Wedding planning is a whirlwind of celebration and nail-biting decision making, making any help much appreciated.
One of the biggest decisions on the day is finding the perfect wedding dress. That's why brides feeling the excitement - and pressure - invite their loved ones out wedding dress shopping.
Ideally, everybody invited would be as supportive as can be, but that isn't the case for some unlucky shoppers. According to Shannon Martin, the owner of Dotty Bridal in West Yorkshire, some of the worst comments can bring a bride to tears.
Speaking on behalf of Hitched.co.uk to The Mirror, the former candidate on The Apprentice named some of the most hurtful comments you shouldn't say whilst wedding dress shopping.
Sharon explained: "The worst thing a friend or family member can do is give their personal opinion, without it being constructive feedback. These people can be really overpowering and can completely overshadow the bride.
"More recently, we've had a lot of family members body-shame our brides, which we find really difficult to handle as this feels like critical judgment and not feedback that is helpful."
Whilst it may seem obvious advice not to insult someone's appearance, Shannon says they've had to comfort brides who have been the target of such hurtful remarks.
"We find it really hard to manage and have had girls in tears over it, so that's a really big thing for me that should never happen in an appointment. If you're going as a guest to a bridal appointment, then you should empower that bride into making her own decision, by only giving your opinion when it's needed," she said.
"We will always ask the bride’s opinion first, so the guests have the chance to mirror their thoughts, but we do sadly get times when friends or family will give their opinion before it's been asked of them…"
Indeed, another error is simply bringing along too many people - and their opinions.
Shannon says: "I think three [people] is a good number, and we will always suggest to our brides that they don't bring people who will all not agree with each other."
"Yes, you want other people's opinions, but you don't want overbearing opinions so you want opinions from people who matter the most. I took my dad to my appointment because I knew he would be honest and blunt with me. But if you're a person who can’t cope with people being blunt, then don't take your bluntest friend along!
"It's not about the number of people you take, it's more about the type of people you take."
When it comes to wedding dress shopping in general, Shannon recommends you keep an open mind.
"A lot of the time, brides come in with pictures that they've seen on the internet or that a celebrity has worn, or pictures of dresses from Pinterest that you then can't ever find because they don't exist, which is all good and well, and we do encourage people to have a vision of what they like and what their style is, but where they then go wrong is not letting the stylists pick out other options for them.
"In our store, we work very much like a stylist basis and treat the appointment as though it is like a personal shopper appointment that you would get in a high-end department store.
"However, sometimes brides don't want to listen to the stylists, they want to just pick out things that they want to try, or send their friends and family downstairs to pick out dresses for them, which is obviously great – it's dead exciting for them, but they do need to be open to letting us pick out dresses for them too as we are there to help."
And once your appointment is over, there are a few more mistakes Sharon warns against. To save yourself some pain, it's best to stop 'window shopping' and second guessing your choice.
She adds: "After the appointment, the biggest thing to avoid is more window shopping! Looking at social media or bridal accounts for other dresses once you've chosen your dress causes a nightmare.
"We allow our brides to take pictures during their styling session, but we also encourage them to delete them after because all they're going to do is sit at home and look at the pictures of themselves and absolutely rip themselves apart – I know, I did it!"
Don't miss the latest news from around Scotland and beyond - sign up to our daily newsletter here.
