The Art of the Wedding Wardrobe With Gabrielle Hurwitz
An interview with luxury bridal stylist Gabrielle Hurwitz
I met Gabrielle at at the tail end of a Bridal Fashion Week event this past spring. She doesn’t know it, but that was lucky for her. If we had any longer than our elevator ride and walk to the Uber together, I would have pestered her with so many questions, gushed over her work, and never left her alone.
Gabrielle launched her bridal styling business in 2018 after many years working in media. Her work has been featured in Vogue, Over the Moon, Brides and everywhere else you see fabulous weddings. The bridal stylist’s role in a wedding fascinates me. Because she is the sweetest and the coolest, Gabrielle agreed to let me pick her brain!
Read below to learn all about the process of bridal styling, and snag some hot tips from a true styling pro, no matter what your bridal budget may be.
Shannon: Hi Gabrielle! I am so excited to chat with you, I have a million questions but I will try to stay focused. Let’s start with your “elevator pitch” for those who don’t know what exactly your job entails?
Gabrielle: As a bridal stylist, my job is to act as the creative director for all the fashion surrounding a wedding. While your planner is focused on the design and logistics of the wedding and auxiliary events, I focus on the fashion and make sure it tells the story of your personal style as a bride, and the story of your wedding. Taking cues from the location and designs for each day, I help my clients curate their dream wedding wardrobe - from engagement sessions, to bridal showers, multi day weddings and honeymoons. My brides aren’t Barbies that I’m playing dress up with — my goal is really to help my brides discover what “bridal” means to them and how to translate it in a way that feels authentic and makes them, and their loved ones, feel like the best, most beautiful version of themselves.
You launched your business in 2018 and then had to navigate a global pandemic, arguably the weirdest time for weddings. How was that for you?
Haha oh gosh. Honestly, it was rough, which I’m sure most people in the wedding industry would tell you. When I started my business back in 2018, I was 26-years-old and so naive. I thought I would launch a website and Instagram and overnight have a full roster of clients and steady income. At the end of 2019, I had one big wedding under my belt (that I’m still proud of to this day) and a few in the works for 2020. I finally felt like my business had some momentum and things were going to start picking up. Of course, that all came to a halt when COVID hit. All my weddings were postponed or majorly scaled back. Shopping was incredibly difficult with capacity limits and travel restrictions and with all the uncertainty surrounding events, my business changed a lot and I was forced to work with a lot of people virtually. Ultimately, I’m grateful for the challenges because I think it forced me to be more creative in my business and how I work, but I definitely don’t miss it.
Post-pandemic there definitely seems to have been a “bridal boom” where things went kind of bananas, did you feel that through your work?
Definitely! I think the post-pandemic wedding boom also aligned with the rise in popularity of the “bridal stylist” as a vendor category and the rise of multi-day wedding weekends, where brides want outfits for every event. It’s been a busy few years but I’m so grateful for it.
I’m curious what the first step is with you and a couple. Do you have prerequisites? Do you hop on a zoom to discuss their wants and dreams?
I consider myself a full-service bridal stylist, meaning I help brides with their ceremony look first and foremost and then looks for any other events they’re planning. So there aren’t necessarily any prerequisites, but if someone already has their wedding gown and is just looking for help with accessories or a rehearsal dinner dress, for example, I’m not the right fit. I get on a phone call with every prospective client to hear more about them, their personal style, and their vision for the wedding and to make sure that we’re a good fit for one another. Besides their wedding planner, I’m probably the vendor they’re going to have the most contact with in the wedding planning process and I want to make sure we’re a good match.
I often talk about “wedding alchemy” and really believe that so many things have to come together in a magical way for a wedding, especially a big luxury one, to “land”. Fashion is obviously a huge part of that. I’m curious how much you work with other vendors to make sure there is cohesion. Like do you talk with the florist and photographer so everyone is on the same page? Just the planner?
Yes I love the concept of wedding alchemy! One of the first questions I ask my brides is if I can see the mood board from their planner, or at least the Pinterest board they shared with the planner. I think when it comes to the fashion, context is everything and I want to make sure that the fashion will complement the design. Obviously, I work closely with the glam team and like to give creative direction for hair and makeup, though it is a collaborative process. Once the fashion elements and beauty details have been confirmed, I put everything into a PDF that I then share with the vendor team ahead of the wedding (including the planner, photographer, videographer, florist, glam team, etc). I think it’s helpful for everyone to know what’s happening with the fashion so everyone is on the same page. For example, where the photographer wants to shoot portraits might be influenced by the bride’s gown, and of course, the size of the bouquet needs to work with the wedding dress, too.
Are you shopping in person with brides or more guiding them from afar?
I always prefer to shop with my brides in-person, at least for the ceremony dress. It’s much easier to build a rapport with someone face-to-face versus over emails. That said for auxiliary events and accessories, it’s more of a hybrid model with some shopping done in-person and some done online. I also do lots of custom looks and fittings which works much easier in-person.
What dress do you start with?
I like to start with the ceremony dress because I think it sets the tone for the rest of the looks. Not that the wedding dress is the end-all be-all when it comes to the fashion, but I think for most people, it’s the most important one. Ultimately, I want all the outfits to work together and look cohesive as a whole while still allowing each moment to shine.
I guess it’s rude of me to exclude hypothetical grooms from this conversation, is that experience totally different?
I help grooms, too! Lead times for menswear are often shorter than for a wedding dress, so the process is a little bit different, but not entirely. I typically will wait to start on menswear until we have the bride’s looks sorted out, or at least the main elements of her look, to ensure that the looks complement each other. Then, using her look as guidance, we’ll pick out his, paying attention to formality, color, silhouette, etc.
I am obsessed with your use of color. I feel like when I look at the weddings you work on, one of the looks totally surprises me and I often think how fun that will to rewear in the future. Do you get any resistance when you push non-white looks?
While I do let the bride guide the overall direction we go in, I always encourage my brides to go outside of their comfort zone slightly, including incorporating color. I think it’s nice to break up a weekend’s worth of white looks with a pop of color somewhere, whether the dress itself, or the accessory. It just makes things a little more fun and a little less expected. Plus, you can actually re-wear some of the pieces.
Styling is so much more than just the dress. We’re talking jewels, hair, shoes, makeup and veil? What else is involved?
I think of fashion as another design element to a wedding, in the same way that florals, linens, or tableware can be. With that in mind, I try to style a head-to-toe look that really captures the essence of the event, and of course, the bride wearing it. We’ll work through the dress or separates, the jewelry, shoes, handbag, etc, and also the hair and makeup to ensure that head-to-toe, everything makes sense and feels polished and cohesive.
I hear over and over again how weird and confusing shopping for veils is. Talk about a one time, quick wear! Do you have any veil wisdom to share?
Veils can be tough! I think it can be hard to be in a veil shopping mindset when you’re picking out your wedding dress because it can feel like too many decisions at once. If you don’t order veil at the same time you order your dress, I recommend shopping for a veil about four or five months before the wedding to give yourself plenty of time. Reach out to the consultant you bought your wedding dress from and see if you can book an accessories appointment to try on veils. I recommend trying a bunch of different styles because you never know what you’ll end up liking! You can also always look for veils online, but I think it’s helpful to try on different styles in person before pulling the trigger.
Are you involved in tailoring at all?
I love to attend my client’s fittings when possible! I trust the seamstresses I work with, but it’s always nice to be there just in case the bride needs help articulating what she wants and to offer suggestions or ideas she might not have thought of.
Are you ever touching bridesmaids or mother of the bride looks? This is another aspect of wedding planning that makes people cry. It’s one thing to shop for you, but it’s another thing entirely to make sure a bunch of people are happy while executing your vision. I’m curious what your experience with that is?
Yes! Part of my full-service offerings include styling the bridal party and mothers. Most of my clients these days are doing mismatched bridesmaids dresses one way or another and it’s my job to create the mood board, curate options for everyone, and manage the ordering process to ensure that all the dresses work well together and everyone is wearing something they’re comfortable in.
I think Mother of the Brides are one of the bigger challenges in what I do, and not because of the mothers themselves, but just because so many mother of the bride dresses are so bad and matronly. I always encourage the moms I work with to look at evening gowns versus “mother of the bride” dresses because you’ll find so many more chicer options, that with tailoring, can be perfect.
Do you dabble in vintage? Do you find that there’s any major differences? I’d imagine some brides like to mix and match new and old.
I love vintage! It’s definitely more of a treasure hunt to find the right pieces in the right size, but when you find something fabulous that fits (or can be tailored to fit), it feels like winning the lottery. There’s a little bit more pressure with vintage in that you don’t really have time to go home and think it over. If you love it, you kind of need to buy it then and there, which isn’t for everyone. But what’s so great about vintage is that you won’t see a million other brides all over Instagram and TikTok wearing the same piece as you.
Is there anything you’re hearing over and over from brides? Concerns or wants?
I think what I’m hearing the most is that brides don’t want to wear something that they’ve seen a million other people wear. They want something that feels fresh and unique. I think it’s why a lot of brides are struggling to make decisions now. While social media has been a fabulous resource for discovering new designers and sourcing inspiration, I think it also makes it really easy to second-guess your choices and wonder, “what if?” when you’re being constantly inundated with gorgeous gowns and seeing the dress you picked on someone else. Also there are so many beautiful designers all over the world, but the logistics of actually sourcing and trying on their dresses is challenging, which is something that’s unique to the bridal industry.
When do you feel like you’ve nailed it, and how do you know? Can you even know before you see the pictures? Also are you like on pins and needles the entire wedding weekend waiting to see how it all came together?
I probably should say I know I’ve nailed it when the bride is happy. And while that’s absolutely true and the most important thing, I don’t feel like I’ve nailed it until I get the photos back (or am on-site day-of). Every piece — the fashion, obviously, the hair and makeup, the weather, etc — has to come together just so for me to really feel like “wow.”
You are working on extremely fabulous, mind-blowing events, and I want to be mindful that some of our readers here might not have a stylist in their wedding budget. What advice would you give someone who wants to try this on their own or is feeling totally overwhelmed because fashion isn’t their thing?
I think the biggest piece of advice I can give is to make sure you’re staying true to yourself and your personal style (and of course, the wedding). Make sure you’re only asking for opinions from people who will be supportive and have your best interests at heart. A lot of people mean well, but will project their own opinions onto you. In terms of the fashion itself, feel free to rely on your bridal boutique for the wedding dress itself. Follow stylists and wedding publications on social media to get inspired but try to make sure you don’t fall into a comparison trap (it’s easy to do!). Finally, a lot of department stores and online retailers offer personal styling services, like Moda Operandi, Nordstrom, Saks, Bergdorf, etc. Reach out to them for help with accessories and other events.
I knew I’d have a million questions for you, sorry! Last one and it’s lofty– You’ve seen a million weddings, you’ve worked on tons, you’re in the thick of the “industry”. How do you stay inspired? How do you think we keep making magic at weddings?
While it’s important to appreciate what other people are doing in weddings, I think it’s really important to look outside of the industry for inspiration. Interior design, architecture, travel, art, fashion — these all continue to inspire me.
Thank you so much to Gabrielle for being my first ever Let’s Party interview! I hope you enjoyed. I know I did, and I’m currently wishing I had another wedding to pick outfits for. Massive ten year vow renewal 2032 anyone?
Comment below any thoughts or other industry professionals you’d like to hear from. So excited for all that’s to come!
And don’t forget to follow Gabrielle on Instagram and ogle over full galleries on her website.
PLEASE review that Sicily wedding on your Tiktok, I just looked through the photos and I am deceased
“Such a refreshing perspective on building a thoughtful wedding wardrobe! I love how you highlight the balance between sustainability, personal style, and occasion-specific elegance. The emphasis on re-wearable pieces, elevated neutrals, and conscious styling choices makes this guide incredibly relevant for modern brides and wedding guests alike. A must-read for anyone planning a stylish yet mindful celebration!”