Floor length gown to a wedding

amother

Thu, Feb 19 2015, 11:15 pm

Just because some people do it doesn't mean it's "done". I once saw a wedding guest wearing a frothy white creation that screamed "bridal gown" . Now maybe it looked ice blue or pearl grey in daylight but in yellowish wedding hall light, that gown was WHITE. I looked twice and also asked my dd, whose eyes are younger and whose fashion sense is more up-to-date than mine, and she said "it looks like a wedding gown to me". I don't know who this girl's fashion advisor was but that person should be shot. The poor thing looked as pathetic as she did ridiculous.

Whoa, I just had a brainstorm! Is it possible this little idiot went to a bridal store or gmach and asked to see a "wedding dress" the way so many amothers post here when they mean a dress to wear to someone else's wedding? (I love the ones asking for a "maternity wedding gown" or, almost as good, a "night gown"!)But, no, don't the people always ask "are you the bride?" And wouldn't they be showing her veils and crowns and bouquets and so on as well? So shouldn't she have gotten the idea that they were showing her dresses to get married in, not to celebrate someone else getting married?

Floor length, as opposed to ankle length, is the most formal length dress a woman can wear. It's appropriate only for guests at a black-tie or white-tie affair, or for members of the bridal party. No one will arrest you for wearing floor-length to a friend's wedding if you aren't a bridesmaid, but you'll be overdressed and mark yourself as someone who doesn't know the rules or her place.

Lady Godiva

Thu, Feb 19 2015, 11:40 pm

amother wrote:

I've been asked by friends to wear a floor length dress. Some brides want their guests to be dressed to the next level.

amother

Fri, Feb 20 2015, 1:27 am

Lady Godiva wrote:

I've been asked by friends to wear a floor length dress. Some brides want their guests to be dressed to the next level.

Then they should have "Black Tie" written on the lower left-hand corner of the English side of the invitation. Unless they are making their friends bridesmaids, in matching gowns. There is no tradition of the brides' friends being dressed fancier than other guests to show their elevated status as the bride's friends as opposed to distant cousins, childhood playmates, onetime neighbors and other "undesirables" the bride was forced by her mother and future mother-in-law to invite. That's what bridesmaids are for. You don't get to have it both ways. Either make your friends bridesmaids dressed in a recognizable style and color that identifies them as such, or save that for immediate family only and your friends dress like any other wedding guests.

JAWSCIENCE

Fri, Feb 20 2015, 7:05 am

Post a picture of the dress in question. In some circles it is OK as long as the dress is not over the top or a puffy gown.

There are some extenuating circumstances - pregnant person with nothing else decent in the maternity store, very close relative, amputee, all come to mind. But even then, it should not be white!

Lady Godiva

Fri, Feb 20 2015, 7:19 am

amother wrote:

It's not to differentiate between the statuses of the guests, but to glam up the crowd at the wedding. (It probably stems from the desire to have a black tie event without pressuring all the guests to dress up for one.)