You have the dress, the jewellery, the bridesmaids outfits and everything planned for the biggest day of your life. There is one more dilemma: should you wear glasses, contact lenses or struggle through the day in a blur? Karen Louise from Bridal Eyewear by Karen Louise gives you her expert advice.
Wearing glasses on your wedding day
You have decided to wear spectacles on the day. Great decision! Modern day glasses are so varied that any look is possible. Opticians have such a vast choice of light and delicate or bolder styles to accessorise your whole outfit in a vintage, classic or contemporary way. Your spectacles are a fashion accessory to your wedding outfit and should be seen a ‘face jewellery’, not just an essential appliance.
Decide on the look you want to achieve:
- dramatic and colourful (to match the colour scheme or overall theme of the day)
- simple and unassuming for more of a classic style
- delicate but ornate and to fit in with your jewellery
When selecting the frames make sure you take your jewellery, veil and colour scheme for the day and ask for a style consultation with a fashion frame consultant or a qualified dispensing optician. They should be able to advise you on the most suitable frames for your power of lenses while taking the style into consideration. If you are planning on wearing a veil then make sure the sides of the spectacles are not going to get caught on the delicate fabric of the veil and create an awkward moment for you or your groom, or interfere with the photos.
Top Tip: Make sure you put an anti-reflection coating on your lenses to highlight your eyes and not the lenses in the photographs. Also make sure you avoid transition (photochromatic) lenses as they will darken outside and you won’t see your eyes at all.
The best part of getting new spectacles for your wedding is that they can be worn over and over again after the big day!
Contact lenses for brides
Contact lenses are now so advanced that opticians can fit lenses for almost any prescription. If lenses are going to be your correction of choice, make sure you have had them fitted at least six months before the wedding. Get used to wearing them for full days at a time and make sure your make-up artist and hairdresser are aware that you are wearing lenses and not spectacles. The British Contact Lens Association (BCLA) has a list of contact lens opticians who have committed to stay up to date with contact lens technology and as such should be a good starting point for finding someone to fit your lenses.
Top Tip: It is always advisable to have a spare pair of lenses with you on the wedding day as well as emergency back-up spectacles.
Laser eye surgery before your wedding
If you cannot wear contact lenses and spectacles are not your preferred option then there is always corrective surgery. Today there are two or three different types of laser surgery as well as intraocular lens implants. All of these are surgical procedures and do carry an element of risk with them.
Top Tip: If this is your choice of correction then go to at least two clinics for initial consultations and make sure you leave at least six months between surgery and the wedding. You should also consider that many laser patients do suffer dry eye symptoms after laser procedures. Laser eye surgery can, for some however, be a very positive and liberating choice.
Whichever option you choose for your wedding day, whether you feel newly liberated after corrective surgery, more comfortable in contact lenses or simply just more ‘you’ in specs, know that you will be a beautiful bride on your big day.
Bridal Eyewear by Karen Louise is the original bridal spectacle outlet. Karen Louise, an eyewear expert, offers an exclusive, hand picked range of frames designed for wedding days, race days, and every other special occasion. As an expert in the field, Karen offers top advice to brides looking for eyewear options to make them look their best on their wedding day.
