Wearing the right underwear

Don't spend a fortune on your outerwear and neglect underwear! The most important thing when buying underwear for your wedding day, or any other day, is to get your bra size right. If you don't you'll look like you have four or six breasts, and what you want are two neat bosoms. Dressmakers normally ask to bring your bra or basque with you to about the third fitting. Don't! Have it with you from the start.

So how do you know if you are wearing the right bra? The trick is to finding a good-fitting bra is that you can feel it, you are not wearing a properly fitting one. You should not be able to feel it. If you touch the back of your bra around the rib cage, and the front in the centre, and it is one line around the side, then you are wearing the right size. If your feel it is riding up then it is the wrong size. What most women do wrong is they buy bras that are too big in the back and too small in the cup. Many women get fitted for the first bras as teenagers, are told they have a B-size, and think that they have stayed like that for the next ten years. Often they will have gone up at least in the cup.

As with clothes and shoes you need to try a bra on, because every manufacturer cuts atheir bras and basques differently.  Try to go to a shop offering an expert fitting service and an extensive range of manufacturers and styles. Do not be concerned if the fitter does not use a tape measure. It's trying on until you get the right fit that works.

If you have not been for a bra fitting before it can be a daunting prospect. You can be forgiven for feeling anxious and thinking you'll be embarrassed. Don't be. The ladies in the fitting room will be sensitive to this and have seen it all before.

Considerations when choosing your wedding underwear are what shape and size you are. It's important that a bride checks before she buys her dress what is available in her size underwear. A backless, strepless dress is no good if you are a G-size. You cannot wear aregular strapless bra in larger cup sizes because you will just fall out. You need some support from underneath to hold you in. Bring in a picture of the dress, let the store assistant  how the back is, where the straps are and how low it is cut.

If you are small-chested and slim you can wear practically anything. A bra and sexy knickers, a body or a lacy basque. You can wear strapless and backless and you'll be able to find underwear that lifts, supports and enhances. But take into account how figure-hugging and sheer your dress is because you don't want your underwear to show through. You therefore should look at the lining of the dress and check that it is thick enough if you want to wear something frilly underneath.  If you are smaller and are looking for a plunge bra than don't make the mistake to buy one that is too small. This results in the appearance of four bosoms, two of whick are bulging over the top of the bra! When you buy a plunge bra in a smaller size it doesn't mean 'push out plunge', it means 'fitting your plunge'.

Many brides like to wear a basque. These can be long line, bacless and or without straps. In specialist stores they come in sizes up to FF cup and a 44 back. Backless, strapless basques are fine if you are large in the cup but slim. If you are bigger you don't want to be hanging out under or over it, you need support. If you are quite full you may also be larger in the bottom which many maufacturers forget and therefore a basque can be too tight. In this case you may not want to opt for a strapless dress, but have something that allows you to wear either a bra or basque with straps. You will then be supported correctly without any flesh spilling over. Again, try things on, and keep trying until you find underwear that fits properly.