6 Brides Share Their Wedding Dress Regrets

When couples reflect on their wedding day, they often think about the special moments: exchanging vows, dancing together, and seeing everyone they hold near and dear. Often, our minds remember the event through rose-colored glasses, and that’s a great thing, since hey, in the long run, it doesn’t matter if the food was a little cold or the ceremony a tad too hot. One area though, that a bride never forgets is her gown. After all, this one-time-wear garment is usually thousands of dollars, and it’s showcased in photos forever more. Looking back, there may be some wedding dress regrets—changes or choices brides would make differently if they could — from style to selection and beyond. 

Here, women express their wedding dress regrets, and hopefully, can save you some heartache:

“I didn’t love my dress, but my mom did.”

“I didn’t love my wedding dress, but when I was looking with my mom, she loved it. And it made me happy to make her so happy. So I went with it. Until I lost a ton of weight due to stress and the dress needed to be altered, so I called my seamstress. At the time, I told her to stop working on it because I changed my mind. But then she also talked me into it. 

I was a model and had worn a wedding dress at least three times prior for shoots and the seamstress told me because of that I would never get the ‘wow’ feeling or cry over my dress. I believed her and went through with it. 

In the end, I never felt overly attached to my dress and when my photographer asked if we could have a snowball fight for our pictures I said’ yes.’ The dress got wet and a little dirty. The marriage didn’t last, but the awesome pictures did and I still have the dress.”

“I should have skipped the bustle—and cleaned it.”

“I don't regret my dress choice — but to make life easier my bustle could've been less complicated. Also, I wish I would've dry-cleaned my dress and boxed it up right away. Six years later and it's still in the bag, uncleaned!” 

“I needed my seamstress on site.”

“I had a seamstress update my moms wedding dress from the 70s, and I loved it. However, I should have had her on site for wedding day though because when my bridesmaids were yanking my dress on me, the entire zipper gave out and ripped down my back! The solution: luckily my day of wedding planner had a sewing kit and sewed me into the dress. It also had to be cut off afterwards. Fun times.”

“I should have stood up for myself.”

“I wish I didn’t let my seamstress walk all over me—that’s my wedding dress regret. She argued with me about every detail we wanted altered, which the salesperson had assured us we could have done. My mom wanted less cleavage and the seamstress disagreed. In the end the seamstress convinced us we didn’t need one last fitting after she did her final touches. We didn’t realize until it was too late that really she just wanted to win the cleavage war because on my wedding day, I had even more cleavage than the original fitting. Yep. But I was so stressed and too polite so I couldn’t stand up for myself.”

“I need less ‘pouf’.”

“When I had my wedding dress altered, I had them remove half of the crinoline underneath, even though they complained. The dress was gorgeous, but it was still too poufy. I should have just had it all taken out. Women: less dress is best for a Caribbean wedding.” 

“I should have picked what I really liked.”

“Although getting married is a major decision, so is choosing of the dress to wear while walking down the matrimonial aisle. I have a few wedding dress regrets regarding my own gown, like the style, size and sustainability. The one I selected was a bit old-fashioned looking and lacked much sparkle, and it made me look a bit bigger in figure than a gal would want. Further, after hours at a church and then a catering hall, it ended up being stepped and spilled on. If I could have changed the outfit, I would have made it more form fitting, had a huge amount of sequins and no straps, and was shorter so as to avoid the sizable long term damage.”