Say Yes to the Dress. And That One, and That One Too.

Why settle for one wedding dress when you can have three? That was Connar Franklin’s thinking while shopping for her big day.

When the 25-year-old model and influencer marries the former Vine star and singer Aaron Carpenter at the Biltmore Estate in Asheville, N.C., this month, she’ll wear a satin mermaid gown for the ceremony, followed by a flowy halter dress for the reception and a tulle minidress for the afterparty.

“That’s the fun thing about weddings,” Franklin said. “You get to be dramatic about it.” 

While a single showstopping gown has long been the bridal standard, a wider range of designer styles and the influence of social media have turned the wedding-dress search into an elaborate spending spree. Many wealthy brides-to-be walk out of appointments with more dresses than they can count on one hand. Stylists say wedding-wardrobe budgets are running into the six-figure realm. 

In April, Sofia Richie, an influencer and daughter of Lionel Richie, wore three custom Chanel dresses to her wedding in France. The American model Taylor Hill wore three dresses to her Colorado ranch wedding in June. On TikTok, clips from the July wedding of food influencer Emily Mariko, in Rancho Palos Verdes, Calif., have been going viral, thanks to her six wedding outfits.

“For brides today, the language isn’t a ‘wedding dress’—it’s a ‘bridal wardrobe,’” said Marcelo Gaia, the owner and designer of Mirror Palais, who made most of Mariko’s looks.

Glamorous wedding content can be a path to fame on social media, and some brides are eager to turn their wedding photos into content. 

“Girls are buying several dresses because of the possibility of going viral,” said Gabrielle Hurwitz, a luxury bridal stylist in New York. “The pressure to show off to their family, their friends and even strangers on the internet is definitely fueling this trend.”

“I couldn’t do justice to myself, and to my wedding day, by only sticking to one look,” said Hannah Chody Milburn, a 30-year-old corporate strategist in Austin, Texas, who got married last June in Italy and wore eight outfits throughout the weekend. She said her TikTok follower count swelled once she started posting photos from her wedding, and that brands such as Hill House Home, Jimmy Choo and Armani Beauty have since come to her with sponsorship deals.

“For a long time, my wedding was my distinguishing quality,” she joked. 

Boutiques and stylists say the new standard for brides is three dresses.

“The first dress is classic and traditional, the second is narrow and sexy, and then after your grandmother is sent home and the DJ starts, you change into your third, which is usually swingy and super short,” said Mark Ingram, who runs a luxury bridal atelier in New York City.

In July, the famed New York bridal boutique Kleinfeld opened a second-level shop for short white dresses, so brides looking for more than one wedding gown would have options, said Dorothy Silver, the store’s director of merchandising. 

The more-is-more mentality follows years of weddings disrupted or curtailed by Covid-19 restrictions.

“Postpandemic, bridal shopping is no longer saying ‘yes to the (one) dress,’” Jenny Corona Schoonmaker, vice president of global sales and client experience for the luxury retailer Moda Operandi, said in an email. Moda stylists work with brides to create visual mood boards, she said, then source items “to outfit their entire trousseau.”

Ingram said bridal-wardrobe budgets have increased as a result. “Girls used to walk out of the store spending $17,000 for a dress and veil, but oh my God, it’s gone up to $25,000,” he said.

“I have stylists telling me they have $100,000 budgets for a bridal wardrobe, and that clients want four or five dresses,” said Christy Baird, the owner of LOHO Bride in Los Angeles. “It has become wild.” Her store recently opened a second floor to accommodate more outfit-change options.

Destination weddings have also contributed to the surge, experts say. “If anyone is traveling for a wedding, you have to do a welcome dinner, a Friday lunch, a rehearsal dinner, the wedding on Saturday, and then brunch on Sunday, and so six outfits is just the bare minimum,” said Alexandra O’Neill, designer of the womenswear and bridal label Markarian.

Carrie Goldberg, a fashion and wedding stylist, said brides today want multiple unique pieces that haven’t been seen on Instagram yet. She described her process of combing through department stores, websites, couture houses and vintage dealers as “treasure hunting.”

Gia Kuan, a publicist in New York who wore three dresses to her June wedding, said that her choices helped her express herself. “I also felt like I was dressing up as my alter ego anime personalities,” she said.

How many dresses is too many? Mindy Weiss, a celebrity wedding planner, said that hair and makeup adjustments, which often come with outfit changes, can be time-consuming. “Sometimes I find that the couple ends up missing a lot of the wedding while changing into their next look,” she said.

As Franklin nears her wedding date, her multiple outfits have become a point of debate in her family.

“My dad is like, ‘Three? Why do you need three?’ He thinks I’m crazy,” she said. “But then my mom is like, ‘Go for it! Maybe you should do four!’”

Write to Chavie Lieber at [email protected]