Bride’s Close Friend Publicly Shames Guests For Donning White Gowns At Wedding
Weddings are stressful affairs but also events where the overall feel, expectations, and protocol vary from couple to couple. Some weddings are child-friendly, while others are child-free. Some brides make outrageous demands of their bridesmaids, while others are happy as long as they wear a matching color.
But if there's one thing that just about every engaged couple can agree on, it's that nobody but the bride should show up in a white dress. Regardless of the position taken on what can admittedly be arbitrary wedding traditions, it's commonly agreed that — if nothing else — wearing white to a wedding isn't worth the hassle.
Coming in hot
On April 25, 2023, a woman named Isabella Santos Giha posted a video to TikTok after attending a friend's wedding.
And she wasn't happy about what she had to report from the big day.
A disappointing sight
Although the video was brief, Giha's caption stated that two different guests at her friend's wedding wore white dresses to the event.
And in both cases, it was hard not to see their gowns as having a bridal style.
Even more blatant
But while Giha was less than impressed with the standing woman, she was particularly thrown by the audacity of this seated guest.
As she put it, "This one legit wore a wedding dress."
A public service announcement
While this typically isn't something most people need to be told, Giha felt compelled to send a message to her hundreds of thousands of followers with this video.
As she said in her description, "Please never wear WHITE a someone's wedding. It is sad and disrespectful."
The impact
To emphasize why it's not a good idea, Giha also showed her friend's reaction to these guests.
As she twisted her hair nervously, Giha's caption stated, "The bride got sad."
Commenters were shocked
Naturally — given the widely-recognized faux pas in play here — the majority of commenters were horrified on the bride's behalf.
As one of them wrote, "Y'all, it is a big deal the bride is meant to be the star or the center of attention wearing a white wedding dress. It also could be their first."
Retaliation plans
Another common sentiment was that the appropriate response to a wedding guest wearing a white dress was to ruin the dress with a staining liquid like grape juice.
Indeed, one bride-to-be once went viral for her list of rules for guests, and that list included a warning that her bridesmaids were instructed to ruin any white dresses they saw.
A relatable experience
Yet despite how many people couldn't fathom the gall of wearing a white dress to a wedding, others came forward with stories that demonstrated what a surprisingly common etiquette violation it is.
As one user relayed, "Happened to me! And has the audacity to wear the same dress to HER OWN WEDDING! A month after mine."
A common culprit
Among the commenters who reported similar phenomena, a trend started to emerge. Namely, many of the people guilty of this faux pas were the brides' mothers-in-law.
As one woman said about her egregious case, "She also did it too at her nephew's wedding and wanted to do it at my soon-to-be sister-in-law’s wedding. Crazy people."
A few meek confessions
The video also prompted some commenters to confess their own similar indiscretions sheepishly. But in most cases, they were a little too young to realize what was wrong.
As one of them said, "I wore white once on accident when I was 17. I didn't know. It was a lace skater skirt with a laced crop top."
A shared hope
Others expressed their hope that the two guests were kicked out of the venue for what they were wearing. That didn't appear to be the case, but it didn't stop some users from sharing how they would have done it.
As one of them relayed, "Me as a friend... 'Excuse me, can you n your +1 come with me?' Walk them to the exit. 'Go change your dress and come back if u like. Thank you.'"
The shade of it all
In the words of one commenter, "I wouldn't be sad bc I know damn well my guests would be throwing all the shade, so I don't have to, and I'd look graceful for being unbothered."
In response, an amused Giha said that was exactly how her friends responded to the two guests.
Is it a big deal?
One commenter said they never understood this tradition and asked how it affected the meaning of the ceremony.
And while most people replied that it's considered rude because it comes off as an attempt to upstage the bride, one commenter said it also potentially confuses extended family as to who the bride is.
A groundswell of support
People were clearly disheartened to hear that these guests made the bride sad, and they were also united on one major point.
Namely, that the bride looked absolutely gorgeous and that she was the star of the show no matter what her guests did.
An embarrassing twist
As mentioned, Giha was pretty responsive to her comments, but one of them apparently compelled her to reveal something about one of the women in white dresses.
One of them was the groom's cousin.
The drama didn't end there
About four days after Giha's initial video, she posted a lengthy text she received from the woman who was standing in her video.
But while the potential drama from this text was obvious to Giha's viewers, many of them couldn't understand Spanish and asked for a translation.
The guest wasn't happy
She began by saying, "Hello, Isabella, this is the Bolivian girl you posted on TikTok without any consent."
But while this aspect of her grievance would be explored later in her message, she was equally as interested in tackling the accusation at hand.
She denied she was at fault
She went on to assert that the dress she was wearing that day wasn't white at all.
Instead, she insisted that it was peach with pink undertones. But this message wasn't just a simple clarification.
She started getting aggressive
The woman then went on to say the alleged discrepancy in the color of the dress makes Giha's TikTok a targeted attempt to spread false information.
It's unclear what she suspects Giha of targeting her for, other than what appeared to the TikToker as a white dress.
An informal autobiography
Since the woman said Giha didn't know her, she decided to give her a vague background of her life.
As she said, "I am an educated person, and my family is well-respected in the community."
There's a point to that detail
While this may sound like a weird flex, she mentioned how respected her family is to make the point that they taught her about the rules of etiquette and protocol.
By that, she meant that she was well aware of the norm against wearing a white dress at a wedding.
Subtle venom
As the woman continued, "It's a shame you didn't notice the color of the dress before posting something like this on social media."
The woman also insisted that Giha wasn't merely sharing her opinion on the dress and took issue with her statement that wearing it was "disrespectful."
A note on social media
The woman then said, "We should be a little more conscious of the things we say, and the things we post that can be harmful to others, especially if we are uncertain of what we are posting."
But if it already sounds like a fairly simple situation has gotten out of hand, the woman wasn't done.
A legal threat
The woman accused her of defamation, libel, and slander with a blanket and vague reference to "the U.S. Civil Rights."
As such, she warned Giha that her lawyer would contact her directly. Oddly, she also promised to send pictures proving her dress wasn't white.
Can she actually sue her?
In the most technical of terms possible, the woman could actually file a lawsuit against Giha if she was serious enough about how much the video bothered her.
According to the law firm Zebersky Payne, "As long as your complaint meets the criteria and you have sufficient evidence, yes, you can virtually sue for anything."
That doesn't mean she would win
However, the ability to file a suit is vastly different from having a reasonable chance of winning a lawsuit.
According to Cornell Law School, the woman would have to ensure that the preponderance of the evidence shows Giha as either knowingly making a false statement or acting with reckless disregard as to the statement's truth. She would also have to prove the video's harm to her reputation.
The woman likely has no case
Although the woman would likely see Giha as having reckless disregard for whether her dress was white or pink, the fact that it does appear white in the video to a reasonable person would make negligence hard to prove.
The woman would also likely have a hard time showing that being accused of an ultimately inconsequential social faux pas did legally actionable damage to her reputation.
Was the dress white?
As promised, the woman did send Giha photos of her dress, which she posted in a separate TikTok.
And it is indeed true that it doesn't appear as white in her photos as it does in the video.
Viewers were split
As such, some viewers did end up taking the woman's side and believed that Giha had erroneously accused her of wearing a white dress.
At the same time, others felt that she couldn't be reasonably blamed for assuming as much when the dress was close enough to the color to appear white on a sunny day.
An idle threat
However, one thing Giha's viewers could agree on was that the woman's lawsuit would be frivolous if she did try to pursue it.
And since Giha hasn't mentioned receiving any communications from a lawyer ever since she translated the woman's text, it seems plausible that any lawyers the woman spoke to likely gave her a similar impression. Assuming she ever had any genuine intention of contacting one, of course.