A woman in England turned a painful situation into a power move when she proudly paraded around town in her wedding gown after her ceremony was called off.
Lauren Scott-Berry, 34, was set to marry her fiancé last summer but the pair broke up just weeks before their planned nuptials, according to Kennedy News and Media, per Metro. On the day that she was supposed to walk down the aisle, she bravely donned her wedding dress and a tiara, had her hair and makeup done, and headed to the beach in her hometown of Robin Hood’s Bay in North Yorkshire with a photographer in tow.
Wearing the voluminous strapless silk gown, she posed for photos in the sand and on a swing. She also stopped to treat herself to an ice cream, sharing a clip of the moment in a TikTok post that has since gone viral.
Lauren Scott-Berry.
Kennedy News and Media
She recalled the day she had the spark of inspiration to wear the dress for a photo shoot, despite the canceled wedding. “When I tried the dress on again, I just felt special. It didn’t really matter that I wasn’t getting married. It made me feel princess-y. If I wasn’t able to walk down the aisle, I thought, ‘Why shouldn’t I get to feel like this?’ ” she told Kennedy News and Media.
“I didn’t want to just [wear the dress] in the living room with my mum. I wanted to take it out and feel like this and have it be a shared experience. I wanted to do a photo shoot in it,” she added.
Scott-Berry explained that it was all about taking “some power back” after a devastating breakup.
“I mainly wanted to rewrite my own narrative,” she said. “I really felt like I’d lost so much. I’m in my 30s and we were talking about having children after being married. It felt like my whole future had crumbled.”
Lauren Scott-Berry.
Kennedy News and Media
Scott-Berry told Kennedy News and Media she was “nervous” about stepping out wearing the gown in her small village, but ultimately “it felt really good.”
“A lot of people knew I was engaged, but not everyone knew I wasn’t getting married anymore. I didn’t want people to come up to me and ask questions,” she explained. “But when I stepped out in the dress, it just didn’t matter. Everyone was looking at me and smiling. Some people said ‘congratulations’ and I didn’t even care.”
Reflecting on the cancellation of her wedding, Scott-Berry said she now sees it as “a gift” as it resulted in some meaningful self-growth.
“I’ve grown in confidence a lot over the last year,” she explained. “I’m happier now than when I was in my relationship.”
Lauren Scott-Berry.
Kennedy News and Media
She also shared some reflections in a lengthy caption on her TikTok post, detailing what the difficult experience has taught her about herself and what she wants in a relationship.
“For a while, I thought that so much had been taken from me, from what may seem like superficial things like my perfect venue, my entrance and first dance music, my dream day, to my partner, my timeline for children and becoming a family,” she wrote.
“What I realize now is that I was given a gift. I was given the chance to find myself again and give myself the love and respect I deserve, and I have rebuilt boundaries I allowed to be overstepped again and again and again.”
Scott-Berry concluded her caption: “I may not have the day that we’re taught we must aspire to but this is my dress, it’s my narrative, so why not just wear it? So here I am looking and feeling like a princess, eating ice cream on the beach in my dress of dreams.”
