All It Takes Is One Shitty Person to Ruin Wedding Dress Shopping

Welcome to Pop The Question, a weekly space to dissect every aspect of wedding madness. Each Tuesday, we’ll ask a question (sometimes there might even be a poll!), you’ll share answers and stories, and then we’ll bring you the best of the bunch on Thursdays. You’ll laugh, you’ll cry, you’ll fly into a total rage over something that doesn’t actually matter … it will be just like your wedding day.

There’s a scene in an episode of this season’s Real Housewives of Beverly Hills (Queen Lisa Rinna 4 Lyfe) in which Kim Richards takes her daughter Brooke wedding dress shopping. Her aunt, Kathy Hilton, mother of Paris, arrives late to the bridal salon and is greeting Brooke’s coterie when the bride-to-be emerges from the dressing room in the first gown she tried on. Kathy Hilton, mother of Paris, wheels around and proceeds to drop a steaming load on poor Brooke, commenting, among other complaints, that the dress “looks like a cocktail waitress”—this, by the by, is a thing Kathy Hilton, mother of Paris, says in front of the dress designer.

There’s a tinge of sadness to the occasion, as Brooke’s father—Kim’s first husband, Monty—is terminally ill and Brooke and her betrothed opted for a short engagement to account for Monty’s health. Brooke gets what’s important. Her aunt, Kathy Hilton, mother of Paris, does not.

Uncommon Courtesy recently addressed the issue of how to behave while wedding dress shopping; while reading it, I kept wishing someone had mentioned a few of the rules of thumb laid out by writer Jaya Saxena to Kathy Hilton, mother of Paris. Among the very sensible suggestions for how to behave are: remember that this isn’t actually a dress you will be wearing; be nice when offering feedback; and for goodness sake’s, if you’re offering to pay for the dress, in part or in full, do not threaten to withhold the money if the bride doesn’t pick out exactly what you had in mind.

It, you may be thinking, is crazy that people need to be told these things. You are absolutely right, but also: People are crazy and need to be told these things!

So let’s hear from you: Who acted up during dress shopping? What did she (or he) do? What did you do? Did you flip out? Cry? Fire that person from the wedding? Or maybe you lost your shit during someone else’s dress shopping, and if so please tell us about that.

As is our custom, we shall reunite in this space on Thursday to laugh and cry together at the best/worst stories you have to tell.