Every woman wants to feel beautiful, and for most of us, our wedding day is our grand chance to do so. We get to go all out with professional make-up, glamorous shoes, expensive accessories, and possibly a thousand-dollar dress. It’s the one day in our lives when we have the genuine opportunity to be red carpet ready.

As brides choose their wedding dresses, there are many factors that influence them. The loudest opinions often come from the mothers of the bride and groom. These mums generally have very strong ideas on how she should look on the big day. They want a dress that will delight the groom, placate the relatives, and make a good impression on guests.

Once the mums are settled on their bridal beauty preferences, the budget comes in. No matter how gorgeous a bride wants to be, she is restricted by the amount of available spending money. Some brides save for years for their wedding dress. Others are sponsored by their parents, who have also saved up for years. Occasionally, the groom buys the dress.

Dress designers are a significant factor for some brides, especially those who routinely watch bridal shows. This kind of bride will walk into the shop with her eyes glued to Rebecca Ingram or Maggie Sottero wedding dress. Others are more driven by the style or silhouette.

It does seem that the majority of bridal gowns are strapless. For designers, the choice to fill their collection with strapless numbers is commercial. They make this choice because they know 4 out of 5 brides will rush towards the off-the-shoulder dresses.

But designers also go with strapless gowns for a more practical reason. When a bride is shopping, she rarely finds a ready-made dress. Instead, she will try on sample dresses that come in specific sizes. The range of sample sizes is usually 6 to 16, but size isn’t the only thing that counts. Even if a bride falls within this bracket, she might have different measurements.

She might –for example – have longer arms, wider hips, or a smaller bust. There is also the issue of plus sized brides … and smaller brides who also have a tough time with fittings. Few women can measure up to the standard sizes of the fashion industry.

It’s less about their waists and widths, and more about their body shapes. A bride that has a pear shape or a top-heavy body type could never fit into a standardised sample dress. After the bride picks her dress, it will have to be tweaked here and there so that it fits and flatters her, no matter what her body dimensions are.

This is a task that can be achieved by any good seamstress, but it does take time. If a bride has planned it well, she may need up to six months for her alterations. The easier and fewer the changes are, the sooner the dress can be ready. And strapless dresses are easy to tweak because there are no sleeves and there’s easy access to side seams and back detailing.

This way, even if a bride gets a dress on sale and has minimal time for repairs, she can still adjust her dress with ease. Of course brides have different reasons for admiring strapless wedding dresses. They seem to hold a certain unmatchable elegance. For many women, the wedding day is the only time they can bare their arms and shoulders.

On regular days, a bride may worry about bra straps, tan lines, uneven skin tone, or freckles. On her wedding day, she gets professional make up, a high end tan, and a dress with an inbuilt corset that will make her figure look perfect. Plus, for many women, bare shoulders are considered inappropriate for work, or for daily chores.

Many women view strapless dresses as fancy fashion for movie stars and celebrities, the kind of thing only worn at award shows and pricy restaurants. Her wedding day gives her one shot at being that glamorous diva for a day. It also gives her the excuse and motivation to do the work involved in pulling off a strapless dress.

These designs show off her arms, shoulders, and neck, so many brides use this opportunity to start a regime of diet and exercise, get her skin waxed and exfoliated, and display her feminine flair in a flattering way. So it seems the strapless bridal gown is here to stay.