Countdown to Wedding Day: Bridal Q&A with Influencer and Fashion Icon Helen Owen
We sat down with bride-to-be, business owner, and social media star Helen Owen to talk about all things wedding planning, dress shopping, her VS edit, and so much more. Scroll to read our conversation and get inspired for your own big day.
Q: Congrats on your engagement! How did you meet your fiancé?
A: “Thank you! We met in 2015 at the Cabo Airport in Mexico for the very first time. We had both just arrived to film the same TV commercial for a *solar panel backpack company*, the first and only TV commercial we’ve ever done…it played on national television in 2015. You can’t make this up. We filmed the commercial over four days which consisted of ATVs on the beach, a sunset cruise, zip lining, beach volleyball, pool hangs, and hot tubbing after filming. We spent every waking second together, and let’s just say there was a lot of flirting and a lot of vibes. When the trip came to an end, we both flew back to LA to discover we only lived 15 minutes from each other (I was in Westwood, and he was in Santa Monica). I was finishing up my senior year at UCLA, and right away we started going on sushi dates and hikes, and later that summer he surprised me on a trip to Greece. By September we were official. That’s how it all began.”
Q: What has been your favorite (and least favorite) part of wedding planning?
A: “My favorite part of the wedding planning process so far has been the level of creativity involved! Event planning has played a role in the last few years of my career, and it’s something I actually find really fun—seeing a vision, creating mood boards, seeing it come to life. I love design and anything creative, so all of the visual aspects of wedding planning are super exciting for me. Our least favorite part is that we are simultaneously running multiple businesses, renovating a house, running a tech company, and juggling my brand campaigns. It’s chaotic.”
Q: Have you said yes to the dress? Did you know exactly what you wanted or are you letting the perfect dress find you?
A: “I ended up designing my dream dress hand-in-hand with my dream dress designer! Pinch me! Like so many girls, I did my due diligence with wedding dress shopping and tried on A LOT. The very first place I went to was Galia Lahav, and I was so enamored with multiple dresses I tried on, and also impressed by the quality of the dresses, which stood out even further to me as I continued trying on other designers. I couldn’t get Galia out of my head, despite not being 100% drawn to one single dress there. I was connected with the Galia design team through a mutual friend, and I told them I had a few ideas for a custom dress. Without showing them my sketches, I hopped on a few design calls with their lead designer and was SHOCKED when he presented a design that almost exactly matched one of my sketches! I showed them my sketch on the call, and we all agreed it was meant to be. I feel so lucky to be creating a custom dress of my dreams with Galia Lahav, pinch me!!”
Q: Tell us a bit about your edit—what can other brides-to-be expect from your picks?
A: “I love a bridal moment that has a little extra flair, whether that be florals or a pop of color. For my edit, I leaned into bridal pieces that had personality, like the little blue butterflies and delicate colorful stitching that is throughout my favorite styles!”
Q: What was the creative process like working with VS on the collab?
“I loved being so hands-on with refining this edit! I got to spend a morning at the VS headquarters in New York where I was able to hand-pick my favorite pieces, which took a few revisions because it was honestly hard to narrow down my favorites with so many amazing options.”
Q: What are you most excited about for married life?
A: “EVERYTHING! We joke that we are already married, but I know making it official will officially bring us into this next chapter of life. One of my lifelong goals is to be a mother, so I would say that aspect of our next chapter is what excites me the most.”
Q: Any pro-tips/secrets you could share about wedding planning for other brides?
A: “There are aspects of wedding planning that feel like a scam, or like society is getting into your head, and the best advice I can give is remembering your WHY. This wedding will most likely *not* be the best day of your life. The best days of your life, if you’re marrying your person, will be ahead of you. Before you get caught up in the lavish details, and the pressure to transform yourself into a supermodel, and all the other wedding-related expectations you are carrying, it has helped me to remember that our wedding is just one weekend. It’s a celebration of our love, but we don’t need the wedding, we want it. Our ‘why’ is spending our lives together, and everything else is just for fun. If it stops being fun, we’re losing the plot.”
Q: Do you have a favorite look you’ve worn to a bridal event/your bachelorette etc.?
A: “I had so much fun putting together Winter bridal looks in Aspen! We did a joint bachelorette in Aspen, which is so *us*, and my favorite look was this white lace catsuit, cowboy hat, and high boots I wore for the theme ‘The Last HO Down’ (my initials are H.O., so this was the perfect theme for our Western night!).”
Q: If you had to choose just one item from your edit that is the “must-have” for brides, what would it be?
A: “My top, top, top piece is this lingerie set—I think I gasped when I first saw it. It’s the perfect, delicate bridal intimate that is both sexy and feminine and is a piece I will 100% wear again. I consider it a must-have because it isn’t the expected all-white lingerie, it brings more personality and stands out in a sea of white bridal choices.”
Q: Who has been your rock through the entire planning process? A family member? A best friend? Your fiancé? We get it, it takes a village!
A: “My rocks have been Lexi and Arielle on my management team. All three of us are in our bridal era together (Lexi just had her stunning wedding in Aspen, and Arielle’s wedding is shortly after mine!). Having them to ask dumb questions to, fashion advice, and above all, collectively sharing the experience of being in our bridal eras has been my foundation of sanity and support.”