What’s your worst fear for your wedding?
Your wedding cake toppling over? Aunt Marge drinking one too many wines? A wedding dress malfunction?
On your wedding day, you’ll be on cloud nine. But that can quickly change with a wedding dress-related disaster. A rip, snag, or stain, could quickly ruin the look you were dreaming of for months.
But not to fear. In this blog post, we’re covering four common wedding dress fails and how to fix them.
If you prepare for the worst, you’re guaranteed to look your best. Grab a pen and paper, let’s get started.
1. A Broken Bustle
A wedding dress bustle is a way to gather up a train and make it even with your hemline so that your dress doesn’t drag on the floor. This can be accomplished via ribbons, buttons, hooks, or by sewing your gown.
So it’s got an important job, to say the least. However, it’s common for bustles to break down towards the end of the night after lots of dancing and partying.
It’s good to be proactive and choose a dress with a secure bustle. Typically, ribbons hold better than buttons. You can also ask the seamstress to reinforce the bustle with monofilament. This will protect your dress better from snags and kicked-up heels.
BUT, in the case that your bustle does break, keep large safety pins or a sewing kit on hand. A simple needle and thread could save the day!
2. A Stuck Zipper
A stuck zipper is a wedding dress fail that will automatically trigger panic mode. But take a deep breath, ask for help, and most of the time, it’ll be just fine.
First, if your zipper gets stuck, check to make sure there’s no fabric stuck in it as well. The last thing you want to do is tear your dress on top of breaking a zipper!
If there is some fabric stuck, gently use your fingers to ease it free.
Then, take a clear wax stick like Zipper-Ease (or even a white crayon), and wax the zipper to help ease it up and down.
If the zipper is straight-up broken, that’s where a sewing kit will come in handy again. There have certainly been times where brides have been sewn into their dresses! It’s not ideal, but nobody will even notice!
3. A Stained Dress
Stains—ah, this one’s a classic.
Wedding dresses are typically shades of white and cream—which means they are incredibly prone to stains.
Unfortunately, these stains don’t have to be big to be noticeable. The tiniest smudge of foundation or lipstick on a white dress will stand out. Be proactive and put your dress on before getting ready!
For minor stains, a Tide-to-Go pen or Shout wipe should work fine. But suppose you want to cover all your grounds (Hey, you never know who will bump into you with a glass of red wine). In that case, we recommend investing in a heavy-duty stain remover kit that includes different targeted solvents to treat various stains.
Speaking of red wine, we have a surprising little hack for you. Pouring a bit of white wine on top of a red wine stain can help pull it out. (But make sure to get the dress dry cleaned after the wedding.)
Or, if you can find a piece of chalk that’s the same shade as your dress, you can use that to cover up the stain. It’s a bandaid solution, but it’ll do!
4. Damaged or Dirty Hem
The bottom of your dress can take a beating. Even if you aren’t planning on wandering outside, your hem will drag across the floor all day and become dirty.
So to avoid this wedding dress fail the best you can, apply a stain protector to your hem before the wedding. But make sure it’s compatible with your fabric and don’t apply too much—or it’ll be visible on the dress.
Towards the end of the night, if you see some dirt on the hem of your dress, simply brush it away with a clean, white terry-cloth towel. White chalk will work wonders here too.
Your hem is also susceptible to getting stepped on or snagging. If your hem rips, a needle and thread should be able to patch it up. Or, if you have embellishments on hand, you can sew those on to hide the tear.
But hey, if you can’t fix it—don’t sweat. It’s a sign that you thoroughly enjoyed your wedding day and that’s most important.
🌷 Still Looking for a Wedding Dress?
Take a look at these blog posts to find the right wedding dress for you:
And don’t forget, after the wedding, make sure to preserve your wedding dress properly so you can keep it as a family heirloom for years to come.
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