When one wedding dress won’t do
Forget brides on a budget, big days out are back. Caroline Leaper on the rise of the multi-dress wedding
It seems that more is more in the world of weddings this year, as brides have stopped searching for ‘the one’ in favour of ‘curating’ entire wedding wardrobes. Where once a woman bought a single statement gown for the ceremony, possibly slipping into something slinkier for the reception, weddings have now been extrapolated to encompass all manner of new sub-events — rehearsal dinners, after-parties, international blessings and post-wedding brunches — each requiring a bridal look to match.
When singer and gemstone heiress Victoria Swarovski married property investor Werner Mürz in Italy last month, she wore different dresses to get married, to cut the cake, to perform and to host a unique red colour-themed dinner for her guests.
They were all designed by Dubai couturier Michael Cinco and featured a blitz of her family’s crystals, but she ultimately used the big day to trial every bridal silhouette on the block. And Swarovski is not alone. The trend for extreme dress shopping matches up with a rise in couples booking destination weddings and the desire to extend the party for as long as possible.
The quest to do something unique and memorable is also in line with the impending death of the Pinterest wedding, as guests are becoming fatigued with the copycat twine-around-jam jar set-ups that are shared prolifically on the site.
Meghann Keogh, director of sales and marketing at Myrtle Ivory bridal boutique in Dublin, says it’s not unusual for Irish brides to go for a show-stopping dress for the wedding day itself and a second bridal outfit for the second day, or ‘barbeque day’ of their wedding weekend. “Some designers, like Stephanie Allin, have realised the (two-outfit) trend, and have created a ‘day and night’ dress,” she says. “For the daytime, when Mammy and Nana will be there, brides like a Kate Middleton style dress that’s sensuous and romantic, but then want something more ‘va va voom’ for night. They pick dresses with detachable skirts, or they remove the daytime beaded top of the dress and occasionally add a sparkly belt.”
When Suzy Griffin, a social media co-ordinator from Dublin, married her husband Mark in New York’s Central Park in April, she plumped for two very different looks. “I had found the long dress on Pinterest, it was by Eliza Jane Howell and I knew it was the one for me as soon as I saw it,” she says.
“I decided that the long dress would be my ‘ceremony dress’ but I would like something a little more fun for our wedding dinner at the River Cafe in Brooklyn.
“I searched high and low for a short white dress, I wanted
something with lots of beading that would compliment my other dress. I found it eventually in the Ivory Closet in Limerick.
“While researching wedding imagery, I decided the short dress would work great for some of the more ‘silhouette’ large scale photos as you don’t get to see all the detail in the long dress, so the white dress would ‘pop’ more.” I definitely wanted to feel comfortable in both dresses as I knew there would lots of ‘running around’ NYC that day. Neither dresses were corseted or particularly heavy despite all the beading. I felt really comfortable in both but the short was definitely a show stopper.”
“Wedding season can get quite repetitive so a lot of people now want to give their guests a different experience,” says Nausheen Shah, the New York-based stylist who recently outfitted DJ and fitness blogger Hannah Bronfman with no fewer than eight bridal looks for her nuptials in Morocco.
“Destination weddings are productions — if you’re expecting your guests to fly somewhere and spend money on a hotel, then you want to make it worth their while.”
Shah advises clients who are planning a multi-faceted (and therefore multi-dress) wedding to make a storyboard of the key events, times, weather and locations that will make up their celebrations, before finding an outfit for each phase.
“It’s really nice to do a build-up with the wardrobe and to have each section be unexpected,” she says. And while most things about this new movement buck tradition, the main ‘wow’ moment, Shah says, is still the exchanging of the vows. “Most women still like to make the main ceremony their grandest [dress], and most women still like to wear white for that. But the rest of the events are a chance to show yourself in as many lights as possible,” she says.
“Shopping for several events is time consuming, but it’s exciting to express your personality and take people on a journey,” she says.
If you think all the costume changes sound excessive, bridal designer Charlie Brear sees them as a sign of these Instagram-focused times. “Absolutely, it’s all about the pctures,” Brear says, adding that clients now request second, third, or even fourth ensembles from her.
Brides on a budget are also keen to maximise their styling options, she says, buying mix and match skirts and tops from her Styling Additions line, and choosing bridal jumpsuits and separates for more affordable extra looks.
“The market has exploded since Instagram launched,” she says. “For a lot of people, this is their red carpet moment, their chance to be at the centre of their world — and enjoy planning every detail.” (Additional reporting by Tanya Sweeney)