When I first started researching vegan weddings, something that came up a lot was a dress. Books and blogs stressed how difficult it was to find a vegan wedding dress and how hard you'd have to work. They also said that bamboo and other sustainable fabrics were becoming very common and could be found by many designers in all sorts of styles.
I found both of these assertions to be completely false during my search.
When I started looking at bridal salons, I emailed every single highly rated one with the same email (I am obsessed with rating things and looking at ratings. WeddingWire has been my friend). I explained that I was recently engaged and wanted a dress that contains no silk or silk blends. Literally one shop responded saying most of their dresses were silk. The vast majority said they carry little or no silk at all.
Simultaneously, I searched designers that make dresses from more sustainable fabrics like bamboo and hemp. I did find a couple online, but their selection is limited to fitting just one or two very specific styles. Many of the dresses were of a very simple, almost hippie-like aesthetic. Which is perfect for some people, but definitely not for me. There are a few designers out there that can build you a custom dress from these fabrics, but they aren't in my budget and they aren't in my area.
Two of my favorite designers throughout my search were Maggie Sottero and Allure. They might not be your style at all, but both designers make all or nearly all of their dresses out of synthetic fabrics that are comfy and don't feel cheap at all.
I ended up buying an Allure Bridals dress that I fell in love with.
If you're looking for a truly sustainable dress, they might not be the best option. But for brides that have veganism as the biggest priority and don't love (or can't afford) the bamboo and hemp options these designers are a fantastic starting point. Hopefully soon these fabrics will become more mainstream and feature a wider range of styles and availability.
Unfortunately, something all of the vegan wedding books and blogs don't seem to stress much at all is that most tuxedos are made from wool. We have a lot more time to search for a tux, but we aren't finding too many places that carry vegan options. Men's Wearhouse carries a few choices and the other option is a formal suit made from linen. If we find more as the wedding gets closer, I'll definitely write a tux post as well.
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