As bride-to-be Lauren Bannister was about to be driven to the airport for a traditional girls-only bachelorette weekend celebration in Miami, she was gifted an unusual addition to her wardrobe.
“It all began at 5am on a Friday morning,” Bannister, who is getting married in April, told the Compass. “I was collected by my friend Imogen, who greeted me at my front door with the dress in hand and a bottle of champagne, to be told ‘get in the dress’.”
The so-called ‘travelling bachelorette dress’ was first acquired by Ruth Watson, who purchased the frock in October 2017 from a woman on eBay in the US for a Halloween ‘fancy’ dress party.
“I was getting married the following year, and I thought it would be funny to dress up as a ‘bridezilla’,” Watson chuckled.
“The lady sent the dress with extra bits that she used for her wedding and a note saying she was so pleased that her wedding dress would be used again and wished me a happy marriage. I wore it to the party. Obviously she didn’t know I wasn’t going to use it for a wedding.”
For her bachelorette party the following year in Chicago, “my friend had me dress up in it going through the airport from Cayman all the way to Chicago. I was given free drinks, there were cheers. I had to tell people it wasn’t really my wedding dress but a dress for my bachelorette party,” Watson recalled.
People who saw photos of Watson asked to borrow the dress, and “it’s kind of been passed around from person to person and I’ve never had it back,” she said.
The tradition has created a ‘sisterhood of the travelling dress’ among its many wearers around the world, with Bannister the latest to don it.
Her friends got their hands on the dress several days ahead of their trip, and the journey from Grand Cayman to Miami was “a laugh from start to finish”, Bannister said.
She wore the dress with no alterations needed. “I didn’t have to resize it, although it was a squeeze,” she said, adding, “luckily I wore a top underneath for the security inspection”.
Similar to Watson’s experience, Bannister said, “I had very confused looks from all the Cayman Airways check-in staff as my friend Imogen proceeded to tell them I was a runaway bride.”
She added, “Everyone was very kind and kept on coming over to me to tell me how beautiful the dress was.”
She called the adventure “mission complete”.
Watson said she hasn’t been able to keep detailed track of the dress since 2018, so was not sure how many women have worn the frock since she passed it on, but “I could imagine it’s easily 20 to 30 people… by now.”
Every so often, however, she catches a random picture of it on social media, “and I take a screenshot and share it with my best friends”.
Bannister, whose wedding is set for 6 April, said there is plenty of life left in the dress.
A few women have reached out to her about the dress, she said, but “we will have to see who’s the next lucky bride”.
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