Brides Dress

Many (American) brides wear one dress only. Asian brides traditionally wear multiple dresses. In America, post-Covid there is a recent trend of wearing the wedding dress for the ceremony only and then 1-2 other outfits for photos and reception. Because many American wedding venues have a strict timeline of 4-5 hours for the entire reception, there is not much time to do costume changes without taking away from the time spent with guests, which they say is very limited as it is.

I'm planning on wearing my one wedding dress but I'm going to have my rehearsal dinner dress as an option to change into if I get too hot or uncomfortable during the reception.

I initially only planned on wearing one dress - wedding dresses are expensive, and I wanted to wear it for as long as possible. However, when we postponed due to COVID, I ended up getting a second dress. I wore my original dress for the ceremony, and my second dress for the reception.


At all weddings that I've attended as a guest, most brides wore one dress, though I agree with a previous comment that it also depends on the culture, as some cultures have multi-day weddings and/or they wear multiple dresses. If undecided, it's totally personal preference. If you have a dress with a super long train or a dress that would be hard to dance in all night, a second dress might be worth it. Otherwise, if your dress is comfortable and you don't see the need for a second dress, stick with just one dress.

In North America, it's most common for brides to wear one dress for the whole day.

This is totally up to you! A lot of brides in the U.S. wear a single gown for everything. In the past 5 years though, more than half the weddings I’ve been to the bride has had 2 dresses - 1 for ceremony and 1 for reception. A few have even had a third dress or jumpsuit for the after party! I am going to wear 2 dresses- 1 for ceremony and part of the reception. Then I will change into my second dress after dinner. My dress has a MASSIVE train, so I didn’t want to drag it around all night (and I am not a fan of the way bustles look).