Jinder's Dresses: A Very Subjective Rundown/Review of all Duggar Wedding Gowns

[Briefly]

6 minutes ago, VelociRapture said:

That’s such a sweet idea! I ended up donating my gown to Brides Across America. They help military couples plan their weddings and I really liked the thought that my dress could help someone else make some beautiful memories. 

We had issues around our 7th anniversary and actually got divorced. We did get back together, but in the meantime I took my dress to a resale shop. When it didn't sell, I took it back. Then the owner of the store called me because a grandmother was looking for a dress for her granddaughter. The granddaughter did not have much, I think maybe both her parents were dead and she was in her late teens.  Grandmother was trying to give her the wedding her parents would have. I sold her my dress, I think for maybe $20. I would have given it to her but she insisted on paying something. I did hear from the store owner later that the granddaughter was very happy and had a really nice wedding.  I have always been glad I could help the girl. Years later, I saw my dress in a Goodwill store.  I know it was mine because it was custom made and I had some things changed from the "try-on" dress at the store. I didn't buy it, but I do wish that I'd at least had my then about 12 year old daughter try it on for pictures!

[Audrey2]

My aunt and uncle have been married for 45 years this year, and my aunt's tradition is to put on her wedding dress every year on her anniversary. I'm amazed her dress still fits (looks good and fits well)!

[ihaveanexamintwodays]

i just have to say again, for i'm sure the zillionth time, how much i love wedding dresses and all and any discussion of them  this thread and the baby-name one just make my freakin life, haha.

makes me wonder if i'll cry when i find my dress....i'm an over-thinker and always end up imagining a zillion possible scenarios for any situation, and sometimes if i think of something and end up crying about it, when it happens in real life i get nada lol. 

[SapphireSlytherin]

15 minutes ago, Audrey2 said:

My aunt and uncle have been married for 45 years this year, and my aunt's tradition is to put on her wedding dress every year on her anniversary. I'm amazed her dress still fits (looks good and fits well)!

I used to work with a woman who does this. I just found it a little... odd. She was the only one I'd heard of doing this until you posted. lol

[NakedKnees]

19 minutes ago, Audrey2 said:

My aunt and uncle have been married for 45 years this year, and my aunt's tradition is to put on her wedding dress every year on her anniversary. I'm amazed her dress still fits (looks good and fits well)!

 

3 minutes ago, SapphireSlytherin said:

I used to work with a woman who does this. I just found it a little... odd. She was the only one I'd heard of doing this until you posted. lol

I've never heard of this, but my cheap ass LOVES this reason to keep re-wearing the dress. My gut reaction was definitely a little more Miss Havishamish though, not gonna lie, haha.

I love wedding dress talk; this thread is always fun to return to. @neurogirl, you're going to be gorgeous no matter what you choose!!

[SapphireSlytherin]

20 minutes ago, NakedKnees said:

Miss Havishamish

huh? 'splain, please.

[AliceInFundyland]

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Miss_Havisham

[SapphireSlytherin]

LOL - I was reading it as Miss Havis Hamish....  instead of Miss Havisham. lawdie

 

[NakedKnees]

Oops  I was stuck between "Miss-Havisham-ish," "Miss Havishamesq," and a few other ideas. Note to self: when in doubt, add more hyphens 

[nastyhobbitses]

My dad's business partner and his wife held a vow renewal ceremony a few months ago; it was their 30th anniversary, and their actual wedding was rather shoestring, because neither of them had much money at the time, but now husband/dad's business partner is head of a successful company and wife is a media executive, so they wanted to go all out and have the fairy tale wedding they always wanted. She wore her wedding dress from thirty years ago...and she had to have it altered because it was too big. She also managed the impossible, which is making a big floofy wedding dress from the 80s look fashion-forward now. 

My dad told me that all the wives at the event, my mom included, were nudging their husbands all night long. I told him that hey, his 28th anniversary is coming up, so he has a long while to plan. 

Edited April 10, 2018 by nastyhobbitses

[Karma]

11 hours ago, SapphireSlytherin said:

I used to work with a woman who does this. I just found it a little... odd. She was the only one I'd heard of doing this until you posted. lol

Lol there was an ad on tv here several years ago advertising breakfast cereal (Special K) where the featured woman wore her wedding dress every year*...because she stayed slim by eating Special K.  

* except for the year she was trying to fit two people in it (she was pregnant)

 

[SweetJuly]

I wore my wedding dress for our first anniversary. Just at home, though, because I certainly wasn't going to drag this dry-cleaned beauty through some dirty streets again  

This is also the reason that would keep (and, frankly, has kept) me from wearing it every year. That, and having to fold it back neatly into its storage box...

[Smeloise]

@neurogirl Both dresses are beautiful and I'm sure you'll look lovely in whatever you choose. I was looking through the pictures of your venue which is also lovely and...
 

Spoiler

Is this the tinman dress!? 
Clearly you and your venue are meant to be

 

[Snarkasarus Rex]

My wedding dress was not something my kids would want to wear on their wedding day, and tbh, I had no special attachment to it.  I have fond memories of our wedding, but I could take or leave the dress.  So I donated it to NICU Helping Hands’ Angel Gown program.  They turn donated wedding dresses into beautiful gowns for families who have lost a baby.

https://www.nicuhelpinghands.org/

i know a lot of women like to keep their dresses, but this is a good way to repurpose a dress someone doesn’t want.  

[SapphireSlytherin]

My neighbor made her son's baptismal gown from her wedding gown. Such a sweet idea (even if I am an atheist).  

[Daisy0322]

18 minutes ago, Snarkasarus Rex said:

My wedding dress was not something my kids would want to wear on their wedding day, and tbh, I had no special attachment to it.  I have fond memories of our wedding, but I could take or leave the dress.  So I donated it to NICU Helping Hands’ Angel Gown program.  They turn donated wedding dresses into beautiful gowns for families who have lost a baby.

https://www.nicuhelpinghands.org/

i know a lot of women like to keep their dresses, but this is a good way to repurpose a dress someone doesn’t want.  

im not crying, your crying 

I looked at that website! That's the sweetest thing.

[QuiverFullofBooks]

My parents had a small wedding and my mother wore a simple white dress. The advantage was that she could wear it for her anniversary, which she did for twenty years. She always dieted between New Year’s and the anniversary a few weeks later.

She had bought the dress at the original Filene’s Basement. I bought my wedding dress at the wedding dress clearance sale at a different Filene’s Basement location. That is some black-belt shopping. I went alone and I kept having to ask strangers to fasten dresses over a T-shirt (not in a fitting room, just in the store). I was already living with my future husband, but we hadn’t gotten engaged, so it was good that he was cool with my bringing home the dress. (We had already tentatively agreed on a time for the wedding and the next year’s sale would be a little too close to it.)

[candygirl200413]

@QuiverFullofBooks I just had a blast from my childhood with Filene's Basement! My mom loved that store and also got her wedding dress at a clearance sale back in the 80s. Her and my dad had a courthouse wedding but their parents in eastern Africa wanted them to have a wedding.

[SweetJuly]

Going through some old documents at my parents' place, I recently came across a hand-drawn list of wishes for my 4th birthday. My father had added an explanation in writing based on my comments, I assume, as the drawings were as clear and accurate as the ones of a 3-year-old can be.

No. 1 on my wish list was "A wedding dress for children"   Clearly my obsession started early!

I took the list and went to my parents to complain that I never received such a dress during all my childhood. My parents replied that no such thing exists, but I pointed to the dresses my Catholic friends would wear for their first communion and some flower girl dresses that are as elaborate as an adult wedding dress.

I have now made the decision to buy my daughter "a wedding dress for children" should she ever utter such a wish to spare her the suffering and trauma I had to go through  

[Nargus]

17 hours ago, Smeloise said:

@neurogirl Both dresses are beautiful and I'm sure you'll look lovely in whatever you choose. I was looking through the pictures of your venue which is also lovely and...
 

  Hide contents

Is this the tinman dress!? 
Clearly you and your venue are meant to be

 

I can see wrists and suprasternal notch, bordering on decolletage.  Far too un-modest to be the tinman dress.

 

[CarrotCake]

18 minutes ago, Nargus said:

I can see wrists and suprasternal notch, bordering on decolletage.  Far too un-modest to be the tinman dress.

 

Actually, without the modesty panel this version of the tinman dress is nothing near the worst dress I have ever seen.

[2manyKidzzz]

1 hour ago, CarrotCake said:

Actually, without the modesty panel this version of the tinman dress is nothing near the worst dress I have ever seen.

The blue color is much better. It does have the criss cross below the bodice part. I though Michelle looked like an armadillo in in awful dress.

I think it is the same. It is not attractive to me at all. The End. 

[Bad Wolf]

@SweetJuly. My grandson said he wants a leprechaun trap for his 5th birthday. His aunt complained that she never got the flying carpet she asked for on her 5th birthday. Sometimes we fail as parents. 

[nastyhobbitses]

My mom wore a white cocktail suit and a pillbox hat with a veil for her wedding. She gave the hat to me and my sister for dress-up (we destroyed that thing from wearing it so much over the years), and kept the suit in her closet. I'm not sure if she still has it; it's not really my style so I wouldn't wear it (plus I'm significantly smaller than my mom was, even pre-kids -- she has a good five inches on me), so maybe it will remain as a memento, or I'll ask if I could incorporate some of the fabric into my dress if/when I get marries. 

[just_ordinary]

11 minutes ago, nastyhobbitses said:

My mom wore a white cocktail suit and a pillbox hat with a veil for her wedding. She gave the hat to me and my sister for dress-up (we destroyed that thing from wearing it so much over the years), and kept the suit in her closet. I'm not sure if she still has it; it's not really my style so I wouldn't wear it (plus I'm significantly smaller than my mom was, even pre-kids -- she has a good five inches on me), so maybe it will remain as a memento, or I'll ask if I could incorporate some of the fabric into my dress if/when I get marries. 

Your mum‘s outfit sounds very stylish. Exactly that kind of vintage fashion I would wear to the civil ceremony if I would marry now.

I was obsessed with my grandmother‘s wedding dress. Lace, some sparkles, long sleeve and knee length on an adult, floor length on my eight year self. Sadly she threw it away at one point. I considered getting it adjusted for the civil wedding ceremony but I was too late.

Edited April 12, 2018 by just_ordinary