What underwear should you choose for your wedding dress?

On your special day, you’ll want your dress to fit like a glove, with no uncomfortable snags and certainly no visible underwear lines! To help you out, we’ve collected all of our expert bridal underwear advice into one article to help you choose the right undergarments for your dress.

Why do you need bridal underwear?

It’s understandable to want to look elegant and beautiful in your wedding dress, and a lot of that confidence will come from the base layer of your bridal outfit – your underwear. Having the correct support from your undergarments is essential to ensure your bridal dress keeps its design integrity on your big day. From a fitted silhouette to a low-cut neckline, backless dress to strapless design, you’ll want to feel fully supported by both your dress and your bridal underwear.

The underwear that you wear under your wedding dress is likely to be very different from your bridal lingerie you’ll wear on your wedding night. Although bridal lingerie looks beautiful, these styles of underwear often aren’t designed to be worn under your wedding dress, as they can result in a less than seamless finish.

Although many dresses have internal bra support or provide enough structure to go braless, it is still worth considering what style of bridal underwear works best with your gown when you start wedding dress shopping. Your wedding dress underwear should work with your dress, so think practical and comfortable as opposed to pretty and delicate when you start to look into the different types.

Should you wear underwear at all?

Although some brides choose to match their bridal underwear colour to the exact shade of their dress, depending on the material of your dress and your skin tone a startling white bra might actually show through your dress as opposed to blending perfectly with it.

For this reason, we always encourage our brides to choose bridal undergarments that match their skin tone for their wedding day. When it comes to knickers, you’ll want seamless bridal underwear so opt for styles with laser-cut edges for no visible lines through your dress.

Underwear for backless wedding dresses

Low back and backless wedding dresses are a popular choice amongst our brides and a consistent feature within our bridal collections. If you’re wondering what bra to wear with a backless wedding dress like our gowns Porter, Astral and Demi, then look no further than a strapless, adhesive bra. This bra style is a popular option for backless bridal underwear and is usually a style which you can use on other occasions after your wedding day so is a good staple to have in your wardrobe. We recommend bras from Freebra, as they offer brides both support and flexibility, perfect for feeling comfortable all day, from your ceremony to your wedding reception.

Alternatively, lift tape & nipple covers are also viable options for brides looking for some support underneath their gown but want to stay away from complete wedding dress underwear. Depending on your dress style, you can also have an internal cup fitted within your dress – this is something we can do on certain dresses depending on the style and structure of the gown.

Browse our range of minimalistic backless wedding dresses here.

Strapless wedding dresses

For a strapless wedding dress, the obvious go-to is a strapless bra. Strapless bridal underwear such as a long-line bra with a corset-like bodice will help to accentuate your waist and maintain a flawless look. However, all of our strapless bridal dresses are fully corseted so often our brides find that they don’t need a bra unless they want additional support. Like with some of our backless bridal gowns, certain strapless styles can have a cup sewn into the dress for brides who are wanting more fullness. For wedding gowns with thin spaghetti straps such as Felicity, opt for a bra that is skin-toned, seamless and fits well.

Explore our range of simplistic strapless wedding dresses and spaghetti strap bridal dress styles here.

A-Line wedding dresses

For A-Line wedding dresses, a bridal corset is a reliable underwear choice for brides wanting to show off their figure as it will enhance your waistline. As A-line dresses often have a slimmer fit and create the effect of a flowing silhouette, you don’t want the lace pattern or satin bows of your pants showing through your dress. For A-line bridal dress styes such as Kennedy, Joy or Roma, look for skin-toned undergarments that are seamless.

For brides who are wanting more support than from their dress alone, for a wide range of bridal dresses including A-Line styles a normal T-shirt style bra is all you need. To avoid visible lines, we would recommend choosing a nude seamless bra that is well-fitting. This would work with wedding dresses such as Wallace, as we can raise the back on any of our wider strapped dresses to allow for a bra to be worn underneath.

Discover our range of A-Line wedding dress styles here.

Structured or fitted wedding dresses

For formfitting wedding dresses, you’ll want plenty of support to give your silhouette a smooth and flawless finish. Wedding dress shapewear such as Spanx styles which are not too heavy work well for more fitted styles like our Ines, Frieda or Wren dresses. This works for slimmer, more slinky dress styles too, such as Otto & Zoe. We particularly like this style from The Pantry, as these microfibre mid-thigh shorts offer seamless sculpting and ultra comfort for brides.

Browse our range of corset wedding dresses from across our collections.

Low-cut wedding dress styles

For wedding dresses with low-cut or plunging necklines such as Ines, Wallace, Starr and our bridal jumpsuit Mila, look for a bra that has a cutout to accommodate the low neckline. Or alternatively, see if your dress or jumpsuit can have an internal cup sewn in for added built-in support. Body tape is also helpful in providing some extra support for lower cut style wedding dresses.

Where Andrea Hawkes comes in

When our brides are needing advice on finding the best bridal underwear for their wedding dress, we are ready with recommendations that suit their budget, dress style and personal comfort level. We work with premium brands who specialise in wedding dress underwear and shapewear to offer solutions for each one of our brides.

For a personalised and tailored bridal shopping experience, book an appointment at our London studio or get in touch with our expert team today.