Had Harry Potter been given the opportunity, I’m sure he would have learned as much as possible about wands before his trip to Diagon Alley. He probably would have spent hours and HOURS looking through wand websites, surfing wand designers webpages and boring his friends (if he’d had any) with facts about the practices of the wand industry. He may have formed opinions like mahogany wood is too pretentious, and hawthorne wood too old fashioned, unicorn hair too girly, and ebony is for posers etc. After all this research and comparison shopping he would have arrived at Ollivanders with a pretty good idea about what he wanted. I think he would have gone with Bamboo, 7 inches, dragon heartstring core. Bamboo because it’s so ecofriendly, 7 inches because it’s not too flashy, and dragon heartstrings because dragons are awesome. However, my guess is that regardless of how much research he did before he went into the wand shop, he would have walked out with the same holly and phoenix feather wand he ended up with in the book (despite whatever the price tag read).
This is because the wand chooses the wizard, not the other way around.
After this weekend I’ve reached the conclusion that the same applies to the bridal gown and the bride.