The Shocking Place Kelly Ripa Wears Her $199 Wedding Dress "All the Time"

When purchasing your wedding dress, you likely envision yourself in it for a number of different scenarios: walking down the aisle, mingling with loved ones during cocktail hour, and dancing the night away with your new spouse at your reception. However, in the weeks, months, and years following your big day, you likely won’t reach for your gown when selecting an ensemble to wear. Yet that’s not the case for Kelly Ripa, who recently revealed that she frequently uses her wedding gown as a beach cover-up. 

The “off-the-rack” gown, which she purchased on final clearance from a Barneys Warehouse sale, cost her $199, which was “a lot of money” for her at the time, she told People. “I didn’t buy it as a wedding dress,” she revealed in a 2016 episode of her show. “I just bought it because it was really pretty.” Ripa purchased the dress in 1991—five years before she tied the knot with Consuelos. Yet even though she didn’t get it with her big day in mind, the former actress saw the gown’s potential. “I said to myself, ‘I bet if I buy this maybe it will be an investment piece. Maybe I will wear it more than once,’” she said on her show. She ultimately followed through on that promise: “I swear to you I wear it constantly,” she told her audience. “It’s a beach cover-up now. I wear it all the time. It was the best $199 I ever spent in my life.” 

Ripa has also turned to the piece for special occasions, including her 20th anniversary vacation with Consuelos in 2016. In a photo the talk show host shared of the trip, she is seen wearing the long slip dress. For the night out, she paired the piece with stud earrings and pulled her hair back into a bun. And almost ten years later, it appears that Ripa still turns to the dress, especially when she’s headed to the beach. She recently told People that she still wears the piece “all the time.”

Yet it appears there are some limitations to how frequently Ripa will don the slip. In celebration of her 28th wedding anniversary in 2024, the couple recreated a photo from their wedding day. However, in the updated picture, the host opted to wear a long-sleeve cool-toned dress—instead of her 1991 white gown. While reflecting on the day when they said “I do,” Ripa reiterated that it remains a special moment in her and Consuelo’s relationship. “It was really romantic, though,” she told People in 2024. “It was very sweet. We cherish those memories, still to this day. It's been 28 years and we still can remember every minute of that wedding. And I mean, it was really minutes. It was like two minutes!”