Weddingbee Blog

To be quite honest, Mr. Elk isn’t really big into fashion. With two pairs of jeans, one pair of sneakers, and ten button-down shirts in varying colors, it would be more accurate to say he doesn’t care about clothes at all, which will become all the more evident when you hear this story: When I first started dating Mr. Elk, I had an event to attend and wanted his advice on what to wear. I tried on two dresses: one was a long red dress with thick straps and a deep V neckline. It had ruching on the side and floral detailing. The other was a maroon strapless chiffon dress with a sweetheart neckline and natural waist that had an ombre effect. He looked at me in both dresses and asked, “What’s different about them? They are both red dresses.”

Image via Really Funny Pictures

Flash forward six years later, and here I am wedding-dress shopping. I had originally intended to show him some of the dresses I tried on to 1) get his honest opinion about which silhouette worked well for me and 2) prove to him I wasn’t picking some tacky mess (which apparently was a concern he had). But soon I was showing him every dress I tried on and asking for his opinion, unable to hold back my excitement. Ninety-nine percent of the time his response was, as predicted, “I don’t really get it—they are all just white dresses.” First of all—I don’t think any of the dresses I tried on were actually white, but that is beside the point!

When I came home from the shopping adventure that resulted in finding my actual dress, I was SUPER excited! Even though I hadn’t intended on showing him the dress, I couldn’t hold it in. The words were like vomit, and I couldn’t hold them back: “I think I found my dress…want to see?” Because of his reaction to all the other dresses, I figured it wouldn’t really be a big deal. His reaction, though, wasn’t what I was expecting. His response to my beautiful, lovely, awesome, amazing dress was, “Isn’t lace for old people…like, isn’t that what they put on their dining-room tables?”

Does THIS look like something an old person would wear?!? (Note: this is not my dress, although it is FREAKING GORGEOUS.)

Monique Lhullier Scarlet / Image via Details Details

Sighhhhhh…I guess I should have seen something like this coming. A more caring bride may have decided to go back to the drawing board and begin the dress search again, especially because I hadn’t actually purchased the dress yet (which is why he was willing to tell me his honest opinion). But after over 50 dresses, I was not about to restart the search. I just hope he gets over his “lace is for old people” hang-up when he sees me in the dress.

Would you find a new dress if you found out your FI wasn’t thrilled by yours? Or would you do what I did and pretend like you never showed them the dress in the first place?