Julie Sabatino also known as The Stylish Bride has become a key figure for brides today. As one of the first ever Bridal Stylists she has been perfecting the process of dress shopping for over 20 years now. With an intuitive approach to creating your dream bridal look, Julie roots for looking within your personal style rather than outside.

We sat down with her and asked her essential questions about her services and about finding the perfect wedding dress, of course. Fascinated by her POV we also invited Julie to curate an exclusive holiday gift guide for The Gloria, discover the edit here.

1. Walk us through the perks of having a Bridal Stylist?

J: The advantage of having a Bridal Stylist is that you have someone who really learns about you, and knows the industry, the designers, the dresses and all of the different styles available. Combining those two things along with your type of wedding and wedding venue, we focus you on seeing dresses and going to stores that have what you are looking for, instead of spinning your wheels. There is so much information out there today. It is funny because when I started my business, I started because people couldn’t get information, we did not have good websites and there was no social media. However, today for a client we act as a filter for the amount of  information available. There is so much to see and to take in for them and that’s where we come in, we focus on  knowing what this bride needs to see and getting her there in the best, most efficient and fun matter.

2. Three rules/tips when choosing your wedding dress

J: The number one thing is that you have to be comfortable on your wedding day. I am not somebody who believes in suffering for fashion. To me beauty comes from the inside and if you are feeling uncomfortable with what you are wearing or it is itching, or you are hot or you feel like it doesn’t look flattering, all of that is going to come through and it is going to affect the pictures. Really understanding what is going to make you feel the most comfortable and feel beautiful for yourself rather than what you are seeing on instagram and what everyone is doing.

The second, my favorite Oprah Winfrey, she has a saying “Doubt means dont” and I think that is perfect for bridal in finding your wedding dress because in life, I doubt things all the time and I still do them and that is part of life but with fashion, particularly your wedding dress, if you are having doubts about it or if you are not sure you like it in the pictures or if you feel like “i like it but” its not your dress. I call it finding a dress with no “buts” . I want my clients to fall in love with a dress that we are not changing a lot of things too, I think doing too many changes and doing too many design alterations can be a disaster.

The third is that you have to be really careful with how many opinions you let in on the decision, it is not helpful, everybody has an opinion if the people that come with you to the actual store, they need to be told in advance that they don’t get to speak first. Even well meaning people, when they give their opinion before the bride has a chance to speak, it totally shadows everything so it is like paying attention to your environment.

3. What is the perfect souvenir for you bridesmaids the day of the wedding?

J: I like to do jewelry, I think that it is really special and pretty and as an added bonus they will wear it on your wedding day and in that way you know what they are gonna wear so there will be no surprises.

But it is also a keeps. I still have things from weddings I have done, once I have personally been in, when my friends were getting married and they are in my jewelry boxes and it is such a nice reminder so I think that it is special to do that.

4. How do you help a bride identify what is her style for the big day?

J: Thinking about a style that is true to you. I advise my clients instead of looking to external sources, that they look to internally for inspiration and what I mean by that is going into your own closet and seeing if they can identify their own trends, for example I go into my closet and I have mostly crew neck sweaters and I have A Line skirts because I know that that looks better on my body and that information is great information for brides because chances are that you can get information from yourself that you can use.