Post # 1
Member
973 posts
Busy bee
Hi ladies! I’m starting my dress hunt and a little bit torn. I always planned on having two dresses, one for the ceremony and another for the reception but now I’m leaning towards just having one dress. I attend a decent amount of formal events (for charities I work with) so I get to play dreas up more often now, and I’m going to fall in love with whatever dress I choose as my main one (it’s the one time to wear something so regal and formal) however I’m worried about dancing. The style I want isn’t quite full ball gown but I do want something with some poof.
Was dancing in your main dress a challenge? Would you go back and change into a second dress if you did it again? Or if you had a second dress did you regret it?
Post # 2
Member
537 posts
Busy bee
I can’t comment about dancing in my dress and so on as our wedding hasn’t happened yet (not long to go though! eeeeeeeeeeeeee). However I have chosen to switch dresses. But only because of the circumstances of our wedding. We had a small wedding of 40 guests planned we cancelled earlier this year and I had already bought my dress. It’s a lace fishtail with tulle by Essence of Austrailia. However the wedding we’re planning is much smaller so wearing it to the after celebration (we’re not even having something you could call a reception) wouldn’t be suitable or practical. So I’ve got a little white a line dress for dinner afterwards that I will wear with the belt that came with my wedding dress.
Post # 3
Member
537 posts
Busy bee
If I had had a full big wedding I’d just have worn the same dress all day and night as it wouldn’t have looked out of place…. and I’d have learnt to dance in it lol!
Post # 4
Member
1674 posts
Bumble bee
- Wedding: September 2014 - Waldorf Astoria, Chicago
I’m changing into a reception dress. I hadn’t planned on doing it, but I fell in love with the Lazaro 3059, but I just couldn’t see myself walking down the aisle in the dress, it seemed more like a wedding party dress. So I have a ball gown for my ceremony and the 3059 for the reception. It’s goign to be a surprise to my sisters and my mom who knew I was in love with the first dress but ultimately settled on the ball gown. I can’t wait to see their faces when I’m announced into the reception in my new gown!!
Post # 5
Member
115 posts
Blushing bee
I will be changing but not for the whole duration of the reception, I want to wear my wedding gown for as long as I can. I purchased a 2nd more casual dress to change into for the final 2 hours of the reception. Something more flowy, light, easy to dance in type of dress.
Post # 7
Member
1671 posts
Bumble bee
- Wedding: October 2014 - Church
I am not. I don’t know why I would get such an expensive dress I am only wearing for less than one day to get another dress … It just doesn’t make sense to me. The only people I know who changed were girls who were Chinese and they wore the western-style white dress for the ceremony and changed to their Chinese-style dress for the reception. If it were something like that, then probably, but I don’t come from a culture like that.
Post # 8
Member
7207 posts
Busy Beekeeper
I didn’t change. I didn’t see a point- I’m only going to be wearing my dress once so I might as well wear it all day. I had a ball gown and had absolutely no problem dancing. I think a mermaid dress or other tight style would actually be more difficult to dance in.
Post # 9
Member
16 posts
Newbee
- Wedding: May 2014 - Private Residence
I’m doing the same thing as @barbie86. Bought a “just in case” dress. I picked a monster of a dress that I love and never want to take off but at midnight when I want to just dance and cut loose, I don’t want my giant beast of a dress to be the thing that stops me. Might not be a problem but have a cute little beaded number from Nordstrom just in case.
Post # 10
Member
1320 posts
Bumble bee
I will change. In my culture, there are multiple dress/outfit changes and the weddings are usually over the top. Since im not having it back home, im going to stick to one change. Ill be changing from a white princess ball gown to a white mermaid.
Post # 11
Member
567 posts
Busy bee
I didn’t want a second dress but I sort of ended up in one at the end of the reception.
I knew that I wanted to get a wedding dress that I loved enough to want to wear all day. My dress was beautiful and kind of expensive and I didn’t want to take it off. However, I gained a few pounds between ordering it and when it got delivered. The women at the bridal shop and I decided that since it was only 5-10 pounds and I was 6 mos aways from the wedding I could just lose the weight and be fine. Well I didn’t lose the weight and the dress was TIGHT. It still looked good though so I didn’t get it taken out.
I was worried that I might be really uncomfortable in the dress all day so I packed an extra dress just in case. It was just a white mini-dress that I got at Macy’s and wore for my bachelorette party. I didn’t necessarily want to end up in it but I did want to have an option in case I was super uncomfortable.
Turns out, I was SUPER uncomfortable. As soon as I was zipped into my dress I was uncomfortable. I had enough adrenaline to not really notice it during the ceremony, but sitting down to eat was BRUTAL. It was distracting. I wanted out of that dress so badly. So about 2/3 or 3/4 through the reception, after the photographer left and it was just open dancing, I changed. What a relief!
For fun, here are some pics. First is my wedding dress. Second is the backup reception dress. Not fancy, but it did the trick. Third picture is bonus useage of dress – wore it on my way to the ceremony venue (you can sort of see the hotel bellhop behind us carrying the dress on a cart down the street!)
Post # 12
Member
973 posts
Busy bee
barbie86: omg this is a genius idea! I will absolutely think about doing this thank you!!
Post # 13
Member
973 posts
Busy bee
girlgetsring: that’s a great idea as well, to just have something for the dancing portion of the night. Thanks!!
Post # 14
Member
973 posts
Busy bee
SarahCF: you look stunning in both dresses! Thanks for sharing, I really love the idea of having a just in case dress. Thanks!
Post # 15
Member
620 posts
Busy bee
I didn’t marry yet, but I’m planning on changing dresses for the reception for comfort and also for cultural purposes. My Fiance is Taiwanese and I might, miiiiiight wear a traditional qipao, or then a red dress to keep with tradition a bit, but I’ll make sure my dress is very different from the BMs’.
Post # 16
Member
71 posts
Worker bee
BWLE: Not married yet so I can’t say that I would go back and change everything but I was just like you at the beginning. I went dress shopping with the outlook of having two separate dresses. However, when I found THE DRESS, I didn’t want to take it off! You only get to wear it for one day and I made sure it was a dress that I could dance in all night long 🙂
