Wedding Dress Trains - Opinions Please! Especially OM's **Flashes**

I started wedding dress shopping last Saturday and have (so far) fallen for the Mark Lesley gown in the pic below.

As you can see, it has a large train at the back of the dress and I'm wondering if this will get on my nerves on the day and am considering asking the shop for a price without the train.  I know that I can have it bustled up underneath the dress, but will it get in my way when it's not bustled?

I'm also wondering if having a train is a bit pointless - they are there merely to elongate the dress, but do they actually add anything??  Is it just to look good going down the aisle??  So the questions are as follows:

1) What is the general opinion on trains? Likey or no likey?  Pointless or must have?

2) Is anyone else considering having the train removed from their dress?

3) OM's - if you had a train, did it get on your nerves on the day?

4) OM's - if you had your train removed, were you glad you did it?

Thanks guys x x x

Beautiful dress!!! My dress has a train a similar size & I think it looks lovely. Im having a sturdy bustle sewn in so I can hook it up for the evening but I know a lot of these break on the day & you do tend to carry your train but if that happens I don't think I'll care x

I had a long train, this is one thing I was sure I wanted when wedding dress shopping. I had it bustled up all morning until I got to the church, then I let it down until we sat down to eat, the only time it got in the way was when people were scared to tread on it when having photos but it didnt bother me at all, the dress was already dirty by then! I bustled it up after the meal and took my veil out then too.

Heres a flash, I do love trains I think they looks beautiful:

I won't be having a train as I'm having a tea-length dress (full length dresses just look really daft on me!).
I think it's the one thing I'm going to miss - I think they look stunning, and it's probably the only chance you'll ever get to wear one!

I had the train removed completely from my dress since I didn't want bits of sand and stuff to snag in it, plus I wanted to be able to dance!

It went from this:

to this:

and I think still looked perfectly special enough.

I like trains for long aisles in traditional churches, but even if I'd had that sort of wedding, it would have got on my nerves afterwards. I wouldn't want the fuss or weight of a bustle. I think the perfect compromise is a totally detachable train of some sort, but they are few and far between in dresses.

When I went for my fitting I was quite shocked to remember how much my dress had at the back, it certainly looked a bit more than in this picture, but I suppose it is longer as I am short and they only took the dress up at the front. I can put it into a bustle, not sure sure when I will do that? I am expecting it to probably get trodden on etc, I will just have to swish a lot and sweep it out the way. It's not something I necessarily would pick, but it really does add to "the look" of being a bride. At the end of the day, if I was being my practical normal self, I would not be wearing a big ivory dress with sparkle bits and lace etc and instead would be in something brown, patterned with leggings underneath

My dress on model (pics of me in in in 3+ weeks!!!)

I was a bit sceptical about having a train as we're having a civil ceremony in a smallish room, so not much of an aisle - but as soon as I started trying on dresses with trains, I loved the big ones! I just found them a lot more wedding dressie, like what you imagane when you're little.

Mine must stretch out about 5 feet from the end of the laceup back and has the really delicate detail all down it and just looks amazing. From walking around the shop with it (having to hold up the front as its a foot too long currently), it is pretty easy to move about. I'll have it down for the ceremony and maybe a couple of photos, but it'll be hooked back (it some how hooks up to where the lace up bit ends so its held their steady) for the rest of the time. My main worry though was going to the toilet with it - the shop lady said to sit forward, so facing the wall (I'm yet to try this idea at home!) and then get someone to pull the dress backwards with you when your done!

BBB I think yours looks better without the train!

I don't have a picture of my train down but it was a reasonable sized train for a not-so-poofy dress. I only really had it down for photos and walking down the aisle. On the way to the church and between the church and reception, I had it looped over my wrist with that loop holder thing

It was a bit flimsy and actually snapped outside the church, but I managed to fix it by tying a knot in it. For the home reception, my mum sewed a more sturdy one onto it.

After the meal, we bustled it up so it was better for dancing:#

until someone trod on it and ripped the top layer off the bottom layer! Fixed it for the home party then someone trod on it again and ripped the button off so I spent the rest of the night dancing with the loop round my wrist

This is something that has been worrying my slighty as I have a train with no bustle and hope I dont get trod on so much that the skirt becomes completely detatched and I end up stood in my knickers!! haha

The train on my dress was really long, but I loved it! I basically carried it around all day until the reception, everyone commented on how gorgeous it was! It did not annoy me but was filthy by the time i bustled it!

Can't seem to flash but you can see it here http://www.bonny.co.uk/style-1009-p76.html?page=84

I had a train and the dress maker put a hook on the back to create the bustle. People trod on it a few times but when it was put up it was out of the way and i was on the dance floor ALL night.

BBB i much prefer your dress without the train! Love your dress anyway!

I really loved a dress that didn't have a train, it was beautiful, but just didn't feel wedding-y enough.  That made up my mind that I definitely wanted a train.

I think the dress you flashed would look just as beautiful without, I think the style of the skirt means it will work well either way.

Chickster:

1) What is the general opinion on trains? Likey or no likey?  Pointless or must have?

2) Is anyone else considering having the train removed from their dress?

3) OM's - if you had a train, did it get on your nerves on the day?

4) OM's - if you had your train removed, were you glad you did it?

1. Neither likey nor no likey. Neither pointless nor must have. It wasn't a feature of my dress that I paid much attention to. This meant that when I went back to the shop for my first fitting, I was slightly surprised at the mass of material behind me, as I simply hadn't really registered it the first time around. This is even more bizarre as the back of my dress was really where it was all at and I had studied many pictures of me in it and on the internet. I have train blindness.

2. My train was part of the dress - it couldn't have been removed without utterly ruining it.

3. It didn't bother me in the slightest. My Mum pulled it out full while I was at the top of the aisle. Then for the rest of the day, it was held by me or was looped over my wrist. I had a bustle loop added but never used it. I quite liked being on the dance floor and swishing it around. Nobody trod on it (as far as I can remember and from what the stains tell me!).

4. NA

My train:

FTLOMB - perhaps the most lush wedding dress of all time ever!

I had a fair bit of a train on mine. I kept it down until after the first dance (i wanted it ti swish around!) but then my seamstress had used a small piece of ribbon to make a loop which I then hooked on to one of the many buttons! I was lucky and it stayed in place bu I know brides who have had poppers that couldnt deal with the weight and it kept falling back down or breaking! Here are some flashes!

and the best i can find of it hooked up! (this is towards the end of the night!)

I loved mine and it was a real feature of the dress would pick one again definatly!