[chellerenee]

Shannon, since you are Catholic, I thought I'd ask you this. My brother and his fiance are getting married May 30th. My parents have been talking about how the women can't wear anything that doesn't have sleeves. Is this true? Do all the women going to the wedding need to wear dresses with sleeves? I was just looking to try to find a dress for it, and most of the cute ones don't have sleeves. She just sent me a message on MySpace asking if my sister and I would like to do readings during the wedding, so we'd be up infront of everyone. Thanks for any answers!

Michelle

[LadyGamer]

I would wear the dress without sleeves, with a cute overjacket or cardigan

[Mod-LadyCoconut]

I know when we first started planning, my Wedding Planning for Dummies book said that for Catholic weddings it's common to not be allowed to 'bare shoulders' and that things should have sleeves. As you know, my dress is strapless. It seems to depend on the specific church. The Deacon who is doing our ceremony seemed surprised when I made sure my dress was appropriate, so obviously that's not a very big deal in our church. On the other hand, I often wear jeans to Mass... so it wasn't a big shocker to me that there wasn't some strict dress code. If I were you I would check with the bride, but I imagine a sleeveless dress is just fine. If you're worried about it, you could throw on a cute cardigan or something for the ceremony, but I imagine if it were an issue the bride would have told you when she asked you to do a reading. I mean, what would they do, kick out people who come to the ceremony who aren't dressed with their shoulders covered? haha.

Check with the bride, but I bet your dress will be just fine!

(and, as if I even had to ask... POST PICS!)

[chellerenee]

well, I don't have the dress...I have to buy one. I don't ever wear dresses, although I like them. It's just because of my weight. I think I look awful in dresses and skirts. I *might* be brave enough to post pics when I get the dress. lol Thanks for the opinions. I didn't even think about wearing something over it, but I'll keep that in mind. I'll at least post pics of what my dress looks like even if it's not on me!

Michelle

[soImarriedAnerd]

At my childhood church you couldn't have bare shoulders and your skirt/dress had to cover you knees. But I have never seen a person get kicked out of a wedding for "breaking" this rule---they usually realize that non-catholics do come to catholic weddings at times

[Mars]

I think you'd look beautiful in a dress, Michelle! I have a friend who's of a fuller figure and she wears a lot of dresses and she looks lovely in them. I think that as long as the dress is appropriate (not too close fitting, that kind of stuff) that size doesn't matter.

[~*sierra*~]

i never knew about this covered shoulders thing, good to know!

[petalfuzz]

I'd look into getting a dress with some sort of wrap cover-up. It can be very cute! Plus it's just for the ceremony. Go watch "Big fat greek wedding" again. Those halter-style blue bridesmaids dresses are sleeveless and during the ceremony, each girl was wearing a matching wrap cover up. But those wraps are gone for the reception. It's just a sign of respect in a traditional church.