first look exclusivity AND some potential savings? I say, count me in!!
Let’s Recap
Now to recap the goodness that is a Bridal Trunk Show. Normally, you only get to try on the handful of gowns from a designer that your bridal store has selected to carry out of a larger pool of designs. However, during a Trunk Show a bride gets the chance to see a full collection of gowns form a designer which means more gowns to try on than any other regular ole weekend. If you already love a specific designer then you're going to get to see more of what you love which is never a bad thing. Oh, and if you say yes to a dress from a Trunk Show designer then there is a pretty good chance you’ll be getting a discount. What’s not to love?!
Hopefully this answers all your burning questions about what the heck a trunk show is! Still have some questions? Need more clarification? Give us a call at 503-297-9622 or shoot us an email at bridal@charlottesweddings.com. We'd love to help you out!