“Tried to Warn Her” — Maid of Honor Makes Guest Leave Wedding to Change Dress
"The fact you told her and she did it anyways, tells me everything."
Published June 17 2024, 11:51 a.m. ET
A woman called out her mother for wearing white to a wedding they attended, which caused the maid of honor to ask her to leave the venue and change.
Caroline Ricke (@richcaroline) posted the viral clip to TikTok, where it amassed 2.6 million views and tons of comments from folks who couldn't believe her mom's reaction.
According to Caroline, she warned her mother that this might happen, but the woman decided to go ahead and rock white anyway.
"My mom and I just left a wedding ceremony and the maid of honor asked her to go home and change before she comers to the reception, and, guys, just take a wild guess why?" the TikToker says, laughing into the camera's mic as she pans her camera over to show what her mother was wearing that elicited such a response from the maid of honor.
Caroline's mother could be seen sitting in the front passenger's seat, arms crossed across her body, looking straight ahead, wearing a white dress.
"Don't laugh; this is ridiculous, Caroline," her mother argues, arms still folded while she pleads her case.
"I can't believe they are making this about me, not the bride. I bought this beautiful dress to go to this wedding and now they're asking me to go back and change. I'm sorry, I'm not going back," her mother states definitively, as she looks out the window, pouting slightly.
"I mean you look good but it's literally a wedding dress, like I told you they were gonna say something," Caroline tells her mother as she continues to get footage of the outfit that effectively got her kicked out of the wedding.
"Well in my country you're allowed to wear white for weddings," her mom says while shrugging her shoulders, questioning why it's such a big deal to wear a particular color garment on someone's wedding day.
Caroline hit her back with "We're not in your country anymore though."
The TikToker's mother didn't seem to have much to say in response to that, however: "Well I'm sorry," she says, looking out the window again.
"Why is she mad at you when you tried to warn her?" another commenter wrote.
While seen as the near-universal color of choice for brides everywhere, white is actually a relatively new hue for betrothed individuals. According to Adore Bridal, people's obsession with wearing white on their wedding day began in 1840 after throngs of British royal family–obsessed folks saw printed pictures of Queen Victoria's bridal gown.
Upon seeing the white dress, everyone wanted to feel like a royal themselves, and brides all wanted to emulate the British queen.
The site writes: "Contrary to popular belief, white wedding dresses weren't always the norm. In fact, throughout history, brides wore a variety of colors for their wedding attire, ranging from vibrant hues to muted tones. The trend of wearing white for weddings can be traced back to the 19th century, particularly to the wedding of Queen Victoria of England to Prince Albert in 1840. Queen Victoria's choice of a white wedding gown was, quite literally, an incredibly shocking choice. Her dress captured the public's imagination and set a new standard for bridal fashion."
The same piece went on to say that widespread adoption of white as the definitive dress color for weddings wasn't immediate: "While Queen Victoria's wedding dress played a pivotal role in introducing the white wedding dress, it wasn't until the mid-20th century that white became the standard choice for brides. The rise of mass media, fashion magazines, and Hollywood films further cemented the association between white dresses and weddings, reinforcing the idea of the 'storybook wedding.'"
Today, white wedding dresses are primarily associated with western cultural norms, and in Eastern ones such as China and India, brides are typically decked out in red.
Brides spoke with sibling fashion designers Niki and Ritika Shamdasani who discussed why Desi brides typically rock this color on their wedding days.
"Every woman we speak to has their own take on why red is significant to them because it is such a rich and meaningful symbol ... in our culture, it means new beginnings, passion, and prosperity. Red also represents the Hindu goddess Durga, who symbolizes new beginnings and feminine power," Ritika told the outlet.
Other colors you'll catch Indian brides wearing, according to the outlet, are emerald green, blush pink, champagne, and fuchsia.
And according to East Meets Dress: "In Chinese culture, the bride wears a red wedding dress such as a Qun Kwa or a cheongsam on her wedding day to celebrate the joy and happiness of the marriage."
So if Caroline's mom was just going to a wedding in a different country, she probably would've been completely fine attending in the dress she wore in her daughter's TikTok video.
If you were getting married and were rocking a white dress and you saw one of your guests wearing one too, how would you react? Would it upset you? Is it whack for a guest to do that? Should they always know better?