Active discussions

Please or to access all these features

Talk
AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

Can't Believe What I've Just Seen at a Wedding

216 replies

Bulbsbulbsbulbs · 06/09/2025 18:15

Afternoon wedding, on a beach. Bride in traditional wedding dress, guests mostly in smart normal wedding attire.

One guest was in a wedding dress. A proper, full on wedding dress. Strapless, corset back, full length, big full skirt with a TRAIN.

The bride had asked guests not to wear white and it wasn't white but bloody hell, who would do that? She looked amazing in it but I simply can't understand the thought process. I've no idea who she was other than a friend of the bride, close enough to go to the hen night, but I'm pretty sure the bride wouldn't have said this dress was OK if she'd been asked. She wasn't a bridesmaid, literally just a guest with no other role to play at the wedding( unless she's going to step up and sing Don't Cry For Me Argentina at the reception later which is possible I suppose!)

I'm just gobsmacked that someone would do this.

OP posts:
Individewl · 06/09/2025 20:00

I once wore a gold and cream sixties style swing dress to my SIL wedding. It was the first wedding I had ever been to and I had a very limited experiences as a child due to my upbringing. I honestly did not know the etiquette and rules I feel awful when I think about it. I definitely did not up stage the bride she looked stunning but I seriously cringe thinking about it and I had shown friends the dress and not one had told me the ‘rules’.

Marieb19 · 06/09/2025 19:59

Get a photo. Narcissists need exposure

AnAlpacaForChristmasPleaseSanta · 06/09/2025 19:55

This just reminds me of the episode of Derry Girls where the auntie turned up in a wedding dress and walked up the aisle before the bride 😂.

Snorlaxo · 06/09/2025 19:54

There was a bride last week on TikTok who had her transwoman brother turn up to her wedding in a wedding dress paid by the mother. (The mother didn’t pay for the bride’s dress btw) 👀

Dundonia · 06/09/2025 19:54

Maybe she’s making a passive aggressive point because the bride has tried to dictate that the guests can’t wear white.

I’d never wear white to a wedding but i bloody hate how some couples try to dictate what their guests can/cannot do.

PrincessofWells · 06/09/2025 19:50

ShinyAppleDreamingOfTheSea · 06/09/2025 19:43

I’m guessing she’s a very close ‘friend’ of the groom!

OTOH friend’s son got married recently and the whole wedding party wore white dresses (the female ones anyway!)

It's actually not that unusual for the guests to be in cream - makes the photos look coordinated

RichardMarxisinnocent · 06/09/2025 19:46

Are you outside the UK OP? There are as far as I know hardly any places in the UK where you can actually get married on the beach itself (Lusty Glaze in Cornwall is one I know of) so if it's in the UK you might have given away what wedding you're at and roughly where you live. If you're outside the UK obviously there are no such worries.

Blarn · 06/09/2025 19:44

She should have checked with mumsnet first!

ShinyAppleDreamingOfTheSea · 06/09/2025 19:43

I’m guessing she’s a very close ‘friend’ of the groom!

OTOH friend’s son got married recently and the whole wedding party wore white dresses (the female ones anyway!)

WutheringBites · 06/09/2025 19:40

Blimey - that’s a choice.

i mean, at least it’s pink.

BearPear · 06/09/2025 19:39

When my daughter got married 3 years ago she had zero opinion of what people chose to wear, she just wanted everyone to be comfortable! I’m sure that this kind of thing reflects poorly on the guest, not the bride.

Blessthismess2 · 06/09/2025 19:38

Bulbsbulbsbulbs · 06/09/2025 19:25

Actually I came home in the 'down time' photos etc. I posted because I was just so surprised by it.

And of course I can't take a photo of a stranger and post it on the internet!!! Christ. But she looks a bit like this, without the straps and with a train.
share.google/T8zR5bPLk7WHlVaWi

Edited

Of course you can take a photo! Just don’t include her face. Easy

TomatoSandwiches · 06/09/2025 19:36

You have to find out who she is... in relation to the B&G.

Surveille222 · 06/09/2025 19:36

This reply has been deleted

This has been deleted by MNHQ for breaking our Talk Guidelines.

Echobelly · 06/09/2025 19:34

Why would anyone do it? Because a lot of people know nothing about weddings if they haven't been to many perhaps.

Honestly, before I got married and went on wedding forums and found out more about what's commonplace, if anyone had asked me to be a bridesmaid on the assumption I would 'obviously know' I was expected to attend every dress shopping expedition, be really involved in wedding planning and to sort out a hen weekend for a dozen people in Aiya Napa or whatever, I would have got in such trouble. I assumed the bridesmaids just got bought a dress and had to turn up on the day and look worse than the bride.

Obviously, not every bride expects super involved bridesmaids and most will communicate upfront what they want. But I see online a lot of arguments about being a bridesmade that seem to come from exactly this misalignment of expectation. So I think it's possible a first time guest could just make an error about what you're supposed to wear.

PinkyFlamingo · 06/09/2025 19:32

Simplelife1 · 06/09/2025 19:06

Really??? You're at a wedding but posting on MN?? WHAT A LOAD OF BS

Why? It takes minutes to post you don't have to be glued to bride and groom the entire time!

Ionlymakejokestodistractmyself · 06/09/2025 19:29

Why Is Your Subject Line Capitalized Like AI Wrote It?

QueenOfTheDarkAges · 06/09/2025 19:27

I believe you OP. I've been at a wedding where the same thing happened, so much so that people in the street thought the guest was the bride. We were all (bride included) incredulous. I do not understand how anyone can think this is appropriate!

Original poster
Bulbsbulbsbulbs · 06/09/2025 19:25

Actually I came home in the 'down time' photos etc. I posted because I was just so surprised by it.

And of course I can't take a photo of a stranger and post it on the internet!!! Christ. But she looks a bit like this, without the straps and with a train.
share.google/T8zR5bPLk7WHlVaWi

OP posts:
Laiste · 06/09/2025 19:23

pic pic pic pic pic pic

Echobelly · 06/09/2025 19:21

Other end of the scale, could it be someone who's never been to a wedding and thinks you're supposed to wear something like that? I never went to a wedding until I was in my 20s, maybe she looked up 'wedding outfit ideas' and barked up totally the wrong tree?

godmum56 · 06/09/2025 19:19

is it your wedding?

Lemonadegg · 06/09/2025 19:19

Photos or it didn’t happen

MrsPinkCock · 06/09/2025 19:11

We need photos!

BabyBadaBing · 06/09/2025 19:09

Simplelife1 · 06/09/2025 19:06

Really??? You're at a wedding but posting on MN?? WHAT A LOAD OF BS

There'll be no photos, as it's 'outing'