I have been dress shopping recently for my October wedding and after trying on 20+ dresses, I found the dress of my dreams. It made my whole family cry and my friends said no other dress matches up. Once this had been determined, I found out that my best friend has a dress that looks almost exactly the same. She has already purchased hers and I haven't purchased mine yet. It doesn't bother me at all to have an almost identical dress to her, and I wouldn't think it would bother her since her wedding is 8 months before mine, but I could tell she didn't want me to get that dress. Now I'm torn on how to make sure we are both happy. Is it wrong for me to still get the dress?
Re: I found the same dress as my friend without knowing it
Oh god, this is a really tough situation to be in. It wouldn't bother me at all to have the same dress as a friend (hell I'd offer to go in on the dress and have it altered to fit me after her wedding to save a little money) but I know a lot of brides are very sensitive about that.
Do you have time to wait a little while and continue looking for dresses before you purchase yours? Perhaps you'll find something you love even more, and if you don't at least your friend will know that you tried - really, really tried - to find a dress that didn't look so much like hers.
Plus, if she's in stressed-out-bride mode right now, she's naturally bound to be a little more sensitive about things that wouldn't bother her at all normally. Maybe once the wedding is over she'll realize it doesn't really matter that much.
Hoping maybe someone else here has some good advice!
That being said, there are only so many basic styles. You're boud to find different things that look similar. So unless this gown is the same designer, same model, I wouldn't even hesitate. And if it is, well, I guess that means somebody out there must be making a great dress.
I'm going to take a wild guess that your colors probably aren't the same nor will your BM dresses be the same. You'll probably wear your hair & any accessories different too. If you're still concerned, does the dress allow you to add a sash to it to make it still a little different?
Months later, they realized that it was the same exact dress, though her friend had added sleeves to it so it was a little different, but they honestly couldn't tell until they really thought about it because it looked so different on both of them.
Moral of the story: you'll be fine, and I bet you look beautiful!
When I went to try on dresses I inadvertently pulled a dress that my former roommate wore at her wedding which I was in. I figured out as I came out of the dressing room why it looked familiar. The style was not me at all, and the consultant suggested a similar textured dress in a different cut. As soon as she described it, I knew it was the one my other former roommate wore at hers. Anyhow, my 2nd choice dress (realy loved 2 but the price was way better on the one I purchased) was basically the same dress as roommate #2 except with a different skirt cut which would basically have been a cross between their two dresses. Had a good laugh about the similarity in our choices considering our everyday style has NO similarity.
I'd feel pretty unhappy in a dress that i didn't love because my friend was upset I found a similar dress as she did. You can continue to look if you want to try and make your friend happy but you shouldn't have to completely sacrifice something that makes you feel beautiful because your friend will feel slighted.
As PP said after all is said and done with very few people will remember the dress she wore...