“Am I The Jerk For Wearing The Same Dress To All My Friends’ Weddings?”

Apparently, your sartorial choices can put a lot of strain on your friendship. In some people’s minds, there are only a set number of times that you can wear a single dress. Rather than seeing your fashion choices as iconic, they see it as a low-key insult.

One redditor, from Canada, shared how she wears a blue dress to all of her friends’ weddings in California because her warm-weather wardrobe is very limited. However, when she got invited to her friend’s wedding, she was warned not to wear her iconic dress.

That’s when the redditor decided to turn to the AITA community for their advice on what she should do. Scroll down for the full post and to see what advice the internet gave the woman. When you’ve read through everything, share your opinion in the comments. Do you think it’s time for a new dress or should the wedding guest wear her old blue one again?

Bored Panda got in touch with wedding industry experts Anna and Sarah, Team Leaders at The Wedding Society, to get their opinions on wedding dress codes, following the guidance from the happy couple, as well as what trends are fashionable in 2022. Read on for what they had to say.

A woman got invited to a friend’s wedding, but she ended up facing a dilemma about what to wear

Image credits: Amy Kate (not the actual photo)

Her friend’s request made her turn to the AITA community for advice. Here’s the redditor’s full story

Image credits: Cleyder Duque (not the actual photo)

According to wedding experts Anna and Sarah, it’s usually a good thing to listen to the advice and guidelines that the couple that’s getting married gives their guests. Of course, everything needs to be taken with a pinch of common sense: most of the time, you’ll intuitively know if some demands are unreasonable or unrealistic.

“If you can and they’re reasonable, it’s always best to follow the guidance of the wedding couple as to what to wear,” the expert told Bored Panda.

“Of course, there’s always a line that can be crossed into being too demanding or unrealistic with expectations, but generally most couples are just trying to help their guests get a feel for their day,” they suggested that the guidance shouldn’t put too much pressure on the guests.

Anna and Sarah were happy to give Bored Panda an overview of the trends in wedding clothing and designs in terms of colors and patterns. “There are so many amazing style trends for weddings at the moment,” they said that 2022 is looking to be a great year.

“Neutrals and sages are really popular, as well as pops of bright color. Clean lines and Palm Springs vibes are still very in!” they revealed what’s trending.

Most of us Pandas know what peer pressure looks like. At the end of the day, we value other people’s opinions. Especially if they’re our closest pals. So when someone tells us that they dislike something that we wear, we tend to think things over. A lot. Maybe way too much. Even if we love an item of clothing, we might start second-guessing our own decisions.

After all, we don’t want to end up embarrassing our friends or making them feel uncomfortable. On the flip side, we also shouldn’t be so eager to give up our identities or fashion choices. What’s more, some people aren’t all too keen on buying a whole new set of clothes ‘just’ for one wedding. It can sometimes be hard to find the right balance between personal boundaries and social expectations.

In some cases, our friends are totally right and we simply can’t see that our beloved items of clothing might not be the best fit for whatever social event we’re going to. In all cases, when it comes to criticizing someone’s clothing, it’s vital to be diplomatic, tactful, and gentle. (Unless they have a wicked sense of humor and they believe that frankness is the best policy.)

Earlier, Mary Waldron, the founder of ‘You can’t just slap some fabric together and call it a dress,’ told Bored Panda that people might be more willing to listen to you if you phrase things differently.

“I think the important thing when sharing opinions on another person’s outfits is tact, it comes across as rude if you simply say, ‘Your dress is ugly’ and the other person may not be as willing to listen to you, but if you were to say, ‘I don’t think that dress is very flattering for your figure, try this other dress.’ It sounds less critical and gives you the chance to give them a better option,” she explained how people can tackle the topic of dresses in a diplomatic way.

Meanwhile, Nigerian fashion designer Oyinda Akinfenwa, the creator of the Janore brand, told Bored Panda a bit about the actual process of designing dresses.

“When it comes to my process, it varies depending on the design and my state of mind at the point. It could be fast like just envisioning a style and sometimes it’s quite slow which may involve drawing various patterns to make sure I get the right fit and styling necessary for each design,” she gave us a small peek at how dress designers think and work.

“I wish people understood that it is not easy to actually create designs out of an idea, there’s a lot of creative process that goes into it and it will be nice if people were a bit more understanding of designers and also understanding the story behind their art,” she said.

“I have to make sure that all the styling options I offer look just as good as the next one and also ensure that it fits into the category of outfit that I’m going for. Also to make sure that it can not only be styled differently but also styled to fit different occasions thereby creating ease as well as comfort for whoever is wearing it,” she explained.