You’re engaged and excitedly began your search for your wedding dress, when you quickly realized the options and variety of bridal gowns are literally limitless! This can be great, but it can also feel very overwhelming. A simple search for the hashtag “wedding dress” produces thousands of images of bridal gowns and you are savvy enough to know that some of them must be edited beyond recognition. So where do you start?

You definitely don’t want to make the mistake of trying to cover all the bases – entering into a never ending saga of trying on hundreds of dresses to the point where all of the joy is completely sucked out of the experience for you.  This will simply leave you more confused than when you started, as everything becomes a blur of white dresses.

Instead, what you should do is prioritize your options, and create what we call a “Must Try Before I Buy” list. This list encompasses the designers and gowns that check off different boxes for you and which you know you need to see to be sure that you are choosing the perfect dress for yourself.

One of the collections that should be on this list is Lee Petra Grebenau, and here’s why:

1. Lee Petra Grebenau grew up in her family’s international textile business – her earliest memories and experiences were inundated by the embroideries and fabrics she would one day become an artisan of! From childhood she developed an innate understanding of how they can be used to create the most incredible bridal and evening gowns. After graduating from Shenkar with honors – the most prestigious fashion academy in Israel – she immediately began developing her namesake collection. Her focus on using only the finest fabrics and materials for her bridal gowns sets her apart from many of her contemporaries.  Not only are her laces and embroideries among the most beautiful and artisanal in the world, but you will not find Lee Petra Grebenau fabrics in several other bridal collections, and this makes every gown extremely special!

2. Lee Petra Grebenau still makes custom changes to her gowns – Unlike many of her contemporaries, Lee Petra Grebenau still works with brides to make custom changes to her designs.  In other words, if you love the sleeves of one gown, and want to add this element to another one of her styles which you love the most, she will make the custom change for you! This type of one on one designing isn’t cost effective for most designers, so they simply take the option off the table. Lee Petra is still deeply invested in her brides on a personal level though, and this makes her stand out among her peers in luxury bridal design. “Each wedding gown is custom made uniquely to its client, allowing Lee Petra Grebenau to become a destination for brides that appreciate high standards of quality and are looking for a one of a kind experience.”

3. Lee Petra Grebenau did not wither in the face the pandemic – Lee Petra had begun to design her new “Belle Epoque” collection when the coronavirus pandemic hit.  As a result, she had to stop and put all of her focus and production efforts on her brides’ gowns, to ensure every single wedding dress order would be fulfilled as expected.  Once this was accomplished, she could have simply delayed release of the new season as most designers did understandably do.  Instead, she insisted on picking up where she left off because, “About two months ago I decided that it would be right to continue the collection, and to not give up because of the virus. My team worked around the clock to finally launch it, and for that I am grateful. I think that in these difficult times it is more important than ever to dream, and I am sure that soon we will be able to return to a normal life; fly abroad without worries, go to a concert and get married with all the people we love by our side. I am proud and excited to launch ‘LA BELLE EPOQUE’.” That decision to push forward with hope in the face of a worldwide crisis whose ending at the point was completely unknown, says so much about who she is as an artist and as a woman.

4. Lee Petra Grebenau is a young designer – why should this matter? It is important because she is in a time of life that is in sync with her brides’ lives. She designs gowns with a true sensibility for what brides want today.  Her reinterpretation of the traditional wedding dress is done with a modern romantic vein, that is delicate with a subtle unexpected edge.

5. Lee Petra Grebenau gowns are simply among the most beautiful in the world – at the end of the day, this is what it is all about isn’t it? Your wedding dress should be made of the finest fabric, with the most meticulous hand sewing and tailoring, and the most exquisite bridal design you have ever seen.  Lee Petra checks all those boxes and more – she is truly inspired and inspiring, she is motivated by love for her brides and passion for her craft, and she is a female designer whose talent and creativity are in a category only a few select designers can claim to be a part of.  “I have chosen to call my new 2021 bridal collection “LA BELLE EPOQUE”. The beautiful epoch is a term for a period of optimism, economic and technological prosperity, and artistic flourishing that prevailed in Europe in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. At that time, the style of art and design that dominated was called Art Nouveau. This art movement was influenced by many motifs of nature, and this is primarily my inspiration for the collection. Although we are in a period of a global pandemic, social distancing and other restrictions in so many fields, I chose this name that reflects an opposite period.”