- Victoria and Sarah Shine got married in June 2019, celebrating their wedding during Pride month.
- The Shines didn’t shop for their dresses together, but they found complementary gowns with the help of a bridal consultant at Kleinfeld Bridal in New York.
- Victoria chose a lace gown with a deep V-neckline and a removable skirt, while Sarah’s dress featured a transparent lace bodice and silk skirt with a high slit.
- If you are in the process of shopping for your wedding dress or have photos from when you shopped and want to talk to Insider for a story, get in touch at [email protected].
- Visit Insider’s homepage for more stories.
Sarah and Victoria Shine got married in 2019 after meeting ten years earlier.
The couple met their freshman year of college, as they lived in the same dorm and had mutual friends. They became quick friends and were attracted to each other, but they didn’t realize they were in love until their senior year.
They talked about getting married as soon as they started dating, and they officially got engaged in 2017 at Tavern on the Green in Central Park. Sarah proposed first, but Victoria was also ready with a ring for her bride-to-be.
“I got up and proposed and she said, ‘Yes, of course,'” Sarah said of Victoria’s response to the proposal. “And then she turned around and proposed and said, ‘Only if you marry me.'”
The couple decided to have a two-year-long engagement, setting their wedding for June 2019, as they wanted to get married during Pride month.
The couple started shopping for wedding gowns 11 months before their wedding.
Victoria and Sarah had very different visions for their wedding dresses.
"I definitely wanted a slit, but I wanted everything to be lace and have a really low neckline and thick straps," Sarah said of her dream dress.
Victoria, on the other hand, was focused on not getting a strapless dress. "I didn't want to be annoyed on my wedding day, like trying to lift up my dress or feeling like it's coming off," she said. She also imagined herself in an A-line gown.
They both set a budget for between $2,500 and $3,000 for their dresses, as Victoria was paying for her own gown.
The Shines also decided they didn't want to see each other's gowns before their wedding days, but they wanted their dresses to look good together. So they headed to the same bridal boutiques in New York: L'fay Bridal and Kleinfeld Bridal.
Victoria tried on this lace gown first at her L'Fay appointment.
Sarah and Victoria both started their dress shopping journey at L'Fay bridal, and Victoria headed there first.
The first gown the consultant put her in was an A-line dress that was covered in lace.
"I actually did love this dress," Victoria said of the gown. "I just thought it appeared very yellow. It was just not the color, but I did love it."
The consultant added a full skirt to the gown to see if that would make Victoria like it more.
The skirt would have been removable, giving Victoria two looks for her big day.
"I felt I looked good in it, but the lace was also a little bit too much like a tablecloth for me," Victoria said, adding that there was too much going on with the gown.
The dress cost around $6,000, so it wasn't right for Victoria's budget either.
Victoria was a fan of the low back of this dress and its full skirt, but she didn't like how it looked from the front.
"I loved the back of this," she said of the lace-covered gown. "I think that was the only thing that kind of made me question if I wanted a bigger, fluffy gown, but after examining it, there was nothing I liked about the front."
The thick straps swallowed her small frame. "I remember having it on and feeling suffocated," Victoria said of wearing the gown.
The final dress Victoria tried on at L'Fay was more form-fitting, and it also had a detachable train.
She really liked the dress when she had it on, particularly the back.
"I left this bridal shop thinking that that was my dress," she said. "But I looked back on it and every time I would really look at it on my phone, I liked it a little less."
"It doesn't represent me," Victoria added. "I feel like I'm a super rustic farm bride."
The lace also wasn't what she had been imagining, and she didn't think it would fit with their barn venue.
In addition, the dress cost around $5,000, which was double Victoria's budget, and she told Insider it would have cost an additional $800 to add the removable skirt.
"Eventually, I was like, 'Nope, that's not the one,'" she said. She decided to try on a few gowns at Kleinfeld Bridal.
Victoria fell in love with the first dress she tried on at Kleinfeld.
Victoria's Kleinfeld consultant, Shay, put her in a Mikaella gown by Paloma Blanca.
The trumpet-style gown featured head-to-toe lace, a deep V-neckline, and no straps, much to Victoria's surprise.
"Of course the one dress that I loved ended up being strapless," Victoria said.
The dress also came with a fuller skirt that could be removed.
Victoria said she loved "how seamless and detailed the skirt was," adding that "it just blended right into the dress."
The skirt also came with the dress, which was great for Victoria because it meant she wouldn't have to spend more on the gown. The total cost of the dress before taxes and alterations was $2,300, which was under Victoria's budget.
"When he told me it was under budget, I teared up," Victoria told Insider.
But she said she really knew this was her dress because of how comfortable and confident she felt while she was wearing it.
"I'm super self-conscious," Victoria said. "But I put this dress on, and I just felt so good about myself, which is very, very rare."
With Victoria decided, it was Sarah's turn to find her dream dress.
The first dress Sarah tried on was a trumpet gown with mesh detailing at the top.
The first gown Sarah tried on at L'Fay created an optical illusion with lace and mesh on the bodice.
"I was obsessed with the back of it," Sarah said of the gown, which dipped to her waist in the back.
But she wasn't crazy about the mesh detailing once she put the dress on. "Where the material was, it wasn't comfortable at all," she said. "And it looks cool, but once I had it on, those patches on the top of my shoulders kind of looked like football pads."
Plus, the price was $5,000, which was over budget. She decided to keep looking.
Sarah loved the dramatic back of this gown, but the front was a disappointment.
The detailing on the back of the gown and how it bustled at the bottom both appealed to Sarah.
But she thought the lace on the front was too intense and almost looked like vintage lingerie. "It was old-fashioned in the front," she said.
Plus, Sarah felt like the shape of the dress didn't highlight her figure, and the $5,000 price tag was too much.
Sarah tried on this off-the-shoulder trumpet gown at her mother's request.
"My mom is in love with that style dress," Sarah said of the gown, which had a sweetheart neckline and button detailing on the back.
While Sarah loved the shape and fit of this gown, it was missing one big detail she wanted on her wedding dress: lace.
"I loved it, but I wanted more lace," she said of the clean-cut dress. "I didn't want it to be simple like that."
The low neckline is what drew Sarah to this gown.
This gown had almost everything on Sarah's wish list. The low back, dramatic train, and lace-covered bodice that split into a deep V-neckline were exactly what Sarah had been imagining.
"I was obsessed with it," she said, although it didn't have the slit she had pictured on her dream dress.
The gown cost around $8,000, which was more than double Sarah's budget. Her mom told her they could make it work if she really loved it, but she decided to try on a few dresses at Kleinfeld Bridal before splurging on it.
When they got to Kleinfeld, Sarah fell in love with everything about this Paloma Blanca gown.
Sarah worked with the same consultant Victoria did when she had her appointment at Kleinfeld.
The Paloma Blanca dress featured a sheer, lace bodice with a sweetheart neckline and spaghetti straps. It flowed into a silk skirt with a high slit and more lace, and Sarah felt comfortable in it immediately.
"This is exactly what I was looking for," Sarah said of the gown. "It had the silk, which I wanted, and then the whole top lace. You could see through it just enough and then you had just enough weight on the bottom."
She knew it was the one despite the neckline and straps being slightly different from her original vision. "My mom didn't even recognize me," Sarah said of her mom's reaction to the gown, which made her love it even more.
And the dress was right on budget, as it cost about $2,200 before tax and alterations. However, Sarah decided to add a statement, floor-length veil to the look, which made it slightly more expensive.
The Shines credit their Kleinfeld consultant with making sure their gowns looked good together.
Both brides said Shay ensured their dresses were the same color and had similar lace so they would look good together. Their gowns were even made by sister designers, adding to the seamless look.
"We were worried Victoria's was going to be white or mine was going to be stark white and then it would have clashed," Sarah said.
Sarah was originally supposed to have another consultant, but after meeting with Victoria, Shay rearranged the schedules so he could ensure he would help Sarah as well.
"He really took care of us," Sarah said. Victoria and Shay are friends on Instagram to this day.
Victoria loved that she got to have two looks on her wedding day.
"I wanted that look for the ceremony," she said of the full skirt, which made her feel like a bride. "And then for the reception, I was able to take it off and just tassel it up, so it was a fitted gown."
She wanted her reception look to enable her to enjoy the evening to its fullest.
"We paid for our wedding by ourselves," Victoria said. "So we were like, 'We do not want to miss any single part of the party.'"
Not only was Sarah's dress beautiful, but it also allowed her to dance, which was important to her.
The high slit gave Sarah the flexibility to dance at the wedding. Both Shines said their favorite part of the day was their first dance.
"Once we finally got to relax we were like, 'This is awesome,'" she said.
Sarah also changed into sneakers after the ceremony so she would be even more comfortable when she danced.
The brides were surprised by each other's dresses.
"I didn't expect her dress to look like that at all," Sarah said of Victoria's dress. "I thought it was going to be all silk. I thought she was going to be in some sort of princess dress."
Victoria knew Sarah would be in a fitted dress and that it would likely have some lace on it, but she didn't know what the details would be like.
Both Shines are glad they didn't show each other their gowns before the wedding day. "That was the only essence of surprise that we had both being women," Victoria said, making it more special when they finally saw each other on the big day.
But they were glad the gowns looked as good together as they did. The couple also used the same hair and makeup designer, Beauty and Blush, who styled everyone in the wedding party.
The Shines recommend brides work with consultants who can help them coordinate their ensembles.
Using the same consultant can make a big difference in how dresses work together, particularly if you don't want to see your spouse's dress before your wedding.
The duo also suggests shopping at multiple stores when you look for a wedding dress, as you'll have a better idea of what looks good on you and what you're comfortable spending after going through the experience once.
Victoria and Sarah's looks ended up costing $4,000 each with veils, alterations, and taxes. Victoria's veil was less expensive, though, as she bought it at David's Bridal instead of Kleinfeld.
The couple's wedding went viral after their venue shared this photo on Instagram.
The photo, which was taken by Merinda of A Sweet Focus, caught the public's eyes during Pride Month 2019 after Perona Farms shared it on Instagram, and then it was shared again by Kleinfeld.
You can see more footage from Victoria and Sarah's wedding in their wedding video here.
If you are in the process of shopping for your wedding dress or have photos from when you shopped and want to talk to Insider for a story, get in touch at [email protected].
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