Dear Brides, No, You Don’t Need Four Wedding Dresses

Yes, you read that right. According to InStyle and my FYP, Brides are wearing up to four dresses on their big day. One to walk down the aisle in, one for cocktail hour, one for the reception, and one for the afterparty. Brides are not just saying yes to the dress. They’re saying yes to the dresses. Can you handle that, Kleinfelds?

Oh, and those three to four wedding dresses are not counting all the other looks Pinterest has pressured brides into getting for their wedding season. You need an outfit for your engagement photos. And no, that can’t be the same as your engagement party look! People have already seen you wear that! Then there’s the bridal shower outfit, at least three fits for Bachelorette weekend — oh, and what are you wearing when you sign your marriage certificate? That’s another photo opp! So it should probably be white!! Don’t forget the rehearsal dinner and the goodbye brunch!!! Some brides even had a second look for that brunch, should you? Oh, you thought the farewell brunch was where you’d say farewell to wearing white this year? Think again!!!!! A bride always incorporates white into her honeymoon wardrobe! How else will people know you just got married?!

Sounds excessive? It’s because it is. This madness has got to stop! Brides, as a former bride who fell for some of this insanity, please trust me when I tell you that, no, you don’t need four wedding dresses.

Bridefluencers, can you please take it down a notch?

We’re likely seeing the rise of the third and fourth wedding dress thanks to Bridefluencers. Like this one who didn’t get to wear all her bridal looks, so she wore one on her minimoon. Then there’s Tania Sarin who took her followers on a whole journey to find her three perfect wedding dresses: The getting-ready dress (which most would call a wedding dress), the wedding gown, and the reception dress.

While most think of the famous Vera Wang’s bridal gowns as aspirational for the dress––Tania went there on the hunt for her party dress. However, a stunning hand-beaded piece inspired by Van Gogh’s Starry Night with swirls that take about 40 hours to make was only a contender for her “second or third” look. That’s a four-thousand-dollar dress, Sweetheart! That was the budget for my entire wedding!

A Convincing Argument For Why One Wedding Dress Is Enough

You’re missing your wedding

Outfit changes take time away from you enjoying the most expensive party of your life. You’re the bride, the center of the ceremony. While you’re changing and taking more photos, your guests are waiting…and waiting…

This is the only time in your life when everyone you love is in the same room. They spent a lot of time and money to be there for you. Don’t miss out on this opportunity because you’re in glam and changing for your second or third look to take more photos. instead of enjoying this party, you spent an entire year or more planning.

And how many outfit changes does your groom have?

None? And his suit is a rental? Must be nice.

It’s wasteful

My bridal conspiracy theory is the rise of the third and fourth wedding dresses is making the 2020s brides pay for the wedding industry loss from the pandemic. Pandemic weddings had stripped budgets with barely one dress, and often no reception at all. Today’s brides are paying for that loss as they attempt to keep up with the bridefluencers and succumb to Pinterest pressure.

I can tell you that, as a former bride, you will probably never wear all of those wedding looks you bought for your bridal season again. It’s really hard to make a sparkly romper, and a whole lot of white dresses in various lengths work in your everyday wardrobe unless it’s New Year’s Eve, your birthday, or you’re going to a Taylor Swift concert. Sure, you might tell yourself you’ll just resell it, but that’s a headache, too. Eventually, you might end up donating these clothes, which sadly will end up in a landfill.

So save the planet and your sanity, and know you *really* don’t need more than one wedding dress.

Fine, I’ll allow for two dresses

Okay, sure, a second look makes sense. Of course, you want to change into something more comfortable to get down on the dance floor. A second bridal look technically dates back to the 1930s when brides would change into a going away suit for the end of their reception as they headed off to their honeymoon. (Read: Not for another photo opp, but so they could be more comfortable when traveling). Your second look doesn’t have to be an entirely different dress, it could be as simple as swapping out your uncomfortable heels for sneakers.

In the 2010s, we saw the rise of the second wedding dress for photo opps with celebrities and royals from Kate Middleton to Serena Williams. But now, in the 2020s, celebrities like Millie Bobby Brown are setting the standard even higher with four wedding looks (ceremony, reception, cake cutting, dance floor). I wish I could tell you a cake-cutting wedding dress is a celebrity-only extravagance like having your own glam team on call, but a normie actually did it two years ago. I fear this is becoming a thing!

I’m a bride who regrets my second look

My wedding reception was a sit-down dinner. I changed into a silver sparkly H&M romper with white boots to go to the bar after with friends. I remember when I went into the restaurant’s bathroom to change, a woman gasped, “Oh, look! A Bride! You’re so beautiful.” That was the last time someone said that to me. I should’ve kept my wedding dress on all night.

I spent so much time and money finding the perfect wedding dress and getting it tailored to fit me like a glove, only to change into fast fashion for the last few hours of being a bride. My dress was comfortable. I wish I had savored it for every possible second before hanging it in a sad garment bag in my closet, where I’ll never wear it again.