07/02/2025
UPDATE: Bride suggests wearing our own wedding dresses as guests?
Okay you guys asked for an update after my post nearly broke the sub, lol, so here it is!
I wore my wedding dress to the solstice wedding in Devon! Thanks to this sub for allaying my severe social anxiety around the decision. I styled it like so with pops of green, added some green and brown beaded necklaces, rocked some camel coloured flats and my camel coloured bag. It all vibed with the lush greens of the farm, its woodlands, and the hilly Devon landscape.
I definitely dressed it down a bit but that really turned out not to be necessary as I was one of at least a dozen others wearing a wedding dress. This included divorcees that were still happy to rewear their gowns, and even a couple of men! Some accessorised very bridal while others dressed it down a bit like I did. One wore a flower crown as commenters suggested I should do. Some guests wore shorts and tee shirts, some wore medieval dress and looked like they walked straight out of a renaissance festival. There were also corsets, fishnets, and goat horns, and everything in between. It was very come-as-you-are and everyone came as their authentic selves to create a really special event. There was much music and merry making, including by the talented bride, and the whole event felt like hanging out for an evening in the happiest chapter of a fairy tale. Absolutely magical!
The bride wore a black-and-white gown, with black floral appliques on the bodice spreading down onto the ruffled skirt. After the ceremony and first sets of performances, she changed into a smart and elegant white silk pantsuit. Nothing too wildly untraditional, but unique and her own style.
Bride and groom were amused and surprised at the amount of attention my original post got and we got quite a kick out of sharing the response with them. Even the more unhinged comments like the person that said how "inconsiderate" the bride is for this dress code bc they paid good money to have their dress cleaned and preserved professionally, lol. (She said "AND YOU WANT TO," nobody is forcing you to crack open the hermetically sealed dress vault if you don't want to, Karen!)
They approved me posting an update but tbh I was so busy enjoying the party and living in the moment that I didnt get much in the way of photos. That said, I don't have much to post here, but they assured me they will share a Google Drive link with photos from the photographers and participants, so I'll grab a selection of those and post them in a followup comment on this post when we get our hands on them.
The bride said when the dress code came out, her friends joked that it was very much like her to get others wearing white to take the heat off of her and help her blend in with the crowd a bit better so all eyes weren't on her. However, her thinking was that wedding dresses are fun, beautiful, joyous and unique and should get worn for happy and beautiful celebrations. It's sad to let them sit never to be worn again! I love her very "unserious" (her word not mine) approach to it all.
Thanks again for all the advice and the laughs!
