Isn’t a wedding supposed to be about love, happily-ever-after and commitment to someone for the rest of your life?
There has been lots of commentary and dare I say, “outrage” over an opinion piece penned today on news.com.au expressing the claim that high street store wedding dresses cheapen the sanctity of marriage.
Well, I absolutely and unreservedly disagree.
Isn’t a wedding supposed to be about that crazy little thing called love? About spending the day with the person you are about to spend the rest of your life with?
A wedding day shouldn’t be judged by the cut or cost of your cloth but by the commitment you are showing by actually going through the whole shebang.
The price of your wedding dress doesn't have anything to do with the calibre of love or commitment between a pair. Throw a genuinely ‘in love’ couple in some hessian sacks and put them in front of a celebrant and it should be love not the look that will keep them together.
I honestly don’t think the author has meant major harm with her opinion piece. Rachel, a journalist I know, made her wedding dress choice — a $5000 choice — and away she went on to have quite possibly the best and happiest day of her life.
But what has cut to the quick with some commenters is the slightly misguided theory that wedding gowns that aren’t exxy or designer extravaganzas will cheapen the occasion.
The opinion piece stemmed from the fact Swedish fast fashion retailer H&M will launch its first ever bridal collection with prices for the wedding dresses starting at $269.
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The most expensive will be $599. The H&M gowns come not long after another fast fashion mountain, ASOS, launched a bridal collection to the Australian market with their prices starting from $137. I seriously think the concept is total fashion genius!
We all bang on about wanting and needing to look good-for-less and about grabbing fashion bargains online and in retail stores, so why shouldn’t wedding dresses be part of that shopping mantra too?
Sure, we all differ in our opinion about what we want to spend — each to their own — but a fashion chain shouldn’t be ticked off all because they are bringing inexpensive frocks into the wedding equation.
What H&M and ASOS are doing, plainly and simply, are giving everyone the chance to wear a wedding dress that is 1: on trend; 2: looks good and 3: won’t cost a fortune.
Not everyone can afford to spend thousands on a frock, even if it is on the dress that is supposed to make you look the best, some say, you are ever going to look.
Personally, I could think of a zillion other ways to spend $5000.
That said, if I am ever in need of a wedding gown, I may bite the fiscal bullet, max out the credit card and go all-out. Who knows?
Personally, if I was a young, about-to-be-wed, I’d be putting any spare bucks toward that nearly elusive home deposit; go on an even longer/better honeymoon; pay off that credit card (yes, yes, practical but paramount); put the bucks away for my son or just put it toward setting up a new home with your new husband/wife.
Good on a fashion chains like H&M and e-tailer ASOS for making some very nice and fashion-now wedding dresses available to those who don’t have big bridal budgets.
To many, many brides, their wedding dress will be held in high regard, even if they do sit in a plastic clothes bag with moth balls, until an attempt is ever made to try it on again.
Unlike an awful percentage of marriages that end in divorce, at least your dress — cheap or costly as it may be — will stick with you, in sickness and in health.
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