What to wear over your wedding dress

Because of our dresses with a clean aesthetic, it can be confusing to know how to style a simple wedding dress or what to wear over your wedding dress. Luckily, our expert bridal stylists have put together some golden rules for you.

How to style a simple wedding dress

Start with your underwear

As we mentioned in our blog post Best Underwear For Your Wedding Dress, appropriate undergarments and shapewear is an essential part of your wedding day outfit. Having the right support from the base layer of your bridal outfit is key to ensuring your dress keeps its design integrity. This is never more true than with minimalistic wedding dresses. Our simple wedding dresses are designed using the highest quality silk, so wearing shapewear or sculpting underwear helps to ensure that you have a smooth, seamless silhouette on top.

Opt for simple hair styles

In line with the clean style of your dress, a simple, classic hairstyle is often complimentary simple wedding dresses more than complex styles. Having an over-elaborate hairstyle can draw attention away from the beautiful design of your dress. You can also use bridal jewellery to create more of a statement with your look, or add a pop of colour with your bridal bouquet. For ideas on what type of bridal bouquet you should choose, read our blog How To Choose Your Bridal Bouquet.

Have fun with bridal accessories

If you love simplistic dresses but want the option of adding more detail to your bridal outfit, wedding dress accessories are the best way to do it. Dress accessories such as bridal tops, capes, jackets and veils allow you to have a two in one wedding dress as you can create multiple looks from one outfit. By using wedding dress accessories, you can create two separate bridal looks for your ceremony and wedding reception, or simply give yourself options for dressing your wedding gown up or down throughout the day. We’ve shown how to style a simple wedding dress below using our own beautiful bridal gowns and wedding dress accessories to give you some inspiration.

Aerin Dress – 3 Ways

Our Aerin Dress is a stunning spaghetti strap, v-neck wedding gown made from the finest ivory silk to achieve a clean and luxurious finish. Beautiful on its own, Aerin can be styled with a range of bridal accessories to create a variety of looks on your wedding day. We’ve included three looks below to give you a couple of ideas of how you could style this wedding dress.

In the first look, we show you how you can accessorise a wedding dress with a lace cape like our Aerin cape. In the second look, Aerin is styled with our Bia Cape, a sheer, full-length bridal cape that was designed for one of our real brides. Both looks are perfect examples of how to style a wedding dress with a long, detachable cape to add a new level of ethereal beauty to your bridal outfit. Last but not least, in our third look we showcase how a simple wedding dress like Aerin can be accessorised with a bridal overlay top such as our beautiful Adria lace top to add a romantic layer to your outfit.

Want a silk or lace bridal cape for your wedding dress? Browse our range of bridal capes here.

Kori Overskirt – 2 Ways

One look that is rising in popularity amongst brides is coupling an overskirt with their wedding dress. A bridal overskirt helps to add movement and depth to your dress, without covering up your beautiful gown. Below, we show how a detachable overskirt can add elegance to your wedding outfit with two of our dresses. In the first look, our simple silk Ines dress from our Reflection Collection is worn with our sheer Kori overskirt. In the second look, our real bride Harriet wears our glamourous, spaghetti strap wedding dress Clarice from our modern classic Winter Capsule Collection, again with our Kori Overskirt. By styling these two v-neck, simple wedding dresses with a detachable overskirt, you can complement their clean silhouettes and deep v-neck design.

If you are considering wearing an overskirt or bridal skirt on your big day, make sure to explore our range of silk bridal skirts here.

Ash Wrap Dress – 2 Ways

Wrap wedding dresses like our Ash gown make beautiful bridal outfits by themselves, but with wedding dress accessories like bridal capes and jackets you can add another level to your wedding day look. In the first look below, our Ash Wrap Dress has been paired with our soft leather Anderson Jacket in ivory. When you think of a wedding dress with a leather jacket, a classic black biker-style ensemble might come to mind. But with a soft ivory leather jacket like Anderson, you can match the colour of your wedding dress with your jacket while still having the contrast of textures between your silk dress and leather jacket. A wrap wedding dress can also be styled with a lighter coverup like our Bia Tulle Cape as shown in the second look, which works as a sheer layer on top of your dress that can be taken off between your ceremony and reception.

Browse our range of silk and lace bridal jackets.

Felicity Dress – 2 Ways

Lace bridal tops are the perfect wedding dress accessory to achieve a two in one wedding dress look. You can add romance and depth for your ceremony with a floral or modern geometric pattern bridal top, which can be removed later on in the day to show off the design of your dress at your reception. To showcase how a bridal crop top can work with a wedding dress or skirt, we’ve included two looks below featuring our minimalist dress Felicity from our Finsbury Collection.

In the first look, our real bride Felicity wore this dress styled with our Drew Lace top which is designed in a modern, geometric pattern with a high neckline. In the second look, our real bride Jayne wears Felicity with our long sleeve bridal top Rachel which is made with a traditional lace pattern. Both looks demonstrate how a lace bridal top can add texture to your bridal look, drawing on either modern or traditional patterns.

All of our modern bridal tops are designed to be worn as a romantic, removable layer to accessorise your wedding dress with. Discover our range of silk and lace bridal tops here.

Hadley Jumpsuit – 2 Ways

A modern take on the traditional wedding day outfit, bridal jumpsuits are showstoppers in their own right. But they can also be adorned and accessorised with wedding dress accessories to add further interest to your overall look. Like with wedding dresses, you can wear a bridal top over your jumpsuit to create a two in one wedding day look. This works particularly well if you need to have your shoulders covered during your ceremony or are planning a winter wedding and want an elegant cover up. Below, we have shown how a modern bridal jumpsuit like our Hadley jumpsuit from our Identity Collection can be styled with a sash and lace bridal top like our Reece top.

Explore our range of bridal jumpsuits from across our collections here.

Bridal Veils – 3 Ways

To finish off our post on How To Style Your Wedding Dress, we’ve included three examples of how veils can be used to accessorise your dress. From short styles like birdcage and blusher veils to elegant lace mantillas and traditional cathedral veils, there is a huge variety of styles to choose from. To give you some inspiration, we’ve included pictures of two different veils below. In the first look, our real bride Ellie wears her beautiful, custom-designed veil. This long, simple veil is inspired by traditional cathedral veils, extending to the floor in soft, opaque tulle. In the second look, our real bride Lauren wears our Fleur dress from our Finsbury Collection with an awe-inspiring, cathedral-length veil with a delicate lace edge. In the third look, our Wallace dress from our Identity Collection has been paired with a fingertip length, romantic lace fringed veil.

For more wedding dress and veil pairings, discover our range of modern lace wedding dress veils here.

As experts in bridal design and styling, we are able to offer you an objective opinion on what to wear over your wedding dress. At a wedding dress appointment at our bridal studio, we can advise you on how to style your wedding dress using bridal tops, jackets, capes, overskirts and veils to achieve your ideal look for your wedding day. All you have to do is book an appointment at our London bridal studio today.