Wedding Exit: To Change or Not?

I recently had a bride ask me my thoughts on leaving the reception in your wedding dress vs. changing. I left my own wedding in my wedding dress, Brooke (pictured above), who got married last summer, changed right before her exit.  So here are two perspectives.

From my own experience (I left in my dress) I liked that I got to enjoy wearing my dress the whole  day, after all, I wasn't ever going to wear it again! Also, I didn't want have to miss any of the reception to go and change and I love our exit photos of me in my dress. BUT I will say I did feel a little overdressed standing in the lobby of the W Hotel in my wedding dress.

So, I asked Brooke what her thoughts were and here's what she had to say: 


I only wore the short dress (from Never Fully Dressed)  to leave the reception. I wanted to keep my wedding dress on as long as I could!!


We were flying out early for our hooneymoon the next morning and I did not want to have to deal with carrying a huge dress around and figuring out where it would go- So, right before we left I went back and took off my wedding dress, threw on a birdcage veil and took my hair down...

Brooke also mentioned that they didn't have a set time to exit their reception, that way she felt she had enough time with guests. She also said it only took a few minutes for her to change. From my own experience as a photographer, I've definitely seen brides miss a good chunk of their reception because changing ends up taking longer than they anticipated. So I'd recommend making sure you've got the entire process figured out and someone who knows what they are doing if your dress involves 100 buttons down the back! 

There you go, two perspectives, definitely pros and cons of both. What will you do? 



1 comment

  1. I didn't even think about changing, maybe it wasn't a thing then or at least I didn't know it was! I always thought of Annie Banks in Father of the Bride changing into that hideous pant suit, haha. LOVED Brooke's dress though, so cute.

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