When little girls spend their mathematics classes daydreaming of weddings (instead of winning the World Series -- not to assert you will not do both ), what do they dream of first? The perfect marriage dress, naturally : a robe in ideal embellishments, and sweeping train, the ideal elaborations, and the perfect shoes.

Many brides are fortunate. They may search high and low, braving chilly dept shops and pushy bridal shops, but finally they come face-to-face with The One. They know this is The One because they start crying, or their mum or friends all start crying right away. All of the planning .... the theme, the right sort of venues .... It all springs to life.

Other brides are not as lucky. They've searched just as hard, working their way through shops across 3 or 4 states, but they haven't found The One. Instead, they've found 3 or 4 Contenders, all of which are serviceable and nice, but not earth-shattering sufficient to tell them that now is definitely time to stop the looking and get on with the planning. These brides have it harder.

Even if you are the 1st sort of bride, purchasing the dress is such a significant call that you run a likelihood of falling into that wallet-skinning category known as the Two-Dress Bride. Here are some tips for picking the perfect dress and avoiding that nasty fate.

1. Bring the entourage, but do not buy. It's fun and useful to bring your mother, friends or sisters on the dress-shopping expedition. It gives you a buffer against an overbearing sales staff, and it's amusing to see whether your impressions of perfection are shared by your family, not to say how they will love being part of such a critical call. But whatever how enthusiastic everyone gets over a certain dress, don't buy in the heat of the instant. Give yourself time to rethink and buy with a cool head later, alone. The overwhelming majority of dresses are non-returnable, so when you have acquired it, you have bought it.

2. Don't buy too early unless you may. Bridal gowns can take 4 to 10 coming months to come from the manufacturer, but there isn't any reason to buy over a year previously, unless your chosen style is going to be abandoned. Give yourself some time to sit on your call. After you pick a robe, you may see a hundred others almost like it. You may become a walking encyclopedia on that style of robe. All the better if you have room to choose.

3. If you've bought "The One," stop shopping. Any more window-shopping at this point will only lead you down the road toward the dull land of Two-Dress Brides. What you need to do instead is remember that ecstatic sense of having tried on The One. Go get The One out of the closet, put it on and stand before the mirror. You can remember exactly why it's the One.

4. If you have purchased "The One" and can't stop shopping, get a 2nd view. Show your first and 2nd selections to other brides. Be honest -- tell them you have already remortgaged your apartment for the 1st dress, but you believe this second dress might be It. They are going to be honest, too -- the 1st one was better. You will feel reassured.

5. Don't tell yourself "I'll sell the old dress and choose a new one." This old saw of the Two-Dress Bride just will not work. You will never get more than a fragment of what you paid for your first dress if you purchased it new.

6. Don't be afraid to target high -- irrespective of what your budget. Some brides knew from the start they needed a designer label, but life just failed to cooperate by making them heiresses. Yet all is not lost if you are prepared to shop courageously. At any given moment, a better-heeled bride is selling her once-used St. Pucchi or Ulla-Maija on eBay. She paid thousands upon thousands, but you, smart shopper, will pay half that or less. To take this road, you must shop earlier than other brides so you may have a choice of gowns.

7. Shop on the internet, but never send a check. Bridal gown businesses sometimes have a technique of disappearing overnight. Regardless of what the proprietor tells you, never make a purchase as large as a marriage robe without the chargeback protection of a Visa card. If they are saying they won't take plastic, move on.

8. Don't hold out forever for The One. Some brides never find The One. What they do find is some dresses they look gorgeous in. If you are this bride, try beginning your planning from the theme rather than the dress. You'll probably eventually get sick to death of dress shopping. When that occurs, "good enough" actually will be good enough. Focus on other sides of the wedding that mean a lot to you, like the venue, the food, or the inescapable devotion of your soon-to-be husband.

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