the "perfect" wedding dress is a myth

- This video is brought to you by Squarespace, an all-in-one platform for building your brand and growing your business online. Hello, my beautiful doves. Oh! Today we're gonna be talking about one of my favorite topics, weddings. I'm someone who loves weddings. I don't know if I'll ever have my own wedding. Like that's something that I'm still debating on. Another topic, another day. - I'm going to need a minute or two. - Thank you, your highness. - Probably save that for the podcast, but I lov

e going to them. And I always cry whenever the married couple are exchanging vows. I think it's just like one of the most beautiful moments to witness, and I love them. I think they're just so much fun. Granted, I haven't been to many because I'm still in my mid-20s. And I feel like in New York City especially, but in a lot of major cities, people just don't get married in their 20s. They'll usually wait until they're like in their 30s, sometimes 40s, or you know, just like whenever, because the

re's not as much pressure to get married young here, which I'm thankful for. But the downside is they don't get invited to that many weddings. Obviously there are both positives and negatives when it comes to weddings. Like the positives include like being surrounded by friends and family, everyone's in a good mood, hopefully, there's food and dancing. The downsides, of course, is like, you know, the whole marriage institution and how patriarchal a lotta the traditions tend to be. Also, the cost

of the weddings. I feel like a lot of people don't realize how expensive a wedding can be until they're actually like in the process of planning a wedding. I mean, I personally like never really looked into how expensive a wedding is, but I did read this article on "The Cut" that was published a little bit ago, and it was called The Fake Poor Bride: Confessions of a Wedding Planner. Oh, sorry, it was "The Atlantic." Oops. Oops. There was like a quote in the article that talks about the institut

ion of having an extravagant wedding and how a lot of people feel pressured to throw these crazy weddings. And I mean, I definitely don't blame anyone because I feel like growing up, I was told at least through like media and news and everything, that the wedding is supposed to be like the most magical moment in your life. And so I don't blame anyone for falling into that pressure and wanting to feel like their wedding is going to be the best day of their life. But I will say that that extra pre

ssure probably leads a lotta people to spend more than they can on a big event. And in the article, it talks about how couples, like 30 to 45% of couples or something, are in debt because of their weddings, which is insane. So yeah. Anyway, I wanted to do a video on wedding dresses in particular because, you know, fashion. And I thought it would be a good time because a lot of people get married in the spring, summer. And actually I was looking up why, because the June wedding has been a kind of

ubiquitous term, but I feel like we don't really talk about why that is. I think it makes sense in our minds because it's like nice weather. It's like perfect if you wanna do like an outdoor wedding, for instance. Okay, so if you were here really early and you noticed that I deleted the video and then reuploaded the video, you're correct. And it's because I wanted to cut off this following section from the original cut of the video and I'll explain more in the comments. But, there were just som

e things that were factually untrue. And because I had realized this pretty soon after I published the video, I thought it was like an okay time to delete and reupload. But yeah, I'll explain more in the comments. Just, um, letting you know that you're not crazy. That actually happened. But for me, I just felt like it was a good time to do this video. So let's get into it. Let's talk about the wedding dress. Thank you Squarespace for sponsoring this video. Squarespace uses a new website design s

ystem called Fluid Engine, which lets you customize every design detail with this unique drag-and-drop technology. And you can, of course, use it to design both your website's desktop and mobile layouts. One of my favorite and severely underrated Squarespace options are also these custom palettes that they offer when you're designing. I'm really good at color coordinating an outfit, but I'm terrible at color coordinating a website. So these preset options have been super helpful as a starting po

int. Squarespace also helps you open up a store on your website where you can market all things from physical products, digital downloads, to even subscriptions and memberships. Check out www.squarespace.com for a free trial and when you're ready to launch, go to www.squarespace.com/minale to get 10% off your first purchase of a website or domain. I feel like, and I'm gonna make up a statistic, so this might be wrong, but I feel like 99% of wedding dresses are white, in America at least. And I f

eel like the idea of like a white wedding dress is a very omnipresent thing in our culture. But that wasn't always the case. For much of Western history, brides just wore the best dress that they had in their closet. So it was usually a dress that they had worn before and probably a dress that they were going to wear again. Even in the case of Queen Victoria, who we'll talk about later for having set the precedent of the white dress trend, she would continue to wear her wedding wardrobe after he

r wedding to christenings for her children, for one of her portraits, and for her son Leopold's wedding. - Only you would think that you could hide that powder blue, puffy sleeved, it's-kind-of-a-peasant dress, but it might just be a baggy disaster of questionable fiber content that you wore to the spring dance. Lizzie McGuire, you are an outfit repeater. - So the earliest recorded instance of a white wedding dress in Western culture is that of English Princess Philippa at her wedding to the Sca

ndinavian King Eric in 1406. And she was dressed in a white tunic lined with ermine and squirrel fur. Research officer at Stockholm University, Mia Akestam, theorizes that Philippa's white wedding dress might indicate that the coronation ceremony took place in close connection to the wedding, as white was frequently used for coronations. Something that I learned also recently is that white dresses didn't symbolize virginity and purity until the Victorian era. Beforehand, a white wedding dress ac

tually just symbolized status and wealth because they were costlier and harder to clean. So you know, as I said, Queen Victoria's impact. White dresses didn't become a norm until her wedding in 1840. Victoria's wedding dress consisted of a tight fitted bodice and a voluminous ballgown skirt, which sort of resembles the silhouette of the classic wedding dress we think of today. According to her biographer, Julia Baird, "Victoria chose to wear white because it was the perfect color to highlight th

e delicate lace of her gown. She also requested that no one else wear white to the wedding, aside from her bridesmaids, also setting an etiquette precedent we still maintain today," where only the bride should be wearing white. Except now it's like it extended past the bridesmaids. So now only the bride wears white and the bridesmaids usually can't wear white anymore either. By 1849, women's magazines were already proclaiming that not only was white the best color for a wedding dress, but that i

t had, in fact, always been the best and most-appropriate choice, leading to a bit of revisionist history that has affected my knowledge of wedding dresses until I started looking into the research for this video. For example, in August of that year, "Godey's Lady Book" published some revisionist history, announcing that, "Custom has decided from the earliest ages that white is the most fitting hue for brides, whatever may be the material. It is an emblem of the purity and innocence of girlhood

and the unsullied heart she now yields to the chosen one." So as the obligatory white wedding dress spread from Western Europe and North America through colonization, missionary trips, and neocolonialism, brides across the world are now faced with the dilemma of whether to go for a more traditional color choice or to participate in the white gown propaganda. For example, in China where traditionally brides wear a red wedding dress because red symbolizes luck and prosperity, some brides change in

to white dresses for official photographs. Japanese brides also often hire a white dress as one of several outfits to wear during the course of their marriage celebrations. And in Africa, particularly in urban areas, and even some more pastoral ones, such as the Fransfontein region of Namibia, it has become more and more common for weddings to be planned in the Western style with a big white dress, the groom in a tuxedo, a rented expensive car, and bridesmaids and groomsmen in matching attire. S

o as I'm saying this, I do wanna emphasize that there are still so many wedding traditions that differ across the globe, and there are so many brides who choose to not go for a white wedding dress. But I did wanna bring up these examples to show how ubiquitous the concept of a white wedding dress has become since before the Victorian era where it was just sort of like a random fad choice. So let's get into wedding dress trends, because, as we all know, there are so many different ways that a wed

ding dress can look like, even if they're all white. And especially with all these bridal shops offering custom designs and custom alterations, there seems to be like a never-ending list of what a wedding gown can look like. So the elements of bride might choose to put onto her dress are influenced by so many factors, current trends, family expectations, budgets, body types, not to mention their own tastes, which is given even more value with bridal dress propaganda always championing the idea t

hat a bride must find her perfect dress. So let's backtrack. In the 19th century, bridal wear resembled styles popular for day wear. But at the beginning of the 20th century, during the Edwardian era and continuing through the interwar period, wedding gowns resembled evening wear in their design more so than day wear. Part of the reason for this shift towards evening wear is that day wear was becoming more practical, informal, and androgynous. So to really dress your best and to look your fancie

st, you'd want your bridal dress to embody the formality and flair of an evening gown. In the 1920s, metallic lamaze, lace, pale gold, and shell pink fabrics were fashionable for bridal and evening wear, giving wedding dresses added glamour. By the 1930s, wedding dresses fully resembled the sleek and sexy evening wear of the period, figure hugging and high necklines. You also see the beginnings of additional outfits for the bride. Nowadays, a lot of brides will choose to have like a rehearsal ou

tfit and also a reception outfit that differ from like the main ceremonial outfit. But in the 1930s, if the family could afford it, because we are living in the Great Depression, so a lot of families could not afford a very nice wedding and like new gowns and whatnot. But if the family could afford it, then a bride would have an additional outfit on top of her ceremonial wedding dress. And this additional outfit would be like a leaving the wedding outfit because tradition was that the bride and

groom, after the reception, would go straight to their honeymoon. So it was like her going-to-my-honeymoon outfit. In the 1940s during World War II, young couples rushed to get married en masse before the men were drafted in into the military. So in 1942, 1.8 million weddings took place in the U.S. which was up 83% from 10 years before. And 2/3 of those brides were marrying men newly enlisted. War rationing saw a dour shift in wedding attire, unfortunately. In 1943, UPI reported, "If she's lucky

, the June bride of 1943 may still find some fancy lingerie and nylon hose for her trousseau, but the trousseau itself will be far less extensive and the frou-frou garments much less frou-frou than in peacetime. Take shoes. Tradition says nothing but white satin will do, but no special shoe certificate will be granted the bride, OPA, Office of Price Administration, declares. If she's already used up her shoe stamp, she'll buy no new white satin footwear." In the UK where rations were even strict

er than in the U.S., Queen Elizabeth II married Philip Mountbatten in 1947 and bought the fabric needed to make her dress using clothing ration coupons. However, the government did give her an additional 200 extra coupons because she's the queen. Fashion historian, Lydia Edward, explains, "The rationing instilled by World War II meant that, for the seven year period of conflict, the majority of brides again chose the best item of clothing in their wardrobe." Sometimes this could be as practical

and austere as a suit, in keeping with the plain and neutral tone of a groom's military uniform. The practice of renting or borrowing more traditional styles of wedding dress became popular and some brides took advantage of the best silk available to create a dream wedding dress. A woman named Eileen Stone married her husband, Leslie Spencer, in June, 1940 in England and she made her own wedding dress out of one of Leslie's parachutes. And then after the wedding, she repurposed her wedding dress

so as to get the most use of it. We love an upcycling thrifty queen. So she ended up cutting up the dress, dying it brown, and using it to line a coat. And she kept a piece of the undyed silk to make an embroidered handkerchief. She also dyed a piece of the parachute cord and used it to bind a wedding album she'd made. The other pieces of cord were kept and used regularly for family camping trips. In the 1950s, the political and aesthetic focus on conservatism and tradition saw a return to the

classic bridal silhouette of Queen Victoria, only with a slightly lifted hem. On top of that, a dearth of celebrity weddings and movies about weddings reinforced a very uniform wedding dress choice. For example, Elizabeth Taylor's wedding dress in the film "Father of the Bride" had a huge influence on the decade's bridal trends. Another big celebrity, Grace Kelly, had a wedding ensemble gifted from her studio, MGM, that was designed by Academy Award-winning costume designer, Helen Rose, who had

created the star's wardrobe for four films, including "High Society" and "The Swan." The dress was made of silk fill and antique Brussels lace, embellished with pearls. Another romantic and feminine dress was the one that Jackie Kennedy wore to her wedding with John F. Kennedy in 1953. I'm not someone who really loves the voluptuous princess-style gown. I feel like personally on me, because I'm so petite, Those kind of silhouettes like really swallow me. But I think Jackie Kennedy, like this is

one of my favorite wedding gowns of all time. I think she looks so, so good. And I love the details and the skirts. It's delicious. The changing sociopolitical landscape in the 1960s led to increased variation among wedding dresses. As society increasingly valued free-spirited youthfulness, shorter and trendier dresses rose in popularity over the classic and simple. For example, actress Sharon Tate took the 60S mini skirt trend to new levels when she walked down the aisle in a high-collared baby

doll dress In 1968. And Eurovision Pop singer, Lulu, wore a fur-trimmed full-length hooded coat to her wedding to Bee Gees singer, Maurice Gibb, in 1969. Priscilla Presley got her wedding dress off the rack, though there are contrasting reports on whether or not she actually liked the dress. She found the dress herself at a Westwood department store and said, "It wasn't extravagant, it wasn't extreme. It was simple and, to me, beautiful, I didn't have time to stay there forever and look at dres

ses. I had one fitting for this dress and that was it. I was out of there." However, an alleged insider told tabloid magazine "Closer Weekly," "Priscilla doesn't talk about it much, but she wasn't a huge fan of that dress. She loved the veil and her makeup, but the dress wasn't as shapely as she would've liked. I don't think she saved it." Either way, Priscilla's closer-to-heaven hairdo and ultra-mod cat eye makeup definitely reflected her modern sensibilities. The era of fun, unique tradition-b

ucking wedding dresses continued into the 1970s. In 1971, for instance, socialite Bianca Perez-Mora Macias wore an Yves Saint Laurent bridal two-piece suit to her wedding with Mick Jagger. But in the 1980s, the highly traditional and materialistic Thatcher-Reagan conservatism led to a more traditional bridal revival. Brides walked down aisles in lavish and super covered-up gowns, usually with larger than life puff sleeves and bodices that mirrored 1950s silhouettes. None of them was as memorable

as Princess Diana's, though. The puffy sleeves and long train on Princess Diana's taffeta wedding dress played into the decade's more-is-more approach to fashion. Mariah Carey was even influenced by Diana and Charles' extravagance with her own wedding. Vera Wang, who designed Mariah Carey's dress, explained to "Insider," "Mariah wanted that level of pomp and circumstance and romance and volume. She really wanted a princess look. And it was just one of those weddings that was truly a fairytale i

n the sense of scale." In the late 90s, more and more high fashion designers began designing wedding dresses at this time as well, such as Gianni Versace and Karl Lagerfeld for Chanel. Vera Wang, as I mentioned, opened her bridal boutique in 1990. And by 2000, she was one of the top wedding dress designers. - I should probably keep looking. - Do you think there's something better than Vera Wang? - And while her look for Mariah was very confectionary, she became known for designing strapless and

spaghetti strap dresses. The strapless gown actually rose to prominence to mirror the minimalist tastes of the era and has remained the dominant sleeve style ever since. Kate Berry, the style director for Martha Stewart Weddings, recently estimated for "Salon" that 75% of all the wedding dresses out there nowadays are of the strapless variety. A major wedding of the 90s era that cemented the simplistic style was that of John F. Kennedy Jr. and Carolyn Kennedy. Of Carolyn's dress, former "Harper'

s Bazaar" editor-in-chief, Kate Betts, who at the time was working at "Vogue," said, "We were a generation that grew up watching Diana get married on TV in 1981 in that iconic wedding dress. In 1996, it was still a pretty iconic wedding dress. Vera Wang and Carolyn Herrera were simplifying their designs, but not as simple as a slip dress. Carolyn's dress was revolutionary in that sense, that someone would wear something that simple. It crystallized the minimalism trend in fashion. That was her a

esthetic and her wedding dress was a very, very bold expression of that minimalism." In 2018, when Megan Markle and Prince Harry tied the knot, Megan wore a few dresses, including a minimal Stella McCartney gown. Megan told "Harper's Bazaar" that she was heavily inspired by Carolyn's wedding gown for her own look. So as you can see, there's been a long, long history of the wedding dress and how it's transformed across the decades in color, but also in style. And I'll talk about my favorite dress

es throughout history at the end of this video. But first I wanna talk about the wedding industrial complex because I feel like no wedding dress video can be complete without talking about the pressure that a lot of brides feel when navigating their weddings. So until the 20th-century department store model of clothing shopping, a bride in search of a wedding dress would have the garment custom made by a designer, a family member, or even herself. Today, when most brides begin their hunt for a g

own, they do not start by consulting a designer or a sewist, but by visiting a bridal boutique and trying on ready-made gowns with the expectation that they will be custom tailored later. The shift from bespoke to made to order or even made to measure is in large part thanks to the explosion of bridal-focused boutiques in post-war America. For example, in 1934, Mrs. Eva Becker, of the Becker Department Store in Michigan, started in the wedding gown business almost by accident. She purchased a go

wn in Chicago for her niece, and her selection proved so popular she soon had many requests from other brides. Another popular bridal boutique, I. Kleinfeld & Son, as it was formerly known, was a family business, a fur shop, started by Isidor Kleinfeld in 1941. His daughter, Hedda Schachter, known as Miss Hedda, and her husband, Jack Schachter, known as Mr. K, expanded the Kleinfeld business into one of the largest and most famous upscale bridal emporiums in the world. It's also the same bridal

salon where "Say Yes to the Dress" is filmed. Patricia Leigh Brown, writing in "The New York Times" in 1987, described it as, "A store that is to wedding gowns what the Pentagon is to fighter bombers." So in the late 60s when Hedda and Mr. K first started their expansion, wedding dresses were mostly limited variations on themes found in department stores and small boutiques. It was Miss Hedda's innovation, noting the changing appetites of the times, to offer as many styles as possible which she

traveled the world to find. Another major bridal shop, David's Bridal, was founded by David Reisberg in 1950 as a single bridal shop in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. The company was later purchased and expanded under new owners, Philip Youtie and Steven Erlbaum. In the early years, David's Bridal operated as both a boutique and a warehouse where a bride could get a designer-like dress on the cheap. Youtie told "The South Florida Sun Sentinel" in 1991, "We get people who are getting married in two we

eks and just don't have the time for all of that." From designers dropping bridal looks in their couture collections to bridal shops exclusively selling bridal dresses, the highly-specialized bridal gown industry has convinced legions of women everywhere that this gown is going to be the most important clothing purchase of their entire life. And it didn't help that the media also supported this message. During this decades-long wedding craze, movies about weddings increasingly focused on the imp

ortance of the gown. One of the worst gaffs caused by Ben Affleck's character in the 2000 comedy of errors "Meet the Parents" was when he brings home a stray cat painted to look like the lost family pet who destroys the bride's dress. In the 2013 comedy "Bridesmaids," the character Lillian, played by Maya Rudolph, is engaged to be married. And naturally, her wedding gown is a big topic of conversation. Eventually she and her friend Helen, played by Rose Byrne, fly to Paris to get the perfect dre

ss made, causing drama between her and maid of honor, Annie, played by Kristen Wiig. But disaster strikes when the dress doesn't end up how she imagined and the abundance of layered fabric on the skirt and sleeves looks tacky, rather than elegant. In general, almost every romcom of the era that ends with a wedding emphasizes the importance of the gown. Usually the camera slowly pans up the bride's body, as if through the point of view of the groom, letting the audience really see every detail of

the dress with fairytale-esque, instrumental music playing in the background, I also grew up watching and re-watching "The Parent Trap," the remake of "The Parent Trap" with Lindsay Lohan, a lot when I was a kid. It was one of my favorite movies of all time. Taste. And there was one scene in that movie. Okay, there were lots of scenes. But one of those lots of scenes that I remember that are very memorable to me in the movie was just like the magical scene of Halle meeting her mom for the first

time. Her mom is Elizabeth James, played by Natasha Richardson, who I love. Rest in peace. But I feel like I thought she was literally Princess Diana. Like I was too young. Or I think... Did Princess Diana die before I was born? Anyway, I had no connection with Princess Diana. Natasha Richardson in "The Parent Trap" was my Princess Diana. So Natasha plays Elizabeth, who is a wedding dress designer, a famous wedding dress designer, and she takes Halle, who's Lindsay Lohan, into her bridal shop,

and they do all these like fun photo shoots and they're playing with the veils and hats. And I think that even though neither of them were brides in this particular moment looking for their perfect dress, which, you know, I'm happy for 'cause Lindsay Lohan was like 11 years old in that movie. A scene like that really adds to the blissful magic we've been culturally driven to feel towards wedding dresses. Especially because this movie, like, it's like a family movie, and it's a movie that I watch

ed as a kid all the time and it kind of like indoctrinated me young about like the whole magic of weddings and marriage and everything. It was very like anti-divorce, that movie, considering the parents get back together. But yeah, love that movie. Love wedding dresses. But yeah, on top of the movies, the popularity of reality TV also played its part in the bridal wear boom. Shows like "Say Yes to the Dress," "Don't Tell the Bride," and "Big Fat Gypsy Weddings" all increased our interest in what

it takes to put on a very special day, often with a gown as a be-all-and-end-all focus. However, on top of all the custom designs, on top of the expectations for a second or third wedding outfit, the costs rack up. And according to "The Knot" Real Wedding Study, which surveyed nearly 12,000 couples who got married last year, the average wedding dress cost in 2022 was $1,900. They also found that buying a new dress remains the most popular option for to-be-weds with 93% purchasing a new design.

I mean, part of the reason why brides and families are shelling out all this money for expensive gowns is because of how crazy these salespeople are when they're selling you a dress. As Bridget Moloney wrote for "Slate," "You think you've met obsequious salespeople in the past. Trust me, the bridal salon staff will take you to a whole new level. It's all very, 'Oh, Mom! Oh, she looks like a doll, doesn't she? Are you going to cry? Bridget, don't you just love it? You look so incredible.' Every t

ime, every dress." The extra fanfare for a wedding is also probably in some way influenced by the growth of social media because the idea is that the more rituals and events that you have, the more opportunities to photograph and video to put onto Instagram and TikTok. And, in turn, the extra visibility towards these wedding ceremonies convinces others that they also have to go to the same levels of production as the people that they see online are doing. Depictions of wedding dress shopping fro

m "Sex in the City" to "Say Yes to the Dress" portray a grand and emotional moment of certainty when a bride first dons the dress. And finding the perfect dress is almost like talked about as this like mythical phenomenon. Like you'll just know when you have it on whether it's the dress for you, which can feel like a lot of pressure and almost like an insane impossibility for a bride to achieve. And even though I spent like a big chunk of this episode talking about how a lot of brides will go al

l out and they'll spend tons of money on their weddings, that's not always the case. And to counter all those like statistics that I pulled, like David's Bridal is going outta business. Well, I don't wanna be too presumptuous because they filed for bankruptcy in April and said that they would have to close their doors if they can't find a buyer. In the filing, chief executive James Markham wrote that, "Increasing number of brides are opting for less traditional wedding attire, including thrift w

edding dresses." And then Mr. Markham said in an email, "This is the year of the bride on a budget and we're doing everything we can to meet her with her dream dress at every price point." - Oh, you know what? You know what? Don't buy that here. Now that you know what you want, you should go to Kleinman's and you can get it half off. This place is so overpriced. - I own this store. - So does this come in another color? - And I think especially now with like dire economic times afoot and just lik

e a decreased importance in weddings in general in this country, people will start shifting towards more budget-y weddings. And I think the weddings that we're going to see that are still very expensive are the ones that are hosted by very rich people and who do get those like "Vogue" write ups. I'd be interested to know what you all have experienced with wedding planning within your own local communities or with your own weddings. Do you feel like people are still as gung-ho about throwing like

tons of money or if they're going like a more budget-y thrifty route? Let me know about it. But before we close, I do wanna share a couple of my favorite wedding dresses ever just because I thought it would be fun. So these are in no particular order though, but starting off super strong, Cher's dress when she married Gregg Allman. Their marriage famously lasted for seven days and there's not a lot of photos of the wedding on the internet, but the dress that she was wearing was so, so beautiful

. I'm in general partial to figure-hugging dresses and I love the lacing corset detail at the bodice and the lace paneling in the skirt. It's just the right amount of embellishment. I wish I knew who the designer was and I wish I had like a more high-res photo to look at. But just from what I can see, I think this dress is stunning. I also trust Cher's taste. I think she's always had really good style, but especially her looks in the 70s. - Can I hear a little commotion for the dress? Hmm, a lit

tle bit? Now let's hear it for the back of the dress. - Cher also modeled a Bob Mackie wedding look in 1982 for the "Night of 100 Stars" runway show and she ate it up. It's definitely not a choice that everyone will agree with. I can admit this is like a very polarizing option and I don't know if I would ever wear something this crazy for a wedding, but I think it's just very unique and I love the theatricality of it. Okay, next dress. Obviously I have to go with a classic. The wedding dress tha

t Audrey Hepburn wears in "Funny Face" lives in my head rent free. It's designed by Givenchy. I just love the bateau neckline, the drop waist, and the raised hemline. I feel like it would only work for someone who was on the taller side, which is why it works for Audrey so well because where the full skirt hits her ankles, it's like very strange proportionally. And I feel like if it was on me, it would make me look really short. But it looks really elegant on her. And I think it's super simple.

Like there's no real embellishments on it, but the silhouette and the shaping of it makes it one of a kind. More recently, I've been obsessed with "Vogue" editor Tish Weinstock's dress. - No, I don't think you understand. I'm obsessed. - She had three dresses for her wedding ceremony, but I love the first one that she wore the most. She was wearing fall 2009 John Galliano and removed the lining to make it sexier and styled it with vintage Dior shoes and a 30s-style veil. She also had her hair do

ne with these long Morticia Addams like extensions. And her wedding took place in Belvoir Castle on Halloween to add to the gothic vibes of it all. Honestly, this wedding is like my dream wedding because I love themed parties and I feel like this was just like a massive themed party. And if you see any of the photos of her guests, they're all dressed up too, and I think it would just be a super fun affair. I also love stylist Rachael Rodgers' reception look. She got married in Naples and changed

into a bikini adorned with floral appliques by Adriana Hot Couture and is very reminiscent of this Yves Saint Laurent look from 1999. She accessorized the bikini with silk opera gloves that had matching appliques and a pair of flats she found for $20 in Italy that wouldn't hurt her feet to dance in. In general, I really love like a risque bridal look because I feel like it's less expected and it's definitely done less. I feel like weddings still are a pretty conservative affair. And so anyone w

ho goes outside of the box, I just think they're so cool. I think my favorite bridal look of all time actually is this Valentino Couture 1994 gown. It's literally so fucking beautiful. Okay, I feel like it's very confectionary, particularly in the skirt, but it's still very sexy because of this corset bodice situation on the top. And then I love like the veil that's kind of like wrapped around her head like a hood. It's all just very beautiful. I love like the poofing in the middle and the tiers

for the skirt and the flower appliques. It is a stunning dress, okay? It is a stunning dress. So that's all I have to say today, folks. Thank you all so much for joining me. I hope you have a lovely rest of your day. An expanded version of this episode will be going out on my podcast on Wednesday, as always. And yeah, just let me know in the comments like what you feel about wedding dresses and the cult of like weddings in general and how they're reflected among your local community. I'm very i

nterested because I feel like I have a very distorted version of weddings, ceremonies, and expectations for them living in New York City. Yeah, I would love to know what everyone else thinks. Okay, thank you all again. Bye.