Q. – The importance of choosing the right wedding dress: Can a bride be overdressed for her own wedding?
A. – While some may say, “She’s the bride, she can wear whatever wedding dress or otherwise dress however she wants,” (and technically they are right), it is possible for a bride to be overdressed (or underdressed for that matter) for her own wedding.
When planning a wedding (or any other type of event), it’s best to have some sort of cohesiveness carried through in all of the different elements – particularly the decorative ones, such as table linens, centerpieces, backdrops, and lighting – chosen for the day. This is more pleasing to the eye, and nothing stands out as “not belonging.”
A bride’s attire should be no exception. Ideally, her wedding dress (or pants suit – they are becoming more popular) and accessories should fit the feel, style, and formality of her wedding.
How can a bride be overdressed, you ask? Imagine this – you’re attending an afternoon, backyard wedding, or perhaps a wedding with a minimalist and contemporary style held at a local modern art gallery. Seeing the bride enter wearing a full ball gown with a cathedral train would be jarring to the eye, as her attire would be way too much for these styles and levels of formality.
Likewise, she can be under-dressed. Imagine a formal church wedding followed by a reception held at an upscale country club. Guests are served a seven-course dinner, and dance the night away to a 9-piece band. The bride decides to wear a lovely, flowing bo-ho chic wedding gown, with a wreath of wildflowers in her hair. Yes, she’ll look fabulous. Yes, she’ll look like a bride. But, she’ll look like a bride who’s at the wrong wedding.
Now, if this fits the vision the couple have of their wedding day, or this is what it makes the bride happy and feel like a bride, who are we to say “No, you can’t wear that!”? There is no “wedding police” to swoop in and haul off a bride for wearing the “wrong” dress. Choosing the right wedding dress is more than just the look of the dress itself.
And honestly, when it comes to choosing the right wedding dress, I firmly believe that how the dress makes her feel should be the deciding factor over how she thinks she looks in it. She’s not going to feel good wearing something that looks bad. No one would (I hope). But, if she doesn’t feel good in a particular dress, it doesn’t really matter how amazing she looks in it.
Photo source (ball gown): Mathilda Samuelsson
Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 2.0 Generic (CC BY-SA 2.0)
Photo source (bo-ho gown): Parekh Cards
Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 2.0 Generic (CC BY-SA 2.0)
Hearts, Joy, Love!
Jean
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