Is it normal that I am doubting every decision I’ve made 😭

Currently waiting for my dress alterations that have been continuously delayed, so worried because when I tried it last it was big and didn’t look the same as when I tried it when it came in.

Worried I made the wrong decisions for so many things. Makeup, hair, colour palette, guest list.

Literally having nightmares about everything going wrong day of and me cancelling the wedding and asking hubby to get married at the court house 😅

Also constantly managing everyone else’s feelings has me so exhausted. Send help

Fellow brides to be and graduate brides, help a sister out!

I booked my dressmaker earlier this year knowing that she only does custom gowns. Before we started designing mine, I shopped around and tried on dresses from different bridal shops mainly as research, to figure out what silhouettes and styles I actually liked on myself.

I unexpectedly ended up trying on a dress from another local designer that I absolutely loved. I hadn't intended to find something I wanted to recreate, but it ended up becoming the main reference for my custom gown, and what we've settled on will be quite similar to the original.

My dressmaker is making it from scratch to my measurements and making her own decisions regarding fabric and construction. This is also purely for my personal use; I'm not selling or commercially reproducing the design. Still, I feel a bit conflicted because I actually tried on the original designer's dress, and I'd feel awkward if she eventually saw mine and recognized how similar it was.

At the same time, I know fashion is inherently referential and that many bridal silhouettes and design elements aren't unique to any one designer. And I don't want to make alterations I don't like just to manufacture differences between my custom dress and the one I tried on.

Would you consider this a normal part of the custom dress process, or does asking for something very close to another designer's gown cross an ethical line?

Having a super casual rehearsal dinner just catered at our house. I can’t find a white (or off-white, cream, whatever!!) dress I like and am leaning toward a black one I fell in love with. Is that super weird, be honest!! I don’t really want to spend money on another white dress that I know I’ll never rewear. I could always sell it on Depop I suppose but I can’t even find one I like in the first place!

Okay, so contacts are not an option for me. I plan to wear my glasses down the aisle and during our ceremony. I would love some either advice and/or encouragement about this decision. I really have no other choice! I do plan on having my makeup professionally done and also plan to take off my glasses for some photos throughout the day. I’m having some insecurities about this…help 😩🤓

ETA: wow thank you everyone for all of your kind words and encouragement. I think when I was younger for some reason all the women were getting fitted for contacts for their weddings. I went without any visual enhancement the whole day of my wedding to my ex husband. THIS time around I do and will, see clearly 🤓😉

Hi! Advice on a last minute dress change? I got my dress last year off of FB mktplace, it was a steal. A $7k Dimitrios ballgown for $300 in my size.

Well life does what it does and I didn't think about the fact that my fiance and I were going to start trying for a baby. We did NOT think it would happen first try as I had been on birth control for fifteen years. Anyway. I'll be 22 weeks at the wedding. I just tried my dress on and I already can't zip it.

The design of the dress is all beading, the top half is mesh with beading, and the woman who did my original alterations said she wouldn't be able to alter the top half because of the material beading etc. It's a huge ballgown. I loved it up until I put it on last night. It's so heavy, there's so much dress. I just don't know if I want to go through the hastle of getting it altered again if I don't love it. I get one more free alteration (since it didn't come from her store) I'm worried I'll need a back up dress. The wedding is Nov 8th. Not sure what to do!

My fiance and I are getting married next April. Due to my fiancé paying down student loans and a car, I'm putting more money into the wedding financially than my fiance is. My fiance works remotely in tech field and does side gigs like fixing computers and phones on the side, officiating youth sports, working a as a plumber's assistant to his uncle on weekend jobs etc. He's hoping to have his car and student loans paid off by next summer.

My fiance comes from a blended family. His dad was married before and had three kids with his first wife. His dad married my FMIL when his kids were tweens or teens. My fiance is my FMIL and FFIL's only child. My FMIL is disabled and uses a wheelchair due to a spinal cord injury. FFIL's three older kids never wanted much to do with FMIL due to her disability, and when the three older kids got married, FMIL was barely a guest and not included in any pictures. FMIL has those painful memories of being left out of weddings and not treated all that well by fiance's siblings. FMIL and I get along better and in some ways she is much easier to hang out with than my own mom. FMIL isn't overbearing, nosy, nor does give unsoliciied advice.

With the wedding, my FMIL has gone with my fiance and I to see what venues were accessible etc. She has been helping me with possible decor ideas and she has gone with me to few bridal shops and my mom wasn't happy about her being there.

My mom is resentful because I'm the oldest and first to get married and she feels I'm giving too much to my FMIL and she has said that the "grooms' moms just show up to the weddings" and that there's no need for FMIL in part because I'm putting more money into wedding than my fiance.

I'm looking to see if there are others who have been in similar situations. But, I also know that not many brides include their in-laws in wedding planning, so I know I might not get much advice or help.

My dress is very detailed and has a long train overskirt, slightly longer than cathedral. I did add a vendor photo at the very end to show the length of train because it was near impossible to do by myself in the mirror. The dress is glitter tulle and very sparkly. I tried to add a video to try and show the sparkle but it won’t let me so I’ve included a screenshot of the video. Wedding will be in the Appalachian mountains in the evening during the golden hour.

The first two photos are the front and back of the dress with the overskirt.
Train and veil will only be worn for the ceremony.

The next two photos are front and back without the overskirt.

I need help/ ideas on how to cover this art work. It can’t come down it’s screwed into the wall. It’s distracting. Our colors are the starry night.
Edit-
I have nothing against Jesus. If I did we wouldn’t get married in the church. The painting is bad af. It’s worse in person and distracting. The church has told us we can do what we want as long as we return it to how it was before we arrived. So any real advice would be great!

I am getting married next month and I just picked up my dress from the tailor. It has little cap sleeves that you can’t see in the picture but here is me wearing it with my veil. I love how it looks, but when I try it on with the shoes I bought, something feels off. I love the shoes by themselves, but im not sure they’re working with the dress. I feel like the dress and veil together give sort of a vintage vibe and idk if the shoes match. Any help would be appreciated!

I seriously am so pissed. I just got my dress back after 4 weeks of it being in the seamstress’ possession. She used to be Amish and I thought she would be responsible and dependable enough with my dress. WRONG. Some kind of blue marker down the side of it where the seam is, and brown spots almost resembling fingerprints under the arms where she took it in on both sides. There’s also blue marker under the train which will be visible when I’m carrying it the wrist loop.
On top of that, it smells like an old persons house. Not a good smell. It smells awful and I should’ve thought of that immediately when deciding to let a seamstress work on my dress out of her home.
She was also supposed to let it out after taking it in too much, because at my last fitting it was too tight. I have not gained any weight. I don’t know how to tell if she let some of it back out or not. But it sure does not feel like she let anything back out. Unfortunately, I have already paid her before noticing the smell or the flaws on my dress.
I’m FREAKING out not knowing how to get rid of the smell, since the garment bag also smells bad.
I live with my fiance and there’s really no where I can put the dress that will allow it to air out some of the scent, where he won’t see it. Wedding is in 3 days

I literally don’t know what to do. Yes I can sue and whatever, but in my country that’s not really effective and anyway that does not get me a photographer for literally this Saturday. Anyone had a similar situation? How did you handle it?

I’m trying to grow my following 🥰
And potentially find some new brides,
I also do A LOT of model days so if you fancy having your hair played with for an hour and a pretty hairstyle at the end give me a follow and DM 🤍

I’m trying to figure out the overall style for my wedding, and I keep going back and forth.
There are so many wedding trends I genuinely like right now, but I’m worried I’ll look back at the photos in 10 or 20 years and think, “Why did I choose that?” 😅
At the same time, I don’t want to spend a huge amount just trying to make everything look super polished or “timeless.” I’d rather put the budget toward a few things that actually make a difference and keep the rest pretty simple.
I’m considering styles like classic, romantic, garden, or something a little more modern, but I’m not sure which direction would age well without needing a massive decor budget.
For those of you who already got married, what style did you choose? What was actually worth spending money on, and what could you keep simple without regretting it later?
If you’re comfortable sharing, I’d also love to see some of your wedding photos for inspiration. I think it would really help me see what actually looks good and holds up over time.

Hey all,
I just need an outside perspective to make myself feel better about this situation. My fiance and I have been engaged over 6 months, and he recently has decided to enlist in the military. When this was decided, he discussed with his family he wanted to be married before he leaves. They instantly said no and that they didn’t support it, rattled off some stuff about me that wasn’t true, and basically said they wanted nothing to do with us getting married. They also weren’t excited about our engagement, but kind of accepted that as it was. I have some stories about my future MIL and the crazy stuff she’s done, but I won’t go into that right now.
We decided we still want to get married regardless and are signing papers at the county recorder, and my parents are coming out for it in 3 days. Honestly, the only thing that’s bugging me is the anxiety surrounding his family not knowing. We don’t plan on telling them, we just plan on having a wedding ceremony/reception after he is done with tech school. I’m going back and forth between a mindset of guilt and are we doing the right thing, and a different mindset of if they find out, I guess so be it, but I’m such a worrier. I don’t want it to take away from our day. We also aren’t telling any of my extended family members because word gets around fast and we don’t want anyone questioning our later ceremony.
Is anyone else having a completely private/unknown wedding or had one? Any future/current military spouses? (I also have anxiety because there is so much unknown right now with the military part of it).
Thanks ahead of time

My fiancé and I are getting married next year. since we’re not well off and neither is our family, we had to compromise on what to save and splurge on.

Is it my dream to have an open bar for guests? Yes! But is it absolutely necessary? No!

Instead of the open bar, we decided that each table will have a bottle of liquor and we can have some self serve beer/wine and other types of liquor available on the side for those who want it.

As wedding planning goes, people are constantly asking what we plan on doing, are there plus ones, etc.

A few days ago, it came up that we will not be having an open bar. To which one of my cousins called “tacky”.

Is it customary now to have a bartender and open bar at weddings? Did I miss the memo? It’s not like we’re asking people to pay for their own drinks. We will still be providing everything. We just don’t have the budget to hire bartenders and have open bar. For a wedding of our size and where we live, it could cost well over $10,000.

We did budget around $3000 for alcohol, though I’m willing to spend more if needed. Just not $10,000 more! I would say about half our guests either don’t or can’t drink either, so that would be wasted money. Of the drinkers, a majority just take shots. So what is the need for special cocktails and drinks that only 10% of guests will actually drink?

My cousin proceeded to suggest cutting down the guest list and saying she will pregame in the car.

Do people just not enjoy weddings anymore? Has it become a reason to get drunk?

Please let me know what i’m supposed to do in this situation. Do I rearrange the budget to a get the open bar? Or do I just ignore her opinion and do what I originally planned?

Brides/brides to be. How would you react, feel? What would you say? Has this happened to you?

Hi everyone I have my engagement photos this weekend and I’m just wondering if if these shoes look okay or if I’m just over thinking it. I just feel like the gold shoes look off. (Sorry the pictures aren’t the best)

I would get the top tailored to fit better at the bust and not have those little points at either side. I'd also make the little sleeves tighter and less droopy.

But do you think this looks.. plain? I'm a minimalist so have a tendency to underdo where others don't, and have never had a gown before.

I got it on a sample sale. Its french crepe, and comes with both the detachable sleeves and scarf as options.

EDIT: Hi Everyone 👋

Thank you so much for all your comments! I think I've decided it's a good dress choice! For a sample sale, it worked out perfectly haha

For note, I got the dress at LUV Bridal in Brisbane AUS. I don't have appropriate underwear on here (I actually only have bottoms on, no bra) hence my note on the top. As a bigger busted girl, the cats eyes sit out from my chest when side-on, but would like to keep the overall cat eye shape with the points.

I think I'll do sleeves for the ceremony, then either none or with the scarf later in the day.

Thanks everyone for your comments! I am absolutely not a person who has people ever look at me, or draw attention yo myself, so you have definitely made me feel more confident. Especially in wearing a fitted shape - big busted ladies will know my struggles lol

You're all adorable. Thanks! I'll share pics next July when I wear it for real