Courtesy of Wildwood Films
- Alayna and Gunner Tripp got married and wore coordinating Nike sweatsuits to the reception.
- Their photographer posted a video of them wearing the outfits, sparking a debate on Instagram.
- Alayna told Insider it was just "a fun thing at the end" after wearing her wedding dress all day.
A newlywed couple from the Midwest say they had no idea an off-the-cuff decision to change into coordinating Nike sweatsuits during their wedding reception would go on to divide the internet.
Alayna and Gunner Tripp, both 20, got married at the beginning of September in a forest near Black River Falls, a small town in a remote area of Wisconsin, Alayna told Insider.
Courtesy of Wildwood Films
Following the ceremony, which their photographer Sarah Gonzalez told Insider was "magical" and Twilight-inspired, the party moved into an open-air pavilion for a reception with their 80 guests.
At around 10 p.m., according to the bride, the newlyweds changed into their sweatsuits.
At first, Alayna said she was reluctant to change out of her wedding dress when the photographer asked, but after she did, it was "20 times more fun in the sweatsuit than it had been" beforehand.
"I was so glad that I changed, I could move and everyone was just a little bit more relaxed," she said.
The idea, originally Gunner's, had started out as a "total joke," Alayna added. "And then I was with my bridesmaids at my bridal shower and me and Gunner were joking about it, and they were all like, you should actually do that."
So they did - and they loved it.
"It was super fun, we got to do a few last dances in super comfy clothes and then hopped in the car and we were super comfy," Alayna said.
She said she'd been to a few weddings in the past and seen how at the end of most, the bride would change into normal clothes: "I was like, we might as well look cute if I have to change out of my dress."
The night after the wedding on September 5, Gonzalez put together a short montage of the reception on Instagram. It had over 765,000 likes at the time of writing, and the comments section was alight with differing opinions on the outfit change.
A glimpse over the nearly 3,000 comments left under the video at the time of writing shows a clear split between those hoping that wearing comfy clothes on your wedding becomes a trend, and those saying they couldn't justify buying an expensive dress to not wear it the full day.
Addressing the controversy, Alayna told Insider: "I did every single thing that anyone wants to do in their dress, and the sweatsuit was just kind of like an added bonus, a fun thing at the end."
Courtesy of Wildwood Films
What actually bothered her, she said, aside from comments about the couple being "super young," was that people got the impression from the photos that they got married in a barn.
"That's a huge thing everyone gets lately, that everyone gets married in barns, and I said I didn't want to get married in a barn, that was my one thing," she joked. "From the pictures, it does kind of look like we're in a barn but it wasn't!"
Alayna said that while she doesn't think they necessarily started anything new, wearing comfy clothes on your wedding night might not be "so common yet."
"But I would love it if it was a trend," she added. "That would be so cool."