Bride Says Wedding Guest's Dress Choice Was Cry for 'Attention'
The bride wore white, and, much to her surprise, so did one of the guests. "She clearly wanted attention," newlywed Kim told Newsweek after the woman at her wedding arrived in a custom-made lace white dress.
In pictures from the 29-year-old's big day, the guest is seen wearing a full-length gown you'd be forgiven for thinking was a wedding dress. This broke a fundamental rule of etiquette.
Zoe Burke, leading wedding expert and editor of Hitched.co.uk, told Newsweek: "At Western weddings, wearing white is generally frowned upon because that's traditionally a bridal color; at an Indian or Chinese wedding, avoid red for the same reason."
Kim, who lives in Australia and did not give her surname, explained: "The woman is a friend of my mother's." She added: "They're friends because they worked near each other. We aren't related in the slightest and, to be honest, aren't that close. She has known me since I was a child. I have never been anything but nice to her."
Kim had no idea that her mother's friend would arrive at her wedding in the dress, which the woman had custom-made for the event.
"She had told my mother that she was having something made to wear to the wedding but neglected to tell her the color," said the bride. "The first time I had noticed it was when she got up while I was giving my vows to hand me a handkerchief as I was crying.
"It didn't really click with me that she was wearing white," Kim said. "I was more bothered by the fact that she had gotten up since she was a guest and not connected with the wedding."
The majority of people agree that it is not appropriate to wear white to a wedding. But this isn't the first time a guest has been criticized for an inappropriate outfit. In October, one guest was called "disrespectful" after arriving in a white dress, while others have been branded "attention seeking."
Kim shared the story of the woman's unusual outfit on Reddit's r/weddingshaming subreddit, where users overwhelmingly criticized the guest.
One commenter wrote: "There's no way she didn't know what she was doing. I don't understand what goes through these people's heads."
"Dear Lord! Someone has main character syndrome," read another reply.
"I like that she went to the trouble of getting a dress made, but not to match any of her accessories," posted another Reddit user.
During the wedding, the bride wasn't too bothered about the ordeal. "The whole fact that she wore white doesn't actually bother me as much as Reddit thinks it did," said Kim.
"It didn't occur to me to ask her to leave since, again, I didn't care that much. I thought it would be funnier to let her make a fool of herself for the entirety of my wedding reception," Kim added.
Guests did bring up the overdressed guest at the reception, but Kim said that she was able to dodge the discussion for most of the day.
"Looking back on it, it's hard for me to even remember her, unless I look at my wedding photos. She was such an insignificant blip in the day," Kim added. "My wedding was the greatest day of my life. I worked and saved incredibly hard for it, and it paid off. All I remember was the day I finally married the love of my life and how much fun we all had."
After getting the photos, Kim didn't share any pictures of the overdressed guest—but that didn't stop her from seeking them out: "The woman asked someone in my family, twice, to ask me to give her the solo photos she had taken. Something about the fact that she was asking for photos of herself from my wedding—to maybe pretend it was her wedding?—annoyed me enough to make the post," Kim said. "She clearly wanted attention, so I figured I would give it to her."
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