If your wedding is a beach or destination wedding, those puffy and formal wedding gown might not be your thing; having a more casual and breezy wedding dress might be a good idea. If so, there a re many factor you have to consider before you start your dress-hunt.

The Style

Strapless gown is fun and elegant way to wear on your wedding; a long one for formal wedding and short, knee-length for more casual wedding. A pretty spaghetti strap dress is a popular choice or for those who craved to have their wedding as a very casual affair, a little halter neck dress might fit for you. For summer beach wedding, sleeves are over abundant, but for fall or autumn wedding it is necessary (you don’t want to catch cold in your wedding night do you?)

For the casual wedding, it is more common to have short length dresses rather than the longer ones; especially in beach wedding where saltwater and sands are abundant. You can wear longer dress when you are off the beach, such as in church or during photo shots, but not in the beach.

Material

I might suggest abandoning a heavier material for your casual wedding dress, like velvet, brocade or heavy silks. It’ll look out of place and hassle to clean. Choose lighter, flowing materials instead, something that will drape well on your body and less wrinkly. Crepe, Charmeuse, duchese satin, damsk, or chiffon might be your choice for summer wedding.

If you are having a fall wedding, heavier fabric is appropriate to ward off the chill. Just make sure that your dress still maintain the casual and relax looks, and more importantly comfortable enough for you to wear during the ceremony and the reception.

Pick Your Dress.

When you are dress-hunting, please make sure that your dress is completing your body type. For those with boxy figure, pick a dress with necklines and an accent in your waistline; a friend of mine got this pretty dress with golden obi embroidered with silver phoenix for her wedding and it look excellent with her boxy figure. For women with curves, make sure to find a dress that will draw people eyes from the area. Consult your maid of honor and the bridal shop for this.

Beads, Dress Accessories, Colors and What-not

For casual dress, keep this in minimum. Pick something you like and leave the rest. A freshly pick lily in placed your ear or an ethnic necklace will look good. But no heavy beading or sequins.

While white and ivory are considered safe for wedding attire, it won’t do to have them for beach wedding. It’s okay but well, the idea is to have a casual wedding right? So why not playing a little bit with color? Red, blue, batik or dress printed with colorful flowers, feel free to play around and find something you like.