To hate how I looked on my wedding day

[Goldmonday]

I got married almost two years ago and honestly look back and absolutely hated how I looked. My dress was beautiful but I don't think I wore it correctly (wasn't done up the right way) and I absolutely despise how I had my hair.

It's such a shame because I look back now and think wow I could have done such a better job than I did.

I know it's superficial but I can't help but feel bothered by it. STILL haven't got round to getting our wedding album printed and it's honestly because I only really like how I looked in a couple of photos. I feel so envious of brides now who get to make themselves look beautiful as I feel like I missed my chance!!

Anyone else feel the same way?

I only really like how I looked in a couple of photos

Do you have prints of those? In nice frames hanging up?

I think the album is overrated, but it would be nice to take one photo that you like, have it in a lovely frame, hanging in good spot.

I was pressurised into wearing my mum's wedding dress.

I think my dad was having business issues and was worried about the expense of the dress.

The dress wasn't "me" at all. I didn't feel beautiful on my wedding day and envied the bridesmaids, all of whom got new dresses.

It annoyed me that I didn't get a new dress, chosen by me. I felt a bit cheated and resentful.

In fact, the dress looks nice in the photos and was a nice change from the ubiquitous "boob tube" strapless dresses of more recent times.

I really disliked my dress. It was the wrong style for my lack of figure - I look like a fat girl in a shiny white dress. I did try on a slightly more alternatively styled one - like a wrap style with gorgeous gold band down the "wrap" side - I really liked it, but it wasn't quite as traditional as the other one and I couldn't decide between the two. Went for the more traditional one (at MiL's urging) ... and then regretted it when I saw the dress on the hanger on the day, to the point of tears.

However... we've been married 13 years this year and while I still get a twinge of "meh" when I look at the photos... It was a great day and ultimately dress or no dress, I married the right man. So I got the right thing right!

My first wedding - adored the dress. It suited me, it was fabulous, I should have tried to find an almost-the-same for my second wedding. However on the first one I ended up disliking the husband instead

Ultimately as long as you get the partner right, the clothing becomes less important. Still smarts a bit, I could have looked like a million dollars instead of only ten thousand...

I've only got a few photos of our wedding blessing and even though it was August, it absolutely hammered down with rain the entire day, so my hair went a bit frizzy and my tights got splashed (I wore a knee length dress). Grrr Can't stand it when my hair curls up when it's rainy.

But I couldn't be happier being with DH, I'd have gladly worn my gardening clothes if that was the only option!

Honestly OP, don't feel sad about how you looked, we are all our own worst critics - I bet if you put up a photo here, we'd all say you look stunning. Get your fave photo framed, and display it with pride.

My wedding was a right mess. I was 3 months post a very traumatic birth and wore a dress 3 sizes bigger than my normal size. It was red full length straight, which i wore with a fluffy/feathery bolero. My hair was very dark and had quite a severe fringe at the time and i am wearing heavy makeup (a lot of silvery eyeshadow) to hide how exhausted i am from the reflex baby. I am tall and carrying the extra weight I look really draggy. We didn't have a photographer and asked friends to take snaps, which only a few did, so we have just 5 pics, only 3 of which have us facing the camera. So i don't even have a selection to choose the best from. If i look at them i just think that whose that person with DH seconds away from belting out a rendition of 'Hey big spender'

The whole day was pretty shit tho so not something i want to remember. It got the job done tho. We are married.

If i want to see me looking nice i look at my first wedding pics taken only 4 years earlier! Just a shame i can't have them up or show my children!

I got married 14 years ago and also don't like how i looked. I was wearing a strapless wedding dress that was pretty much all you could buy at the time - it had thin spaghetti straps you could attach so I had those on but I still felt as if it was going to fall down all day; my cleavage was struggling to be free.

I did like my hair, which was a sort of chignon at my neck, but for some reason I decided it would look better with a bit of fringe, which I then spent the day brushing out of my eyes. I hadn't bothered with a make-up trial or anything - asked the girl at the hairdressers for a smoky effect, which she duly gave me, and was more suited to falling out of a nightclub at 3am than a wedding day. Still. Not what matters, I guess!

My dress hadn’t been altered correctly along my bust and got more gapey during the day. The photographer tried to photoshop some pics where it really showed, but 13 years ago was a little bit crudely done.

My hairdresser couldn’t remember what we’d practised bel hair was not like trial but it was very windy and she’s done it a bit messy style so all worked out.

Feel the same got married 2 months ago my dress was imo very nice and my make up artist done an amazing job but i hated how i had my hair and my nose looks big all the kissing photos or profile photos.. thats worse is my make up artist is using one of the photos i hate as an advertisement on her website.. this woman has won hundreds of awards and is extremely well known and sought after in the southwest so i guess i should trust her judgement! I also feel sad because of my nerves i barely remeber walking down the ailse or the ceremony the only face i remember was my husbands and my 18 month old dd who was a flower girl was had an awful cold and and wouldn't allow any of us to even comb her hair. Still though im now married to my husband and we are very much enjoying married life so that's all that really matters x

If , as you say , there are two photos which you like, get them printed into a little album with pictures of the venue, cake, family. You have a wedding album.

So glad I found this thread. I've been struggling with this feeling for ages!! I hated my dress too! It turned out the bridal shop scammed a load of women and was supposedly buying dresses online from cheap Chinese online stores. It didn't fit right or look like how we had agreed (was supposed to be custom made) I was too scared to tell my mum who was paying for it.

My make up artist also made me look like a dragon queen so I hate my photos. Thank goodness my photographer forgot to make my photo album. Perhaps she did me a favour

*drag queen. (Dragon queen would have been awesome)

I have been married 4years and never look at the photos.
I had a dress hand made to my specification in a colour I wanted, just wish I had bought one off the shelf in ivory
It doesn't help that my much more attractive sister was MOH so in all of the pics of us together I just look like a pig in a fancy dress

I looked good. Didn't enjoy the wedding. Happily married 22 years so it's not all bad. Weddings are just that sort of enforced jollity that has too much room for disapointment

The trouble with trad. weddings is people wear stuff they wouldn't normally wear, that doesn't suit them (do strapless gowns look good on may people? ), have their make-up and hair done in ways that make them look like transvestites and are not at their most relaxed

I don't like mine now, I think lots of people look back and cringe. But at least it wasn't the 70s, any wedding pictures I've seen from that era are hideous. Wide brimmed floppy hats with a white dress lol.

My make up looked good on the day I thought, but when I got the pics back I realised the eye make up smudged quite a bit. Anyway a little bit of photo shop fixed that right up.

I didn't like my dress and regret the choice but genuinely doesn't impact my feelings on the wedding - it was the day that symbolised the best thing thing that has ever happened to me. May be try focusing on what the day means rather than what it looked like? I have never watched my wedding video - not because I don't want to see myself, but becuase my memories of it our so perfect and wonderful I don't want to change that at all with thinking oh I should have done x, y or z.

i feel the same, we had a quickie wedding as just wanted to be married and didnt think it would have bothered me! but now 2 years later i hate everything about it! had a peach dress that looked ok, my makeup wasnt done nice as i had white lines under my eyes- not sure what the make up artist was thinking she was doing! and my hair was just curled but began to fall out as raining so should have worn it up! and i never went on a little diet before it so was at my biggest!
but we are happily married and not in debt over it so at least thats something good.

Shoestring student wedding, high street dress (not white or weddingy at all, and a bit crumpled on the day), no make-up (because I never wear any, beyond a bit of lipgloss). I do have the odd twinge after the Amazing Dress and Amazing Day, but the marriage - 17 years and counting - puts that day in the shade. As it should be.

The whole 'perfect bride' thing is just the other side of the coin of the self-loathing we are all encouraged into as women. It's supposed to be the one day we escape it via various expensive props. It would matter so much less if we were content with ourselves all the time. Don't hear of many grooms regretting their choice of suit.

Yes, I hated my wedding! I didn’t like my dress, hair, location or anything about it really. The only good thing was the lovely man I married, which I suppose is the main thing really.

If your wedding dress is more important than your marriage to the point that you can't bear to look at a picture of it, it says a lot about how the wedding was more important to you than the marriage.

even if you look great there is always something in the photos that you focus on - I loved my dress, makeup, hair - for once everything came together on the day and I looked lovely (this is a very unusual occurrence!) .

BUT - every single photo had my necklace pendant off centre - or the mucky floor showing, or ugly lamps in the background or,,,,or,,,,or,,,,

the day was great, the marriage loving and long lasting, but the photos stay in a wardrobe.

I hate my wedding pictures as well. It was 5 years ago, I was 5 stone heavier. I looked like a pig in a wig! My bridesmaid, who was shown several times how to lace my corset back dress up, laced it too loosely so it looked 2 sizes bigger and my boobs fell down into it. It looked amazing and so slimming at the fitting so it was such a shame. If only I knew then what I know about make up application. (I'm no expert now but it'll be better than that shit)
I'm glad we couldn't afford a photographer because we were 22 and had just graduated. I've got one photo of the day up in my living room because my husband looked so handsome and happy in his grey and pink. It's in black and white so hides my chins in shadow!!
His family look miserable as sin in all the pictures and the video because they didn't approve of the marriage but thankfully, 5 years and a grandson later we get on now.

Get the dress out, put it on right, do you hair differently and take another photo. Simples!

I wore a lovely dress but looking back it was not me. I got married really young and my mum had a lot of influence. But very happily married 12 years later