Your big day is the once in life where your dress takes center stage. At feeltimes, our entire brand is dedicated to creating customizable clothing that works with women’s bodies, styles, and preferences, therefore we deeply comprehend the importance of locating the ideal wedding gown for the body type and shape.

To help guide you through this wonderful—but sometimes overwhelming—process, we’ve come up with a guide made to help you find the perfect wedding gown for the body type, personality, and elegance.

Types of Wedding Dresses

When you are looking at wedding dresses, there's a myriad of styles and silhouettes to select from. We’ve broken the most popular wedding gown shapes right down to their core, simplifying items to help you decipher which silhouette appeals most for you.

Wedding Dresses By Body Type

Now, you want to preface this list by saying it's impossible to produce a single list that captures all physical structures. But in an attempt to lead you toward the silhouette most flattering for you, we’ve selected the 5 most common physical structure and their best pairings.

Hourglass

An hourglass figure is better characterized by a large bust, narrow waist, and wide hips. When many people think of the hourglass figure, they think about Marilyn Monroe, hourglass shapes are classic, timeless, and appear amazing within the right dress.

What Works: If you possess an hourglass figure, you’ll discover that your shape is better-accentuated mermaid dresses do this extremely well. Mermaid dresses have a sleek bodice having a subtle flare at the end, highlighting your waist minimizing body.

What to Avoid: In short, any dress that hides your waist is a huge no for those who have hourglass shapes. We would suggest avoiding ball gowns due to the fact these dresses are usually fitted at the very top and then provide a dramatic flair round the waistline.

Straight

The straight physical structure usually has hips, waists, and chests which are all equally proportionate.

What Works: Straight physical structure looks great inside a range of dresses, however, the two that stand out would be the sheath and ball gown. With straight, or rectangular body shapes, which means that you will get a sleek look that still offers style and dimension.

Ball gowns offer dramatic bottoms and make up a dynamic, princess-like aesthetic that works great with this particular shape and figure.

What to Avoid: When you are looking at straight physical structure, you’re likely to want to try and steer clear of jumpsuits and separates. Jumpsuits often look a little boxy on women with a straight physical structure and can distort your silhouette.

Pear

Pear-shaped bodies have a smaller bust and waist and wider hips and legs. Pear-shaped bodies feature gorgeous curves and proportions that should be celebrated and accentuated.

What Works: When dressing a pear-shaped body, you need to look towards A-line or ball gown wedding dresses. These dresses will reveal your waist and legs and draw attention to the beauty and dynamism of the proportions.

What to Avoid: If you possess a pear-shaped body, you’ll wish to avoid ball gowns along with other dress styles that hide or distort your lower half. When people with pear-shaped bodies wear dresses that are too bottom-heavy, it requires attention from their gorgeous figure and tends to create an unflattering silhouette.

Athletic

If you possess an athletic build, you're more muscular and less curvy.

What Works: Women with athletic bodies should strive for an A-line or ball gown dress. These dresses will accentuate the low half of the body while providing you with a sleek and refined silhouette up top. Jumpsuits work well with athletic builds and are usually both flattering and defining out of all right ways.

What to Avoid: This physique should avoid sheath dresses because they often eliminate athletic bodies or appear ill-fitting. When you possess an athletic build, it’s best to think about options with increased structure and shape.

Petite

Petite bodies are small yet powerful and appear stunning when combined with the right dress.

What Works: If you’re petite, stick having a sheath or A-line dress that will accentuate the body, adding an elongating effect. We especially love A-line dresses for petite women due to the dramatic effect they can produce without having to be distracting or overbearing.

What to Avoid: Petite brides could get lost in ball gowns or dresses which have too much volume, so it’s better to stick with something more sleek and subtle.

Your Ultimate Wedding Partner

At FeelTimes, our customizable wedding gowns allow you to dictate the finishing touches of the wedding look. We design the dresses and jumpsuits after which you select the final features such as the neckline, sleeve type, and length. The result? A wedding gown that reflects your uniqueness, brilliance, and elegance.