To think brides often get their dress wrong?

[FreeMantle]

I have always thought this actually but no one else seems to have noticed.
My lovely friends, who pride themselves on dressing very well, seem to chose a dress that doesn't suit them at all. Skinny ones go for the tightest column dress ,so they look like beans. My large busted ones are falling out of massive strapless meringues.
The latest is my size 8/10 cousin who without an inch of fat, has wide hips. So of course she's gone for a full on strapless mermaid. Making her shape look totally out of proportion.
Obviously she'll be beautiful as a bride but why that dress?
I am now looking for one for myself . Despite being short and athletic everyone seems to love a huge ivory fluffy tulle princess type dress on me. I look like a dumpy fungus. It's thin straps and tight bodice totally emphasise my lack of top half. And yes, I'm tempted.

The thing I've noticed most about weight is people saying they lost so much weight pre wedding that their dresses didn't fit properly/had to be altered. Are people trying to lose weight for a wedding or is it all so stressful that they really lose that amount of weight?

@bananafish81 amazing - love them. I’m very tempted. Kate Spade has done a range for Keds (like glittery / embellished) and I was thinking about those but I love that yours were personalised.

I also had quite a bad leg injury last year and am not really wearing heels much still. Not sure I will be able to be on my feet all day / dance with even the smallest kitten heel. So I’m thinking trainers might be really quite a practical choice too



PistFump - you look lovely.
And others who've posted pics. I've never been married.. sob

Yeah wedding dresses are hideous. My friend who is small busted and could carry off most dresses picked a dress obviously cut for a curvier bride. It looked a bit daft - empty cups sitting up near her chin. I tried on wedding dresses once and looked awful - when I get married I'll be having something simple from Debenhams.

I did wear a strapless at my wedding 10 years ago -but it did look good on me as I (was) very slim and my shoulders and upper arms have always been some of my best features, and I had small, pert boobs!
Bit different now after 2 kids but that’s how I was then.

I also however had my dress designed and made for me by a friend in the business and it was so brilliantly tailored to fit and had the corsetry and bust sewn into it, was super comfortable and I never once had to hoick it up.

If something fits you perfectly then I think that’s most of the battle won...

Yabu. 'Wrong' according to who?
The self importance on this thread is cringeworthy. Too many people fancy themselves as stylists when it's all subjective anyway 😂
Brides go with the dress they feel like a million dollars in, or at least the one they feel most comfortable and confident in. Anyone else's opinion is irrelevant. Arrogant to think otherwise.

Are people trying to lose weight for a wedding or is it all so stressful that they really lose that amount of weight?

It seems to be taken as granted that most women will diet before a wedding. People quite often (I thought very rudely!) assumed I'd be on a pre-wedding diet and commented when I ate cake or whatever. Some of them seemed genuinely astonished that I wasn't.

Lisa how rude of them. Nothing wrong with dieting if you want to but horrible to be pressured into it, as if the "real" you isn't good enough.

I was supposed to get married 10 years ago (sod ran off with someone else 6 months before!) and had the most beautiful dress - Maldives by Caroline Castigliano (all paid for, thankfully by him though never ended up being made).

Anyway, that dress is a kind of fishtail mermaid and I was in bloody good shape back then (was thin but with Jessica Rabbit curves).

Fast forward 10 years and am getting married next year. Went to try dresses on last August (as Eason early days of pregnancy so decided I’d prob get down to at least where I was at that point - that ended in miscarriage but that’s by the by).

Anyway, pretty much all the dresses I chose where fishtail like my previous dress. I think I (very) stupidly thought I still looked like 10 years ago!!!

Went on my own but the woman was thankfully brilliant. Pulled absolutely no punches that that style was no longer working for me and found me something amazing.

As it happens, am now pregnant again (17+5) and so we’re not getting married until next sept. So I have a good year after the birth to get back in shape (hopefully more like 10 years ago shape - I can dream!).

So my dress buying now on hold as want to see what suits me around May/June next year

I do think it helps if you’ve got a good shop owner who tells it how it is

@ziggy1986 seriously, totally worth it. It's your magical day, why suffer with painful feet? You want to feel amazing - some women would feel more amazing wearing vertiginous heels and rather bear achey feet - all power to them! Some women like me (I have hypermobile ankles and a spinal injury, and live in flats so have little to no tolerance for heels) feel much more amazing with comfortable shoes (which I personally think looked pretty damn cool and unique!) - practical doesn't have to mean ugly. I also know so many brides who ended up dancing barefoot because they couldn't stand wearing their heels any more. I didn't want to be afraid I would get trodden on (and I didn't want to get to the point of really achey feet in the first place).

Whatever floats your boat I say!

Speaking as a man.

I think it is unreasonable to single out wedding dresses as an example of where British women (and men) chose clothing that does not suit them or is unflattering. I'm sure you've seen men at weddings and other formal occasions in suits that just look awful, for example.

As a nation we are either the most unstylish nation on earth, or perhaps second worst after the U.S.

Horrible, horrible thread.

People always seemed astonished that I wasn’t on a pre wedding diet either. I was a size 8, I had no need or inclination to diet.

Re pp asking about lace attached to essentially a new dress - impossible for us to answer here as its a "how long is a piece of string" answer. Depends on the style of the original dress, new dress, quality and age of the fabrics, ability of the seamstress and where you live/will be getting it done.

Re the box - that's because dress samples come in the longest length available, they're made that way because it's easier to shorten a dress almost impossible to lengthen, generally boutiques have to buy the samples as they're very expensive and seasonally they're cleaned and sold at a discount. The box allows the fabric to hang as it will when it's the right length for the bride so the dress can be seen properly.

Most brides lose weight in the run up to a wedding, sometimes they're trying to but also nerves, being busier than usual due to the planning so less time to eat and doing more. Dresses can be taken in by up to 3 sizes by a good seamstress.

Wedding trainers, Docs and wellies have been around for ages. Great fun and very practical.

SoyDora even if you been an 18 or a 28 rather than an 8 it is rude for people to make assumptions like that.

I’m short. I tried on meringues. I wanted a meringue. But I looked like one of them dollies on top of a toilet roll.

Mightymucks so what did you choose instead?

Yanbu. I have been to only one where the bride looked so classy and dressed appropriately. What is it with big breasted women and strapless dresses that they spend more time pulling up.

I have to say, I'm glad the trend for strapless dresses have gone. That was the era I got married, and almost all of my friends married in those dresses. Some looked great, but unfortunately, I also went to several weddings where the strapless style just made the bride look larger / fatter / bigger than she actually was. Sometimes, they weren't even that big, but they had big shoulders (think former rower) and it didn't suit.

That said, at the start of the century, getting anything that wasn't strapless was almost impossible. Whilst I was petite, I knew I'd be falling out of a strapless dress, so knew I didn't want that... it was so difficult to find something different. I ended up not getting strapless, and whilst I loved the dress at the time, I can see with hindsight it wasn't the best style for me (I was an hourglass with an empire line dress). I would totally buy a different style now, but there wasn't a great deal of choice in the early 2000s, and I wasn't confident enough to get s dress made.

Vile thread.

I had an empire line dress with silk bodice and flowy chiffon skirt but straight, no petticoat or layers.

Wedding trainers are awesome. My sister wore heels for the ceremony then changed into white Converse and they were fab. I took sharpies and we all did little doodles on them. She had them boxed and put on a shelf as a nice memento.

The only brides I’ve seen who haven’t been shiningly beautiful is when you can tell they’re not comfortable and or happy.

Mightymucks, that sounds pretty. Do you still regret the meringue?

NotExactlyHappyToHelp I worked with a lovely young woman and as her wedding drew nearer you could see how stressed she was but people do get stressed. She looked really drawn on the day, she was a really pretty woman with absolutely beautiful hair but she wasn't glowing that day. The marriage lasted just over a year and she told me she wanted to pull out about six weeks before the wedding but her mother went mad about the money they'd spent and how everyone would be talking about them so she went through with it. I could never understand a mother doing that.

It was strange because we were talking about my brother and I was saying he and his wife had been obsessed about doing up their house and I thought it had been a distraction because as soon as the house was finished they split up. She was having her kitchen done at the time and burst into tears and said yes that was how she felt. Apparently he was a bully and it was a very unhappy time for her.

She met "the one" and had a very small wedding and the last time I saw her she was very happy.