Teresa Akers
National Bridal Sale EXTENDED
National Bridal Sale EXTENDED
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Cassie + Garrett

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August 8, 2020, Cassie and Garrett officially became Mr. and Mrs. Green! So glad to have you as a part of the Believe Bride Family! Here’s to many years of love, joy, and happiness. Cheers!

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The Proposal: He took me to dinner and surprised me on HIS birthday! haha

The Big Day: Our wedding was perfect for us! Too many details to put lightly. Our venue was outdoors- barn vibes and perfect weather! Made for great photos! We partied till it got dark out. It was such a fun night. We had make your own pizza- which for an outdoor country chic wedding was perfect! So many twinkle lights too! I had Sola wood flowers so I got to keep my bouquet- along with the bridal party and family. It was rustic and beautiful! Our colors were kinda unique- dusty rose, pale yellow, creme and grey! We also did a Bubble send off at dusk and it was so pretty! It was exactly what I wanted! We also had a coffee cart for free drinks for guests!

What was your favorite part of your wedding?:Getting to feel beautiful/confident and marry my best friend.

Special Memories: I had my dads tie modified with a little saying on the inside! I also balled when I did the first look with my dad. And getting to do the first look with my husband was special!

What advice would you give to future brides?: Plan early! I had all my planning done 6 months early!

Vendor Credit:

Venue: The Barn on Wild Rose Prairie
Photographer: Stolen Images
Coffee Cart: Golden Gem Mercantile

We Love Our Local Vendors!

When you’re a Believe Bride, you can always count on an incredible experience while you write this next chapter of your love story. We are so honored to be able to partner with some of the very best wedding vendors in the Pacific Northwest. It’s when we work together that the real magic happens. Whether it’s a styled shoot like this one, or your own wedding, we are thrilled to be able to be a part of the wonder that happens during collaboration.

During the month of February, we got together with some great local businesses to create this amazing shoot to show off some beautiful new arrival gowns, the new floral installation in our shop, and highlight a sweet surprise for our brides.

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If you’ve ever been into our shop, you may have noticed our beautiful window displays or intricate floral backdrops. And if you’ve ever visited us at one of the many bridal fairs and festivals throughout Spokane, you will have seen the amazing floral installations that adorn our booths. These are the work of one of our favorite local vendors, Design House Florals! Design House Florals specializes in immaculate, over the top creations that reflect their clients in every way.

For this shoot, we worked with Danielle Marie Photography to highlight not only our beautiful gowns, but also the sweet little gift that we were able to give all of our brides throughout the month of love! Danielle has a knack for capturing timeless images that tell a story and truly capture your personality, all while making you forget you’re in front of the camera. Located here in Spokane, Wa, she take beautiful photos for any occasion!

Northwest Sugar, also based out of Spokane, is specializes in custom cakes and cookies for special occasions. She custom designed these beautiful frosted sugar cookies to include in a fun package for each of our brides. They were nothing short of perfection! We can just imagine these adorning bridal shower tables and wedding dessert tables everywhere!

Having been in business over 20 years, we have created a list of amazing vendors that we are happy to recommend! We absolutely love being even a small part of your big day. That’s why we have found vendors and partners that we know and trust. Buying your dress at Believe Bride is more than just finding your perfect wedding dress, it’s stepping into an experience that is full of magic from start to finish. We hope we get to meet you soon!

You can book your appointment to become a Believe Bride HERE

5 Ideas to Make Your Mini-Mony Magical

With big weddings not being an option for a lot of brides, we have seen a growing trend in small, intimate ceremonies, elopements, or mini-monies! These small events still pack a big punch, and are turning out some of the coolest ideas we have seen! Here are just a few of our favorites!

mini ceremony

  1. Find Your Splurge Worthy Moment: Take this opportunity to go all out on something that you wouldn’t necessarily be able to splurge on if you were hosting a huge event! Maybe that means you buy the extravagant dress you always wanted, or you cater in a gourmet dinner, or maybe you hire that private band! This is your chance to go crazy! Ride in on a unicorn maybe, and then make sure you get TONS of pictures.

  2. Don’t Skip the Photographer: You still want to make sure that you have lifelong mementos of this amazing day. An amazing photographer can give you images that you can not only share with your friends and family who couldn’t make it to the ceremony, but also you’ll have them to look back on forever!

  3. Take the Wedding Off Site: Since you’re only hosting a handful of people, think about taking your wedding to a location you might not have been able to otherwise! One of our brides decided to get married on top of a mountain, and go skiing on her wedding day, in her wedding dress! Maybe your dream wedding is actually on a paddle board in the middle of the lake, or at the base of a waterfall. The possibilities are endless!

  4. Get the Whole Party Dressed Up: This is a rare opportunity to have your entire wedding ceremony all dressed in coordinating wardrobe! Think about it, you can now have every single photo perfectly coordinated with your wedding colors, and every attendee gets the chance to be a bridesmaid or groomsmen.

  5. Get creative With the Wedding Party: Dog best man? Don’t mind if I do! With a smaller audience, consider having grandma be your flower girl, or mom be your maid of honor! What if you had your grandpa as your ring bearer? I’m getting teary eyed just thinking about it! This is the perfect chance to do something non-traditional.

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10 Most Common Wedding Dress Alterations

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If you’ve ever tried on wedding dresses, you’ve almost certainly been told “they can fix that in alterations”.

What you might not know, is that almost every bride needs some sort of alterations to her wedding dress. These changes can range from minor tweaks to full reconstruction or design changes! So we chatted with our incredible in house alterations team to talk about the most common alterations that our brides have done to their dress so that you have a better idea of what to expect!

trumpet wedding dress with detachable skirt

  1. Adjusting the hem - wedding dresses are generally made in a standard length to accommodate a bride who is 5’10”. So, unless you’re the exact height of the sample size, or the designer offers an option to order the dress with a different hem length, chances are you’ll need a hem adjustment.

  2. Adjusting straps - Straps will almost always be too long, because having them too long is substantially easier to remedy than having them too short. Depending on the type of strap, this could be a simple alteration!

  3. Adding in bra cups - Whether you’re looking to add a little lift, or smooth out the shaping of the dress, bra cups can make a huge difference in the comfort and fit of your dress.

  4. Bustle - This is the term we use to describe the process of getting your train up off the floor by way of attaching it to the back of your dress. Your bustle can come in any number of styles, and is made to be invisible until you need to use it.

  5. Adding a sleeve - If your dress is strapless or comes with thinner straps, and you’re wanting something with a bit more detail or coverage on the arms, adding a sleeve is a great option! This type of alteration falls into the custom work category since the seamstress is substantially altering the design of the dress

  6. Altering the neckline - Sometimes, you find the perfect dress, but you wish it didn’t have quite as deep of a plunge, or vise versa! This is where altering the neckline can be a relatively small change that makes a really big impact on the overall look of your dress.

  7. Taking in/Letting out the sides - The secret to a perfectly fitted dress, is a talented seamstress. When your dress is ordered, it is ordered to fit you as best as the designer’s pattern can. From there, your seamstress can take in or let out sections of the dress to allow it to perfectly sit on your frame.

  8. Lowering/raising the back - With low backed wedding dresses very on trend, sometimes you want to add a little something to your dress to give it even more drama. This could be an option!

  9. Adding layers - If you dream of a giant ball gown, with enough fluff to stand completely on its own, that’s something your alterations team can definitely help with! This also applies if you’re dying to add a layer of sparkle tulle, or maybe even a colored liner to your dream dress.

  10. Custom Accessories - Last but not least, a lot of times, a bride wants her veil or headpiece to match her dress exactly! Your alterations team can often find matching or complimentary lace, tulle, or other textiles to make your accessories look like they came from the same designer as the dress itself! Talk about the icing on the cake!

20 Things We Learned Along the Way

As we end our anniversary month, we wanted to say a giant THANK YOU for all of your love and support over the last 20 years. We have spent countless hours trying to bring you the very best that Spokane has to offer, and you keep showing up for us in ways that just blow us away every time. We love being a part of our bride’s lives. We love being able to help girls find their perfect prom dress, and we love watching all of the guys get gussied up for once! Truly, being a part of all of these magical life moments has been the biggest blessing to us. So Thank you, from the bottom of our hearts.

20 Things We Learned Along the Way (In no particular order)

  1. Every single love story is unique and amazing! And trust us, we’ve heard a lot of great stories, but even after 20 years, we’ve never heard the same story twice!

  2. Dress and suit sizing and real life sizing are nowhere near the same thing, and it’s infuriating!

  3. A great seamstress can make an okay dress magical! Seriously, our alterations department has worked some MIRACLES over the years!

  4. Never underestimate the power of a good accessory. Any stylist will tell you, the second the veil or headpiece or bouquet gets added to a wedding dress, everything changes!

  5. Creating great partnerships is the best way to continue to love this business! We are so honored to have partnered with some of the very best in the industry over the years. We can’t even tell you how many people went from vendor to friend in that time! These relationships will last a lifetime, and they are truly a treasure.

  6. There’s no such thing as “Normal”. We’ve seen brides plan Star Wars themed weddings, and renaissance weddings, and big church weddings, and weddings on islands, and in fields, and skiing down mountains. Whatever your vision is, we are HERE for it!

  7. There is something MAGICAL about wedding dresses. We mean it! And we can’t explain it. But something just happens when you find the perfect dress, it’s like falling in love. It’s beautiful.

  8. Never underestimate the power of your entourage! The number of times we’ve seen a group of girls walk into our prom department and cheer each other on is incredible! That kind of encouragement is so powerful!

  9. With the right group, you can do ANYTHING! You know this shop didn’t always take up an entire “strip mall”. But we worked together to build an incredible business that hits on so many different celebration moments in life.

  10. Happy tears fuel joy. Every. Single. Time. We see that mom start crying when she sees her daughter in a prom or wedding dress. Every time we see the bride tear up at her reflection. That’s when you know you’ve struck gold! You just witnessed a memory forming that will stick with them forever.

  11. Not all dresses were created equal. We had some trial and error, but now we have a collection of designers that bring the BEST in the industry. Did you know that all of our dresses are hand made in fair working conditions?

  12. Not every bride will cry when she finds the dress, but every bride deserves to feel special and like a BRIDE in her dress!

  13. Getting to see our brides on their big day is forever one of our favorite things. (Seriously, keep sending us your pictures! We are never tired of that!)

  14. Insecurities are real, and everyone has them. AND we love smashing all of them when you come in the door. We want you to know how beautiful you are. We want you to embrace all of your strengths, and find a way to see yourself the way that the people you love see you.

  15. White, ivory, nude, eggshell, cream, and bridal white are all different colors, and everyone defines them completely differently.

  16. While we’re talking colors, not all wedding dresses are white! We are loving the growing trend of colored wedding dresses, whether its a tiny pop of color, a subtle undertone, or a full black dress, we are always excited to see what’s next.

  17. Whether you’re going to prom or a gala or a wedding, finding a great suit is on par with finding the perfect dress!

  18. Being a part of someone’s wedding, in any capacity, is a gift. We are given this opportunity to step into your wedding planning, into your vision, into your daydreams, and then watch them all come true. It’s like living in real life Pinterest boards!

  19. Body type does not dictate dress shape! No matter what the internet has told you, any body shape can pull off any silhouette. Some dresses are built better than others to accommodate women’s shapes.

  20. Always expect the unexpected! The industry is constantly changing, style is constantly changing, our town is constantly changing! The only thing we know for sure, is that 20 years from now, we will have evolved even more than we have so far!

Photo Credit: Amy Stone Photography

Photo Credit: Amy Stone Photography

Serving this community has been an honor and a privilege. We have worked alongside so many of you to make dreams become reality. We have been empowered to pour back into this community in ways we never could have even dreamed of. We have built relationships with brides, grooms, wedding parties, families, high school kids, vendors, organizations, and everyone in between that have truly enhanced our lives.

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Renesha + Lee

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October 17, 2020, Renesha and Lee started the amazing new chapter in their love story at Priest Lake! So glad to have you as a part of the Believe Bride Family! Here’s to many years of love, joy, and happiness. Cheers!

Bride on wedding day

The Big Day: We got married at Hills resort at priest lake. It was the most BEAUTIFUL location. Intimate because it's off season and perfect weather! The lake was calm and beautiful and we even got a shot of a plane flying over! The overcast was perfect to make my dress stand out

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What was your favorite part of your wedding?: Seeing my husband's face when he first saw me.

Special Memories: My favorite moment was when my sister made a speech about my dad who died a few years ago. They even had a seat reserved for him with white roses

What advice would you give to future brides?: Have fun! Don't take things too seriously. You will not please everyone and it's YOUR day!

Vendor Credit: Hills resort was the best venue
Rose and blossom did my flowers and they were perfect

When Should You Start Shopping?

The simple answer is…NOW!

Wedding Dress Shopping

When you start planning your wedding, there are a million different things to think about! And of course, one of the most important (at least in our opinion) is finding the most perfect dress! So many brides ask us, “When should I start shopping for my dress?” Our vote it, the sooner the better!

We work with some of the best designers in the industry. We want to make sure that when you find your perfect wedding dress with us, that dress is filled with nothing but love from the very first cut of fabric! Most of our gowns are made to order, just for you, which means it can take anywhere from 4-6 months for your dress to be created. Each stitch is carefully checked, each bead and lace applique attached by hand, by some of the greatest crews in the entire wedding industry. Then, your dress is carefully packaged, and shipped to our store! From there, we prep it for your first look, and get it all ready for your first alterations appointment! Basic alterations done at our shop take anywhere from 8-10 weeks, and custom alterations can take up to 16 weeks!

For those of you keeping track, that’s 4-6 month for creation, and up to another 4 months to make your dress completely perfect for you on your wedding day. That means that in order to ensure you have ample time for your dress to come in, your dress should be ordered about a year before you say “I do”.

Don’t have a year before you tie the knot? DON’T WORRY! We can still help you find your perfect wedding gown!

We Believe that no timeline is too short! We have over 500 dresses in our collection, and several of those can be taken directly from our in stock collection. We also have developed such incredible relationships with our designers, that there is often an option to rush order a dress, or grab a dress that they currently have already in production! Our stylists will do everything they can to help you find your absolute dream dress.

Ready to find your dream dress? Come shop with us today!

A Complete Guide to Wedding Dress Styles

Congratulations! You’re engaged, planning your wedding, and are ready to find your perfect dress. Maybe you’ve been dreaming about your dress since childhood and already have an idea of the wedding dress styles you prefer. Or, maybe all the unique wedding dress styles are new to you and you need a primer on what’s available before you start shopping. We can help! We’ve rounded up some of the most popular wedding dress styles and silhouettes to show you what’s out there.

Wedding Dress Silhouettes

There are so many gorgeous wedding dress silhouettes to choose from, so it helps to be familiar with the most popular silhouettes before you start shopping for your favorite wedding dress styles. Consider what will flatter your body, but don’t be afraid to try out any wedding dress silhouettes that catch your eye! Here are some popular wedding dress silhouettes consider:

Wedding Dress Necklines

Are you ready to find your favorite wedding dress neckline style? Some wedding dress necklines tend to be found more often on certain silhouettes, but there’s a great chance you can find the silhouette and neckline combo that you want! Take a look at some of the most popular wedding dress neckline styles out there:

Wedding Dress Sleeves and Straps

Now that you’ve found your favorite wedding dress silhouettes and necklines, it’s time to consider wedding dress sleeves! There’s a whole range of sleeve styles to consider. You’ll likely be able to find a wedding dress style with your preferred silhouette, neckline, and favorite type of sleeves:

We hope this guide to wedding dress styles has been helpful! Finding the right wedding dress is one of the most exciting parts of the wedding planning process. If you’re ready to start shopping, book an appointment with Believe Bride today!

Don’t forget to check out our wedding planning checklist for a helpful timeline for all things wedding attire. 

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Becky + Jason

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July 4, 2020, Becky and Jason celebrated the first day of their happily ever after at Beacon Hill! So glad to have you as a part of the Believe Bride Family! Here’s to many years of love, joy, and happiness. Cheers!

bride and groom with veil

The Big Day: Our wedding was everything I imagined it would be. At first I was a little disappointed that it would be smaller, but it ended up being low-stress, full of special touches, and a beautiful celebration of the long journey that led my husband and I to that day. Having it on the 4th of July turned out to be the perfect way to celebrate my husband's military service, one of his favorite holidays, and enjoy Spokane fireworks!

I knew from the beginning that I wanted to incorporate as many small touches as I could. My grandmother was a big supporter of our relationship and unfortunately she died in April 2019, prior to our engagement. To include her in our wedding, I wore her pearls and I took several photos in her veil. We also included both of my grandmothers' favorite flowers (gladiolus and lillies) in my bouquet and our ceremony florals (thanks Tia at In Bloom Flower Farm for making that happen!). Our ring bearer was someone very special to me. I am a special education teacher, and he is one of my former students. We have an incredible story, and he and his family hold a special place in my heart. When the pandemic meant he could not attend in person, we were able to include him as a ring bearer from afar thanks to technology and the help of some wonderful friends. It was so special, and I will treasure that forever.

Our wedding party was smaller than planned due to travel restrictions. Many of our friends are in the military, stationed across the U.S. While four of our dear friends were unable to stand with us in person, we wanted to include them as groomsmen and bridesmaids in absentia. We missed them, but their love and support was felt that day!

What was your favorite part of your wedding?: I have several favorite parts of the wedding. My overall favorite part of the wedding was all of the love we felt, from those able to attend in person and from those celebrating from afar. It was so special to have people from different aspects of our lives come together to celebrate our love story and offer their love and support for our future together. That love was tangible in the air the entire day. Another favorite moment was walking down the aisle with my dad. He and I have always been very close, and we love to joke and laugh. Our walk together was no different. Most of the photos show us cracking jokes and laughing--classic us. Jason and I also decided to forego a first look; our first look was when I met him at the end of the aisle. I will never forget the look on his face. It was everything I hoped I'd see on my groom's face: love, joy, excitement, and the man I love so much.

Special Memories: I surprised my dad for the father-daughter dance, and got him really good! I knew I didn't want to use a traditional song, so I went with an upbeat country song (Sneaky Snake by Tom T. Hall) that we used to dance to in the living room when I was little. I'd been keeping that a surprise since November. We loved getting to dance to a song that meant so much to us!

While COVID changed a number of our wedding plans, it also created some special memories that I'll treasure forever. My grandfather was planning to attend but as a family we decided that him traveling on a plane was not best. Thanks to the staff at his assisted living facility, he and I were able to FaceTime before the ceremony. He of course noticed right away all the special touches I'd included to honor my grandma. While it wasn't quite as good as having him physically there, I'll always be grateful to be able to have that memory with him.

We were able to honor a dear friend of ours with a couple of special touches at our wedding: he was our groomsman in memoriam and we gave a special toast. Wish you could have been there buddy!

What advice would you give to future brides?: My mantra the day of the wedding was "No stress." Remembering that our day was a celebration of a new journey together kept me present in the moment, and not stressing about everything being perfect. Bring a journal everywhere as you're wedding planning and having your ceremony. You'll want to write down all of those memories and fun moments from picking out your dress, bridal shower, getting ready, and your special day itself. You won't regret it!

Vendor Credit:

Venue: Beacon Hill Events http://www.instagram.com/beaconhillevents
Photographer: Danell Harrison http://www.instagram.com/labellebella.photography
DJ: Tim and Tina Coles
Video: Kelly Pendergest and Pam Lunger
Cakes: Krystal Hagerty
Florist: In Bloom Flower Farm http://www.instagram.com/inbloomspokane
Makeup: Kiss and Makeup http://www.instagram.com/kissandmakeup114
Hair: Kristen Swanson http://www.instagram.com/kristen_thehairsultan

5 Reasons to Buy Your Dress This December! (Bonus Blog)

We know how stressful wedding planning can be, which is exactly why we got one of our master stylists to hop on and tell you exactly why buying your dress this December might just be the best thing you can do to ease that planning stress! We love your love story SO MUCH! So, we want to help to set you up for nothing but success while you start the hunt for your dream wedding dress.

Without further ado- here are Taylor’s top reasons to buy your wedding dress this holiday season!

holiday wedding

Hey friends, it’s Taylor here, your resident bridal stylist and I’m just hopping on here to do a little blog takeover today. It’s December, which means winter is officially here as well as the HOLIDAYS! While most of you may be decking the halls, we’ve been busy making sure that all of our brides getting married this upcoming summer and fall have their gowns ordered this month. Why might you ask?

Well here are 5 reasons you need to order your dress this month.

  1. Timelines: I’m sure you’ve all seen the wedding planning timelines as soon as you got engaged. You know the ones I’m talking about, the calendar with the break down of when you have to have certain wedding plans finalized. Welp, it turns out it can take a really long time to get a wedding dress in. We’re talking 4-6 months for a designer to make, plus we have alterations to think about on top of that (don’t worry, we’ll go more into those details in a minute). To give you an example, current ship dates from several of our designers right now are already into April and May of 2021! As we get into January, designers’ shipping gets pushed out EVEN MORE! Why? For starters, all of our gowns are made by real people, and we have made sure that we are only partnering with designers who treat those people well, and allow them to work in fair and happy work environments! Add to that the fact that each dress is usually made to order, which means there is no mystical warehouse filled with dresses waiting and hoping to be chosen by their bride! On top of that, A lot of brides (including myself) get engaged over the holidays and then are trying to plan a wedding for that following summer/fall (which I also did… or tried to… thanks COVID). Long story short, designers see a surplus of orders come in after the holidays, which leads to longer timelines.

  2. More Style Options: By making sure you have given yourself enough time to order your gown, you have SO MANY MORE options to choose from for gowns. We carry over 500 dresses in stock at our shop in sizes 0-28, but most styles are only in stock in a couple sizes. This means you will have the chance to choose from ALL of the styles (even those not currently in your size) because you have time to order a gown in your preferred size or color.

  3. Length options: Fun fact, wedding dresses are made to standard lengths for someone who is about 5’10”. Another fun fact, most of us aren’t that tall. This means 99% of us will need to hem a gown. Several of our designers actually offer special length options that you can order your gown in. This means that you can have the designer potentially make your gown shorter(or even longer if you need) to start with, saving you a lot of money in the long run. Here’s the catch though, it takes them a little longer to make your gorgeous gown when you order one of these special lengths, so you definitely want to make sure you give yourself time to take advantage of this option!

  4. Alterations: See, I told you we’d come back to it! Not only does it take 4-6 months for a designer to make your gown, but then you need to add another 2-3 months onto your timeline for alterations. Almost every single one of my brides over the last 6 years has needed some sort of alterations done to their gown, so this means you want to make sure you’ve allocated the time for your fittings. Alterations can include everything from a hem, to adding a corset, to doing full custom work to make your gown truly one of a kind!

  5. Save some money: Last but not least (in fact I think this is the best part), we have our December to Remember event happening ALL MONTH LONG. This means you’ll save $100 on any dress!! New order? Save $100! In-stock gown? Save $100! Sale dress? Save another $100!! I don’t know about you guys, but I LOVE saving money while wedding planning!

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