How to: Choosing Your Wedding Lingerie
All bride bodies are different, and all brides want to feel sexy on their wedding night. Whether you’re sweet and demure or daringly delightful, your dream wedding night can be made even more heavenly with the right lingerie.
Just like choosing your wedding gown, lingerie should reflect your personality, your intimate relationship with your soon-to-be-spouse, and will require some time and planning to get it right. Start looking at wedding night lingerie at least two weeks prior to the wedding to ensure you look and feel your absolute sexiest on your special night.
Double Up
Consider two different lingerie options – one to wear while donning your dress, and another for after dress-drop. This way, you can focus on practicality and comfort in the gown, then goddess-worthy seduction when the dress comes off.
Colour
Traditionally, bridal lingerie came in white, ivory, or cream. For your wedding lingerie, stick with white or nude for the ceremony, and enjoy playing with color for your wedding night! Pastel colors are perfect for the sweet, conservative, or traditional-style bride, but red, black, navy, and other bold color options offer vibrant, seductive brides a powerful punch.
Styles and Details
Bridal lingerie buying can be tricky without knowledge of common lingerie styles and details. Here’s a quick guide to common pieces you’ll find in your hunt for flawless undergarments.
Bra:
It is as it seems, and yet very different. Bras in the bridal lingerie category vary quite a bit from traditional, supportive bras. Lingerie bras may have ruffled chiffon, colorful ribbons and bows, or even half cups for a stunning reveal.
Teddy:
Providing more body coverage than a bra, but less support, a teddy is a semi-loose fitting sleeveless tank top, which stops at the waist or hip. Unless you are going for shock-effect, the teddy is worn with some style of bottoms.
Babydoll:
Similar to the teddy, the babydoll adds additional coverage by extending over, and just covering the bride’s bottom, and is usually worn with knickers. Demure brides may choose a satin or silk, but bold brides’ babydolls can be found in see-through fabrics like lace or mesh.
Chemise:
For the most coverage, the chemise stays secure with spaghetti straps or thicker tank-top straps, starts at the top of the bosom and sits at the mid-thigh. It can be worn with or without a bra beneath and provides more of a modest, but still sexy, “nightie” look, thus offering minimal support.
Corsets and Bustiers:
Both corsets and bustiers lace, button, and snap closed to emphasize a woman’s small waist. Traditionally corsets were work in the Victorian era to create a seamless line from waist to bosom, without any focus (or room) for the bosom. As the name implies, bustiers also work to enhance a bride’s curves by squeezing in the waist, but create extra enhancement by pushing up the bosom.
Nowadays these two pieces are often interchangeable, providing extra cinching to the waist, and extra boost to the bust. Corsets and bustiers can be found in almost any color or style, with a variety of closure options as mentioned above and may or may not contain shaping boning. The perfect fit for this body-hugging top may be found by ordering a custom piece online, using your exact measurements.
Boy shorts:
As the name implies, these tight “female boxers,” hug curves, cover your bum, and are comfortable and fun. Consider boy shorts with added lace, mesh, ruffles or peepholes to create a more seductive ensemble.• Thong: The thong is the be-all, end-all of sexy underwear. Without any coverage of your rear, and minimal coverage in the front, these knickers beg for attention. Some women find thongs most uncomfortable, so seek out seamless or cotton thongs for extra comfort.
Garter Belt:
Not to be confused with the garter belt that rests on the bride’s thigh and is thrown to the next eligible bachelor, the garter belt wraps around the upper hips, above the knickers, and attaches to the tops of sexy stockings with clips. Garter belts can be found in a variety of colors and styles, but all serve the purpose of holding up stockings, and adding a little extra for your spouse-to-be to see, only once the wedding dress is removed.
Stockings:
For another layer of lingerie that won’t strip you of your sex appeal, stockings are a wise choice. White is always right for brides, but a contrasting black garter belt is twice as naughty. Stockings can be found in styles like sheer pantyhose, vintage hose with seams, lace and fishnet. Some stockings require a garter belt, while others stay up with elastic banding around the thigh.
Lace:
Lace can provide a sweet, bridal doll look if it is placed sparingly on the top of a silk camisole or panty. In its sassier form, lace can add quite a bit of spice to the evening if a bra or thong made only of the fabric, revealing the skin beneath.
Save Some
Matching lingerie sets are a time and money saver. Sets including a top (teddy, bra, or bustier) and bottoms (thong or brief) will keep you from hunting down similar colors and styles, and are usually discounted more than individual pieces.
When in doubt, choose something that works well with your body and style. If you are a bold curvy bride, then splurge on a brocade bustier and colorful, frilly knickers. If you are skinny, shy bride, then perhaps a pastel, silk babydoll and some boy shorts will you’re your spouse. Whatever it takes, your wedding night lingerie should make you feel as confident and gorgeous as you are.
