What to do this weekend - try on hundreds of wedding dresses at the click of a button!

Brides-to-be heading to The National Wedding Show this weekend can add wed2b’s new Megastore to their list of must visits, where they’re able to try on hundreds of dresses at the click of a button.

Opened last month, wed2b’s new megastore is just a stone’s throw away from the country’s largest wedding planning event, taking place at London’s ExCeL on 17 and 18 October.

The 10,000 square-foot store holds the biggest collection of bridal gowns under one roof, offering 1,500 wedding dresses that can be tried and taken home that day. The cutting-edge store also features the first-ever wedding dress virtual try-on service, allowing customers to try on any of the available styles in seconds. With prices starting from £599–£1,199 in sizes UK 6–30, wed2b continue to make wedding dress shopping more accessible than ever before.

Virtual try-on technology transforms bridal shopping

Co-founder of wed2b Todd Cassidy said about the new store and virtual try-on mirror: ‘Our Virtual Try-On has been developed specifically around bridal rather than being an off-the-shelf fashion application. A bride can take a photograph and virtually explore different wedding dress silhouettes, fabrics and finishes on herself before she ever steps into a fitting room. Crucially, it is connected to the dresses that are actually available to buy in that store, so it isn’t just creating fantasy images of products she can’t find afterwards. We see it partly as entertainment as bridal shopping naturally has quite a long dwell time and should be fun, but also as a confidence-builder. Many brides arrive convinced that they can’t wear a particular shape or style, so seeing themselves differently can encourage them to experiment with dresses they might otherwise have walked straight past. The technology isn’t intended to replace trying on a real wedding dress or the advice of our Bridal Experts, it is there to make discovery broader, easier and more enjoyable.

Wedding dresses are incredibly personal and something that looks completely wrong on a hanger can be transformative once it is tried on. Giving a bride access to this many dresses, across sizes 6–30, means she can explore far more silhouettes, fabrics and looks in one visit.

We have effectively tried to challenge some of the conventions of bridal retail. There are no appointments, brides can browse, discover and try different ideas with help from a Bridal Expert, and when they find their dress they can take that actual dress home with them that day. The Megastore allows us to take that existing model much further.

The customer journey itself has also been redesigned. When a bride arrives she can choose whether she already has a good idea of what she is looking for or whether she wants help discovering it. Rather than sitting in a waiting area, she can start exploring the store immediately. Our digital tools and store team then work together to narrow down choices, find dresses from the much larger stockholding and bring them into the fitting experience. Our Bridal Experts are being trained to also act as guides through a very large choice of dresses, helping brides discover something unexpected rather than simply responding to what they initially ask for.

There are several other elements behind the scenes that we are developing around the same principle, including technology that connects the customer journey, live store stock, fitting rooms and our stockroom much more closely, as well as work on how the experience can begin before a bride even arrives at the store.’