Pale bride, bright white dress!

rawn

Hi all. I'm getting married in November, it's a smallish wedding (a handfasting) which we are planning on a budget. I ordered my dress online from eBay, I fell in love with the picture and it was in my price range. The only thing is I stupidly ordered it in white instead of ivory and I really don't like it on me. The dress is well made and lovely but it's so bright white it really overpowers me. I'm quite pale with freckles and I hate false tan so I'm feeling pretty miserable about it tbh and can't afford another. It's not just that I'm pale but some parts of my arms/chest/neck are noticeably darker than others so I look weird and patchy, the whiteness of the dress really highlights it! I can't return it as it's custom made and it was my own silly fault for asking for white. I'm not sure what advice I'm looking for here really...! Has anyone been in this situation before? What did you do? Is it worth my while trying to get it dyed?

pwurple

What fabric is it?

Some take dye well, some don't.

I've used a teabag soak to turn white fabric an ivory colour, but it was cotton. You'd need to do your research on the material, and maybe test an inconspicuous piece.

Sapphire

White wedding dresses are a funny one.

See if there is a place that dyes stuff near to you and talk to them. Things like synthetic fabric, beading, can all affect the end result but talking to someone who can inspect the dress for you, you might be able to get a solution. I'd be very reluctant to home dye - I've done it before with stuff and had reasonable results but even cottons turned out patchy.

If that doesn't work, could you recoup some of the cost by selling it and putting it towards an ivory one?

Or...a bit of a radical solution, but my own dress has an ivory underlay, but has champagne coloured lace over it, you could get the dress de-constructed maybe and the pattern pieces overlaid with an ivory lace or beaded fabric that does suit you and reassembled. Or even if you overlaid the bodice part that's near your skin, would help tone in with your skin.

Milly33

Plenty of things you could do.. If you could get it dyed or maybe go to a dress maker and get another layer put over or add a bit of colour to it to brighten it up.. Or wear very bright accessories to brighten it up. would have been a pale bride myself, I tried the tans and just hated them.. Was hoping to go with off white too as white really isnt my colour, in the end the material I found of course was white and it worked out fine

SarahMollie

Hi OP,

I know you hate fake tans (I've little patience with them myself) but I do love using a gradual tanner. The effect is very subtle, but I find it really helps if I'm wearing anything white, as it just takes the pasty tone away - I'm under no illusion that it leaves me looking actually tanned, it does not!

The one I use is this

Goes on like a moisturiser and is only €6 (its almost always on offer!) so might be worth a shot before doing anything drastic to the dress itself!