By Rev. Alan Viau
The wedding dress is the ultimate gown for the bride. She will shop until the perfect one is found – sometimes trying on many gowns before deciding. Come the day of the wedding, there is nothing more embarrassing than having a wedding dress frustration with your perfect gown.
Let’s face it; it is not every day that you get to wear a gorgeous gown. You imagine yourself in this perfectly chosen gown walking down the aisle and participating in the quintessential wedding ceremony. You’ve dreamed and prepared for this day in many cases for a year. Your wedding dress is one of the single most expensive items for your day – and you want it to be just so.
My experience with on-location weddings has led me to some simple suggestions for brides in avoiding wedding dress frustration.
Sit down for the signing of the register and license. If you are going to sign at a table, take the occasion to sit. I had a bride once who had a lovely strapless gown. When she leaned over to sign, “the ladies” popped out. To avoid that, I have the brides sit to sign.
Sitting for the signing of the register. Courtesy Alan Viau.
For dresses with lace-up backs, make sure the privacy panel is used. The lacing in many wedding dresses often goes down to the top of the buttocks. One bride did not have a privacy panel and her turquoise underwear showed through the gap in the lacing.
Make sure the dress is hemmed a bit shorter than it would if the wedding was in a church. The dress may be lovely brushing the floor in a church. However, a longer skirt in the park is going to gather leaves and get grass stained. If this is going to upset you, have it hemmed shorter.
A large train invites people to step on it. In another era, it was the norm for dresses to have trains. People were used to giving a woman a wide berth so that her dress wasn’t stepped on. Today, we are not used to that. I’ve seen countless times where grooms step on a bride’s dress train while moving around during the ceremony. So, although large trains are gorgeous, they can be hazardous – and you are left with footprints on your dress.
Brides spend so much time choosing their perfect dress for the special day. It takes a moment to consider some of these ideas to ensure that your dress is a perfect part of that dream day that you planned.
