Wedding dress shopping can be overwhelming and incredibly stressful. If you take a crowd of people with you, they're all going to give opinions, and it is practically impossible to make everyone happy. Some people spend countless hours looking for the perfect dress but can't find anything on the rack that suits them, so they go the custom route.
Finding a reputable designer is critical because you want your dream dress to be perfect. Plus, a custom gown comes with a big price tag. Go big or go home, right? One TikToker who did just that, now wishes she would have settled for off-the-rack instead of splurging for the $7,000 disaster she had custom made for her 500-guest wedding. The word "nightmare" doesn't even begin to describe what happened to this bride.
The bride couldn't find her dream dress in a store.
TikToker Josephine Pepa failed to find her perfect dress in a bridal boutique. She explains in her TikTok video that she hated dress shopping. "Trying on dresses that, like, are not in your size, don't fit, are weird. It was miserable," she says. Pepa had a "vision" of what she wanted and didn't want to settle for less. That's fair. It's a big day.
So she went the custom route.
After failing in stores, she decided to have a dress custom made. She says the designer was reputable and was recommended to her by a friend. Her friend's dress was "stunning, amazing, chef's kiss." Pepa thought everything would be perfect.
At her first fitting, the dress was what she describes as a "skeleton," but she wasn't worried. "No questions asked," she says.
Pepa showed her inspiration gown to her TikTok followers.
The gown that Pepa wanted is a stunner. It has a beautiful bodice covered in pearls and a gorgeous flowing skirt. No doubt that Pepa would look incredible in the dress. But it's not at all what she got.
"I have legit trauma showing anybody what was made after this," she says, covering her mouth and laughing. Pepa begins to freak out a bit before she shows pics of the final product. And it's, uh … something.
Nothing about the dress looks like the inspiration photo.
Pepa flashes pictures of the dress the designer made, and it doesn't resemble the picture at all.
"First, I have a kangaroo pouch," she points out. The cups of her bra are entirely exposed, since the bodice is totally see-through. We see a shocked bridesmaid in the background laughing.
Pepa says the designer quickly started hot-gluing pearls onto the dress — while she was wearing it — during her final fitting! The pearls kept flying off of the dress. It was a nightmare.
Almost a million views later, people were shook.
So many commenters felt like Pepa chose the wrong designer. She obviously couldn't do what she said that she could.
"I feel like the design was simply not in the designer's wheelhouse WHICH IS FINE but they should have known their limitations and been upfront about it!" someone commented.
"OMG I'd cry, it looks NOTHING like the original dress you washed replicated," one person agreed.
"That much hand beading would take so long and cost so much! Inspo is gorgeous. Result is like what you'd get from wish dot com," someone else wrote.
Others thought she got what she deserved.
"Okay traumatic for sure but your inspo dress wasn't even a real dress or on a real human so your trust went way too far," another comment reads.
"You stole the dress design and wanted it less expensive," one person commented. "So you stole it from the designer. Wait there's more! You're too fat for see thru!"
Yeah, that's a bit harsh.
Pepa got the last word.
In the end, Pepa ended up with two gorgeous gowns for her big day — one of which was one-of-a-kind — both of which, looked incredible on her. She also sent the designer a long and detailed text about her experience. We'd love to see her reply. We're sure it'd be worth grabbing some popcorn for.
