I’m getting married in January and I have already bought a wedding dress. However, I’m starting to think it might not be as modest as I’d like it to be. I’ve attached a picture of the dress on a mannequin. I already have a cathedral length veil trimmed with lace. It will cover my arms. What I’m wondering is, should I still look for some more arm coverage?
Thank you!
You might want to look for a dress with a jacket made to go with it. It is really hard to match whites, let alone trim design. Having said that (and not to sound as if I work there, because I’m sure other wedding shops have similar things), if you want to stick with this dress, David’s Bridal also sells jackets for just this purpose.
Kate Middleton wore a sweet fluffy white cashmere-looking sweater-let with her second gown on her wedding day. That one not only looked lovely with her gown; it is easy to imagine wearing it with something else in the future. There are many ways that could go.
As to whether or not this dress is modest, I’d second those who say it depends on how you fill it out. We aren’t all built the same, some being bigger in the bustline and some being longer or shorter in the front, too. Modesty also depends on the prevailing climate and what appropriately-dressed women in your area wear. I would say that if I wanted to give the impression that modesty counted with me, I’d wear something with more than a spaghetti strap unless literally none of the other Christian women ever wore anything with more fabric than that during the season of the wedding. (You do want people who see your wedding pictures to guess that maybe you’re Christian, after all.)
The problem is that, as the OP has stated, modest dresses can be very difficult for many brides to afford. Most mass-produced wedding dresses, in the US at least, are sleeveless or strapless. It’s uncharitable to assume all such brides are indifferent about modesty, or are purposefully trying to be immodest.
BTW, I can’t really determine if this dress would be immodest on the OP, the way a dress looks on a generic mannequin is NOT always the way it looks on a particular woman. I would suggest the OP consult with her own priest about her own situation.
Probably thanks to the royal wedding, they are actually starting to make sleeved wedding dresses again in all price ranges. David’s Bridal (a national chain which has a shop in Oregon) has a number on their web site. I think their gowns run from about $180 to about $1600, more or less.
It is funny–back in the late '80s, you could barely find a dress that didn’t have a puffed upper sleeve, often with a fitted lower sleeve that came to a point that covered the back of the hand. Then maybe ten years ago a place like Davids literally had three or four dresses out of a hundred that had any sleeve at all. Apparently, this change came about because so many couples elected to get married at a “destination,” rather than in a house of worship. When that became the case, brides just wore ballgowns.
sorry. It’s also hard to say without you being in it. Do you have a like-minded freon or relative that would help guide you?
