I had a bottle of wine dumped on me at a wedding - my friend said I deserved it

“I even had it in my undies … so much I had to change underwear while my mother was trying to dry out my dress.”

When it comes to dressing appropriately for a wedding, where can you draw the line? 

It’s widely understood and accepted that guests should refrain from wearing white to another person’s wedding, but what about white accents? 

In *Laura’s case, her wedding guest dress may have been so controversial that it got completely ruined with a bottle of red wine. 

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The waitress spilled an entire bottle of wine on the guest's black and white dress. Picture: iStock

“Of course you had red wine dumped on you …”

When Laura received the invitation to her uncle’s wedding, she knew it would be an extravagant affair. 

“[He] and his wife, both in their 40s back then, are pretty well off financially,” Laura wrote on Reddit. “Just to give you an idea, her engagement ring alone was worth over 50k.”

The wedding ceremony was massive; the couple rented out a “big mansion” for their 40 guests to enjoy. 

RELATED: ‘My mother-in-law hired someone to throw red paint on me on our wedding day’

“It was gorgeously decorated with what can only be a minimum of 30k dollars worth of flowers,” Laura explained. “For those coming from out of town, there were enough rooms to stay overnight, and for everyone else, there would be chauffeurs bringing them back home safely.”

Safe to say, the couple’s wedding was the event of the year. And to everyone’s surprise, they “wanted absolutely no gifts”, instead asking the attendees one particular request: “Dress the part”. 

The event would be black tie, so guests were expected to go all out for the event. “They had no bridal party,” Laura recalled. “Instead, they wanted us to skip the gifts and put that money towards an outfit worthy of their wedding.”

On the hunt for the perfect dress “for a millionaire’s wedding”, Laura decided to purchase a dress with her mum, who offered to help out financially as long as she could help choose the gown. While her mum rejected the idea of Laura wearing a black dress at first since it was “a celebration, not a funeral”, they soon came to a compromise. Laura quickly fell in love with a black floor-length gown, which had “lace appliqués on the bodice going down to the hips and thighs”.

Except - the lace was white. 

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Fast-forward to the day of the wedding, and everything is going smoothly. While seated at a table at the reception, Laura watched as a waitress walked over to her with a bottle of wine in her hands. 

“[She] uncorked the bottle beside me, dropped the bottle opener and when trying to reach down to pick it up,” Laura wrote. As the staff member bent down, the bottle “tilted, and wine started pouring out of it”.

The bright red liquid went straight down Laura’s back, tickling her spine and spilling onto her dress. “I let out a little yelp,” she recalled. “When she stood up, saw the wine and dropped the bottle on my right shoulder.” 

While the waitress “tried to catch it”, the bottle “knocked” on the back of Laura’s head, causing it to explode everywhere. A “geyser of wine exploded out of the bottle”, drenching Laura and her dress in rich red wine and splashing onto the person next to her, completely ruining his white shirt. By the time Laura managed to pick the bottle up off her lap, it was too late. “There was probably [a] glass's worth of wine left in the bottle,” she said. 

Her dress was ruined; the white lace was now stained red. “I even had wine in my panties,” she admitted. “So much I had to change underwear while my mother was trying to dry out my dress.”  Thankfully, the bride and groom were horrified and demanded to pay for Laura’s dry cleaning, insisiting it wasn't her fault at all.  

Laura wore a dress similar to this design. Picture: Reddit

However, when Laura recalled the story to her friend, there as a different reaction.

“Well... Of course, you had red wine dumped on you,” she told her friend. “You wore white to a wedding!”

That got Laura thinking about things; was her friend right? “I never thought of it that way,” she said. “Honestly, I was so focused on not wearing black … that I never thought about the white lace on the dress.”

Following the wine incident, Laura can't stop thinking that it was all planned by the couple. "Was the server only 'doing her job' by dropping a bottle of wine on my black and white dress?" she asked.

"I never, ever wear white, or any colour for that matter ... so the fact that the only time in my life that I 'wore white' was at another person's wedding does seem sus." 

RELATED: Woman shamed for wearing white to her friends' wedding

“Your friend is an idiot”

Thankfully, everyone was on Laura’s side. They assured her that, no, she did not deserve to have an entire bottle of wine dumped on her just because of her dress choice. 

“The dress wasn't even a color that could be considered white adjacent, like light pink,’ read a comment. “Black with some white here and there? Totally fine. And that's a gorgeous dress.”

“There are people who would say that white in any amount is unacceptable,” said another. “If you, as a bride, are fun and having a great time, you won’t even notice what anyone is wearing.”

Another person was blunt with their thoughts: “The whole point of not wearing white to the wedding is so you won’t be mistaken for the bride, who should stand out. I highly doubt you were mistaken for the bride in a black dress with some white accents. Your friend is an idiot.”

*Names have been changed

Originally published as I had a bottle of wine dumped on me at a wedding - my friend said I deserved it