Lauren Scott-Berry was due to be married last year but her world ‘crumbled’ after she and her partner split just mere weeks before they had planned to tie the knot.
The 34-year-old movement therapist and actress was heartbroken, but decided not to let the beautiful second-hand silk gown she’d spent £250 on for the wedding go to waste.
She might not have gotten to walk down the aisle in the strapless dress, but she has been making the most of it — wearing it out and about while doing everyday tasks like going to get ice cream, or going for a stroll on the beach.
On the day that was supposed to have been her wedding day, Lauren put on her big white dress and had her hair and make-up done, just as any bride would.
But instead of heading to a church to say I do, she got in the car and went to the seaside, with a photographer in tow.
Lauren stunned onlookers as she flaunted her princess dress in a unique photoshoot around the coastal village of Robin Hood’s Bay in North Yorkshire.
She wasn’t going to be doing a traditional wedding photoshoot, but she still wanted to remember the occasion.
Lauren claims she opted to do this to ‘re-write her narrative and take some power back’, so she wouldn’t view her doomed relationship ‘like Miss Havisham’, the wealthy spinster from Great Expectations.
The Charles Dickens’ character, is jilted at the altar, and insists on donning her wedding dress for the rest of her life, staying trapped in the tragic moment.
Instead of letting the dress become a symbol of sadness like in the book, Lauren has been giving it a new lease of life, and is now sharing her experience to inspire other women who never made it down the aisle to enjoy their unused gowns too.
‘I was very worried that I’d never be able to look at [the dress] without viewing it as to do with the wedding, Miss Havisham-esque,’ Lauren, who lives in Tower Hamlets, East London, said.
‘I did think I might not ever get married but I don’t want to never get to wear a wedding dress.
‘I mainly wanted to re-write my own narrative and take some power back.
‘I really felt like I’d lost so much. I’m in my 30s and we were talking about having children after being married. It felt like my whole future had crumbled.
‘I suddenly felt like my maturity had been stripped away from me because being married is the next step in adulthood and people take you more seriously if you’re a Mrs.’
Lauren wore the dress for the photoshoot on the beach, which saw her walking about on the sand, going to a park, and even stopping to buy a Mr Whippy ice cream.
She said: ‘When I tried the dress on again I just felt special. It didn’t really matter that I wasn’t getting married. It made me feel princess-y. If I wasn’t able to walk down the aisle I thought “Why shouldn’t I get to feel like this?”
‘My ex had obviously never seen the dress and had nothing to do with the choosing of it. It felt quite separate.
‘I didn’t want to just [wear it] in the living room with my mum. I wanted to take it out and feel like this and have it be a shared experience. I wanted to do a photoshoot in it, and I filmed a few things in local places.’
And it won’t be the last time she puts on her dress, as she had so much fun she plans to wear it again while doing other mundane, everyday tasks around her local area.
‘When I went out to do the photos I was really nervous because I am from a little village. A lot of people knew I was engaged but not everyone knew I wasn’t getting married anymore. I didn’t want people to come up to me and ask questions. I was a bit worried about that or that there’d be whispers around the village.
‘But when I stepped out in the dress, it just didn’t matter. Everyone was looking at me and smiling. Some people said congratulations and I didn’t even care. I just said thanks. I felt really good.’
Lauren has shared videos from behind the scenes of her photoshoot on TikTok, with one captioned: ‘I didn’t take my wedding dress down the aisle so took it to the beach for an ice cream instead.’
The wholesome clip has gone viral, amassing 220,400 views and has prompted many to share their own wedding dress stories in the comments.
Lauren added: ‘The response from people on TikTok has been so lovely. Strangers are telling me they’re proud of me.
‘Some people are like “This is something I want to do”. There are other women who don’t know what to do with their unused dress. Or some woman had traumatic events at their wedding and didn’t get to experience it as they were supposed to.
‘Just put it on and have a nice time, it doesn’t matter if it’s traditional or not.’
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