When I need a red gown fix, I usually head on over to the Offbeat Bride blog, where stunning, juicy, overwhelmingly gorgeous red gowns can be found in abundance. The one thing I haven’t seen until now — there or anywhere for that matter — is a saucy red maternity wedding gown.
Hey, why not? The stigma formerly attached to brides with buns has all but disappeared, thanks to all the well-known (and not so well-known) personages who decided to mix it up by having babies before tying the knot or getting hitched while very obviously knocked up. I have friends who scheduled the mommy and matrimony milestones at different stages of their lives for various reasons, including convenience, career, and even the lack of a present partner. It’s no one’s business but their own.
Personally, I LOVE this satin and chiffon dress, if only because it’s not desperately trying to be a non-maternity gown like so many maternity wedding gowns do. Come on — we can see your bump under all those gauzy layers! When you’re fit to pop, you may as well rock your delicate condition. To me, this gown says, “Hey, I’m pregnant, and if you have a problem with that you can just put down your damn cake and go the hell home.”
What say you?
I’m a bit meh on the dress, but mostly because I’m not wild about the particular combination of reds they’ve got going on. Oh, and the veil…just no. It’s not that I don’t think it’s possibly to rock a red veil. It’s more a case of it looks like it was randomly dumped on her head with no consideration. Overall, my impression is that it’s a great idea carried out without nearly enough oomph.
I do have to giggle, though. My mother was married in scarlet from the top of her no doubt fashionable hat to the tips of her oh-so-saucy shoes, including her stockings. That was in 1958. Seven months later to the day, my brother was born.
There was no bun in my oven on my wedding day, but part of the reason I wore my scarlet dancing ghillies on my feet was a nod to good old Mom.
As always, she was way ahead of the curve.
I like the dress. If I were getting married again – or if I had this as a choice of maternity MOH/BM dress – I would adore wearing it. It flaunts the lovely shape without it being in your face or the center of attention. I could even see this dress in dark greens for people wanting a nature-centered wedding, for the bridesmaids I mean.
I like the idea of the red gown, but like Twistie – and for much the same reasons – I’m meh about this particular one. I think the combination of reds isn’t working, and the veil looks as if someone’s drapes are trying to suck her brains out. I perceive that she has her hair up in a bun (hah!), and she is in very truth wearing it as a veil – a draped head covering – but it just isn’t working in this particular combination. I think the bride looks “windblown” – and that may well have been the effect they were attempting to achieve, but in this instance, it translates into “bedraggled.” A red maternity wedding dress deserves better than bedraggled.
In fact, I would say it deserves Twistie’s Mom. Yay, Twistie’s Mom! And yay, Twistie’s scarlet dancing ghillies! But no credit to modern celebs; brides have been getting married pregnant for as long as there have been weddings. As far back as the 16th century, at least one bride in four had a bun in the oven at the time of her marriage. There’s been a bit of an unspoken societal subtext that it’s not an altogether bad thing if the bride is pregnant when she gets married (as long as she DOES get married) – because it means she’s definitely fertile.
I agree with Twistie, good idea in theory, but lacking in execution. The two different reds clash, rather than harmonize, and the “veil” just looks like a space piece of chiffon draped over her head. I do like the shape of the skirt.
I actually got a red dress for my wedding. (Well, red and white — it is something I will wear again because it is cute and very flattering, which was one of my criteria.)
I have to say I do think there is something a little inappropriate about having a huge blowout wedding when you are out to there, but that’s just me.
The veil screams Bride of Satan to me. It has nothing to do with the dress or issues surrounding pregnancy and marriage. Actually, maybe it has to do with the dress. The shape of the layers could give the visual of fire. Her rather grumpy look on an otherwise cheerful day may be because she caught of whiff of brimstone. 🙂
But I still stand by that it has nothing to do with marriage and pregnancy. I just don’t like the veil or the dress.
I love the dress and the plum/claret/red wine colors. This would also rock on an apple shape. As for Bride of Satan, I married him and he was way too traditional for this dress.
I’m totally down with the red but like so many others here, I’m not too thrilled with this particular red dress.
So, where is the dress from?
The sad part, Ariel, is that I’m not entirely sure. I found the pic on Dragon Orient, one of those seamstress warehouses that will whip you up a copy of a gown from who-knows-where. The most ridiculous thing is that they don’t even offer it in red! I’m still searching for the originator of said gown…an enterprise that involves slogging through lots of weird image search results.
love it! but I think it takes a pretty strong woman to pull it off. the colors, the viel… she is working it. LOL “put down your damn cake and go the hell home” hehe.