Your Guide to Bridal Fabrics

You’ve got to take all the details of your day into account as well as your budget and, most importantly, your personal style. There are tried-and-true wedding fabrics that suit every bill, sure, but you want something that will reflect your personality and your preferred aesthetic. The choice of fabric can do a lot of heavy lifting there.

From the sturdiest satins to the daintiest bridal lace, we’ve got a list of some of the most useful and popular materials out there that you should consider when it comes to creating or buying your own wedding dress. 

Satin 

One of the most popular bridal fabrics over time, satin is shiny and sophisticated. Lots of brides love the look of a formal, satin wedding dress, and they have for many years.  

Satin technically only refers to the sheen on the fabric; it can be made of many different materials. Silk satin is more high-end, and polyester satin is more common. Organic fibers like silk and cotton tend to be more breathable, which is an important consideration for a warm-weather wedding. They also tend to be less structured, though, so a synthetic satin could be a better choice for a more architectural gown. 

One of the common complaints about satin is that it easily puckers and wrinkles. If you’re concerned about those imperfections throwing off your pictures, consider a polyester satin that will be sturdier and less prone to wrinkling. 

For flowy, unstructured dresses, you’re going to want different bridal fabrics. But for a highly constructed look, satin is a classic choice. 

Silk

Traditional and expensive, silk bridal fabrics convey a sense of timeless luxury. This material can be woven into a lot of different textures. Through that process, textile makers use silk to create a lot of popular bridal fabrics, like the silk satin we mentioned in the previous section.

The versatility of silk makes it an obvious choice for a wedding dress. You can find silk gazar, silk Mikado, faille, shantung, dupioni, and all kinds of other varieties. Designers use silk in all different styles and silhouettes due to this diversity of textures, sheens, and weights. It can suit ceremonies at any time of year. 

The most common downside to silk is that it’s more expensive than its synthetic counterparts. You can oftentimes find similar fabrics at a lower price point, but they won’t have the same qualities.

Tulle

Some of these bridal fabrics are meant to construct a whole gown, others are best suited for supporting roles. Tulle tends to be in the latter category. It’s a lightweight, open-weave fabric, and uses for it include as a lining or as a covering for illusion necklines, cutouts, and sleeves. That can be a great way to add a little more modesty to a design without sacrificing any of the special details. 

Another common technique using tulle is for bulking up the skirt of ballgown-style dresses. Layering lots of tulle creates those princess dresses that might come to mind when you think of traditional bridal styles. It’s not a particularly soft fabric, but its transparent quality makes it a good tool to use in all kinds of aesthetics.

Tulle is also a popular choice for bridal veils. It’s probably the most important accessory on the big day, and tulle gives a gauzy, airy feeling that is perfectly suited to a romantic wedding look. It has a lot of applications as a wedding fabric, so even if you don’t want to use tulle in your dress, you might find it comes in handy in other places. 

Bridal Lace

Lace is super romantic and always very popular when it comes to bridal fabrics. It comes in lots of different styles and complements many of the other materials we’ve listed here. In the following sections, we’ll go over a handful of different types of bridal lace. 

We’ll comment on which applications each one is best suited for, and we’ll describe what they look like in some detail. It might be a bit in the weeds for the average bride. However, if you’re looking to describe exactly what you want when you’re going to pick out bridal lace, then having a good handle on all the different options available to you can be super helpful.

We’ll start with one of the most classic choices.

Chantilly

This style is usually what immediately comes to mind when most people think of bridal lace. It features a very open netting background holding together an intricate pattern, typically florals. Chantilly bridal lace is sophisticated and traces its roots back to Victorian times. 

Hailing from Chantilly, France, its delicate appearance and deep history makes it a bridal lace staple. It can be layered over other fabrics to add a bit of detail and dimension. Or, it can be used on its own in certain areas, like sleeves. A lace sleeve is a classic design element that can give you a bit of extra coverage for modesty’s sake, or it can simply elevate the dress to a more regal aura. Chantilly lace can be a good fit for all seasons as well as levels of formality of the event. It can truly work for anyone, regardless of the specifics. 

Laser Cut

For a more modern take on classic bridal lace, look to laser cut styles. They’ve got more of a clean aesthetic, and it’s a bit sleeker than a more classic bridal lace like the Chantilly style we discussed in the previous section. What it lacks in old-world charm it makes up for with contemporary polish. 

Today’s technology makes bridal lace much more accessible for the masses, and laser cut lace is part of those advances. Typically, modern looks are all about clean lines, so lace doesn’t usually feature in those looks. Laser cut lace can split the difference and act as a bit of embellishment without compromising on that aesthetic goal.

Guipure

What sets guipure lace apart from the other styles is that it’s not on netting. Instead, the different designs are connected through individual bars. It tends to be a stiffer bridal lace, and it can conform to a lot of different styles. It’s a traditional type of lace, much more similar to Chantilly than to laser cut. 

Laying guipure lace over many of the bridal fabrics we’ve listed in the rest of this piece creates a highly detailed and sophisticated style. 

Alencon

Bridal lace created in this style goes well with soft, romantic aesthetics. It actually dates back several hundred years before the invention of Chantilly lace, so if history is something you’d like to showcase in your choice of bridal fabrics, it could be a great fit for your dress. 

Visually, it’s fairly similar to Chantilly — a net background holding together traditional motifs and designs. The way it’s created is a somewhat different process, though, which gives it a thicker and more three dimensional appearance. Chantilly is a bit more delicate and tends to feature a tad more negative space between designs. 

Alencon is the most traditional of the lace choices we’ve laid out here. If you’re looking for something that speaks to the history of brides who came before, this would be a great choice.

Crocheted

Hand-crafted crocheted lace can add a lot of natural, organic, and bohemian vibes to your wedding dress. 

Any kind of handmade bridal lace is going to come at a premium price, so do keep that in mind if you’ve got your heart set on crocheted lace. The skill and time it takes to make these intricate works of art is definitely worth the extra expense. And if you’re looking to save a bit on bridal lace, going for machine-made options is going to be your best bet. 

Chiffon

Light, airy, and weightless in appearance, chiffon is one of the super popular bridal fabrics. It’s a great choice for less structured gowns and typically suits the warmer months because of the easy breezy vibes it brings to a garment. Chiffon’s main selling point is the way it drapes and flows smoothly. 

It can be made out of organic silk or synthetic materials like nylon, rayon, or polyester. Chiffon is also a slightly sheer fabric, and it might even appear to shimmer. Those elements definitely bring a sense of relaxed luxury to a bridal look utilizing this fabric.

Chiffon may appear delicate, but it’s actually quite sturdy. You won’t have to worry about its durability on your big day. The one issue has to do with fraying, but as long as the bound or French seams are sewn correctly, it shouldn’t be a problem.

Organza

For a shimmery sheer option, organza is a great choice. This fabric’s quality is measured in how many holes it has per inch, with more holes indicating a better fabric. That’s what gives it its translucent quality. It’s got a similar sheerness to chiffon, but it’s stiffer, making it a better choice for more structured dresses. All those holes have the added benefit of making organza very breathable. So, if you’re looking for a structured dress that’s still suitable for summer, this could be a good fabric choice.

Like many of the other bridal fabrics we’ve described, organza is traditionally made from silk, but can also be composed of synthetic fabrics nowadays. Those synthetic options like nylon are more attainable for most people. The natural fibers are generally more luxurious, but making a budget-friendly choice can also bring elegant results.

Taffeta

If a full skirt is in your wedding dress plans, then taffeta could be a good choice. Its structured quality lends itself well to those kinds of silhouettes. Structural taffeta elements won’t lose their shape over the course of the evening. An incredibly crisp fabric, that structural integrity does come with a bit of a downside — it can make quite the rustling noise as you move around, so keep that in mind if you’re sensitive to sounds like that. 

Like many of the other bridal fabrics we’ve detailed here, taffeta can be made of silk or synthetic materials. 

Velvet

This thicker and heavier material might not be the first that comes to mind when you think of bridal fabrics, but that’s what makes it popular among brides who want to make a statement. Soft, lush velvet can elevate a more simple silhouette. 

Velvet is typically reserved for the fall and winter months, so if you’re looking for a wedding dress more appropriate for colder temperatures, it’s a fitting choice. 

Bridal fabrics that aren’t particularly classic or traditional can help make your dress feel unique and true to your personal style. A material like velvet might perfectly fit that bill, so if you’re planning an off-season wedding and the look of this fabric appeals to you, definitely give it a shot. 

Now you’re ready to select your bridal fabrics.

So, there you have it, a ton of material options for you to consider for your wedding dress. Any of these types of bridal fabrics could be the perfect choice for your big day. We’ve gone over most of the most common ones here, but you should also know that this is barely scratching the surface. There are so many more types of fabric out there! Don’t get discouraged if you can’t find the exact right ones right away. It might take some doing, but since you have so many options, you can definitely find fabrics that will create a stunning dress.

If you’re sewing a wedding dress yourself and need the best bridal fabrics for the project, you should browse through the options here at House Fabrics. From classic bridal lace to more adventurous styles, there’s all kinds of traditional and modern bridal fabrics for you to choose from.