Wedding Gown Ugly

Like every other woman, I have had different visions of wedding gowns dancing in my head from time to time. When I was younger is was more princessy or trendy, mid-30's more classy and now days none existent (keep getting nasty frogs, no Prince Charming!).

Anyways, I have had two occasions to help a bride pick her wedding gown. The first was with my cousin. Imagine 6 women piling into a mini-van and making the trek to a bridal warehouse. While 2 people assisted the bride, 3 people rummaged the warehouse seeking the bride's dream dress. After 3 hours, the actual dress was something that the bride initially refused to wear--strapless. But other than that it has everything she wanted and the price too good to pass up. We knew we had the right dress because she kept preening in it (unlike all the other dresses where she looked in the mirror and was ready to take them off within 30 seconds!). By the way, I found that dress--bragging rights! The second occasion my good friend, her mother and I went to a local bridal salon renown for its incredibly great customer service and were absolutely pampered. The salon owner found the perfect dress. How did we know? The mother and I agreed the bride would get emotional. After trying on 5 dresses, the bride broken down crying over this particular dress. She really felt like a bride in it.

However, sometimes you have to wonder, where do the gown designers get their inspiration or the gall to produce something of absolute beauty or some over-the-top tripe?

No bride wants to look at her wedding pictures 24-72 hours later and cry, "Why didn't anyone tell me --I look hideous!".

I am looking for opinions. If you know of other wedding gown nightmares, please provide the picture and your comment (g-rated please, kids will be looking at the post too!).

Think of this as a community service announcement: what not to where on your wedding day!