Wearing your mom’s wedding dress for your own wedding day is something you thought of doing. But now that you’re engaged and you’re about to go into planning your wedding, the hypothetical question is now a real one: Should you wear it, or create your own? Here are the different reasons why you should and shouldn’t do so:
Should You Wear Your Mother’s Wedding Dress?
It’s cheaper than buying or creating your own. Give or take a few alterations to update the style or the size, wearing your mom’s wedding dress will save you thousands of pesos and a lot of time heading to fittings.
Your mom might stop you from altering it too much. Maybe you’ve decided to keep the top half of the gown, and change the bottom to something less poufy, more streamlined. But when your mom sees the new design, she says no. This might be frustrating, but think of it this way—your mom will always feel a bit of ownership over the wedding dress, and you ripping it apart—quite literally—is not something that she’ll feel comfortable with.
The secret is to compromise, and to involve your mom in every step of the alteration process, just to ease her into the changes.
It might not be your style. Unfortunately, sometimes the wedding gowns of our mothers are not made to withstand the test of time. Maybe it gives away the time when it was made, like 70s hippie flowy dresses, or poufy 80s wedding gowns that look like they can double as the wedding cake as well, or a very old Filipiniana that belongs to a museum. In the end, maybe you just simply don’t like it!
It’s your “something old”. Since it’s going to turn into an heirloom if it was to be passed on to you, it also doubles as your “something old”—one less thing to worry about!
It turns into an heirloom. There’s something so romantic and nostalgic about being able to wear your mother’s dress, especially if it’s been passed on from one generation to the next. Even without any children just yet, you’ll definitely start dreaming of being able to pass it on to your own daughter or future daughter-in-law!
Your mom will love the gesture and symbolism that comes with it. If you think that you’ll get all teary-eyed thinking about your future daughter or daughter-in-law wearing the gown that’s been passed on to you, imagine how your mom will feel when she sees you walk down the aisle wearing her old gown! She’ll feel infinitely happy, proud, and nostalgic.
You’ll have to wear something from your father, too. To make things fair, you’ll have to wear or keep on your person something of your father’s. Maybe you can work a necktie or handkerchief of his into your bouquet, or wear a ring of his during your wedding day. Whatever you choose, you must do so, just to be able to pay homage to both your mom and dad.
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