- A model says she was removed from her friend's wedding for looking "too good" in a bridesmaid dress.
- Alena Yildiz told Insider the bride chose the dress but changed her mind after seeing a video of it.
- "Another women's beauty doesn't make your beauty fade," she said.
A woman who was set to be a bridesmaid in her close friend's wedding says she was uninvited for looking "too good" in the dress that the bride chose for her.
Alena Yildiz, who told Insider she is a 21-year-old model based in Heidelberg, Germany, initially took to TikTok earlier this month to share the story with her audience of more than 170,000 followers.
In a video posted on December 13, which has over 10 million views at the time of writing, she wrote: "My close friend uninvited me to her wedding because she thought I looked too good in the dress she chose for me." The video continued with images of Yildiz in the dress with the caption: "Still took some fire pics in it though."
Yildiz told Insider she was due to be a bridesmaid at the wedding in early December alongside five other women before her friend said she felt upstaged. "That's why she chose such an extravagant dress for me — all of our other friends wore extravagant dresses as well but she only had a problem with me," she said.
Yildiz said the blue and tan embellished dress designed by Albina Dyla cost her €1,200, or around $1,360, with each bridesmaid paying for their own outfit. The tulle dress had a corset with a mermaid neckline and leaf detailing, as well as a thigh-high side slit.
The model said she sent a video of her wearing the dress to the bride, whose identity Yildiz said she does not want to reveal, shortly before the wedding. "She called me and told me about her insecurities with my dress — that it was too attention-grabbing," Yildiz told Insider.
"She was very angry about the whole situation and ended up uninviting me after the call. We got into a fight because it made no sense to me since she chose that dress herself," she said, adding that she thought the bride should have chosen a different dress if she was worried.
With little time to find a new dress and having argued with her friend, Yildiz said she did not attend the ceremony. She told Insider that while she is no longer friends with the bride, losing her has been sad. "It made me feel like I had no value to her as a friend," she told Insider.
"We talked about her wedding for years and I was so happy for my friend to finally be with the love of her life and to celebrate with her," she said, adding that the bride called her after seeing the TikTok video and they argued further.
Yildiz acknowledged that brides have every right to make requests, such as asking that no one else wear white, but urged others to properly communicate these rules to avoid disagreements such as their one. She added said that she thinks feelings of competition or jealousy only serve to create "toxic" relationships.
"Another women's beauty doesn't make your beauty fade and I wish more people would understand that and be confident," she said.