NEW CASTLE —
I'm getting married in three days — THREE! — and so I wanted to take the opportunity to talk to all of the future brides out there about something very important — bridesmaid dresses.
These can be one of the most frustrating things to find depending on the amount of women in your bridal party. I have seven bridesmaids, all of whom are different heights and sizes, so I knew early on this wouldn't be the easiest of tasks.
There are a couple problems with finding the perfect dresses for your party:
- Unless all of your bridesmaids are the same height and size (which is rarely the case), you won't find one dress that is flattering on all of them. Bridal stores will try to tell you the opposite, but it isn't true. All women have different "strengths and weaknesses" for their bodies and therefore need different things in a dress to look the most flattering.
- Different budgets make finding a dress difficult. I am not a bride who is able to say "buy this $300 dress and be happy about it,” mainly because I have been the bridesmaid in the past who couldn’t afford the dress and struggled to do what the bride wished.
So when it came time to finding dresses for my girls, I told them the following: The dress must be black, and it must be knee length. That's it.
I didn't care how much they spent, what the style was, etc., just as long as they felt beautiful in the dress they chose. (As a side note, this also ensures that your bridesmaid can't complain to you about the dress since SHE picked it out.)
All of my bridesmaids ended up choosing a dress from David's Bridal (some more expensive, some less so) in a style that they loved and can ACTUALLY wear again (everyone needs a black cocktail dress). They all chose different styles and shapes while sticking within my "rules" (and also all chose the same fabric so that they all complemented each other). And they all feel great in the dresses, which is all that I really wanted.
While shopping if they asked me what I thought of a certain dress, my first question was always, "how do YOU like it?" I didn't want them to find something to please me. I wanted them to find something that made them feel good.
So if you're a soon to be bride, here are some things I beg you to consider:
- The sizes and shapes of your girls.
- The budget of each.
- If you are choosing an "uglier" dress to make yourself look better, you'll just end up looking like you don't have great taste. You're the BRIDE — the love glow that you'll radiate that day will automatically make you the most beautiful girl in the room. AND, if you're surrounding yourself with amazing ladies, they won't WANT to outshine you, they want that day to be YOUR day.
- Think of looking back on your pictures in 20 years — will the dresses you choose be classic enough to last all those years, or will you be left wondering, “What was I thinking?”
- Think of your colors. Will the pink and purple combination you chose still hold up all those years later?
At the end of the day, it's your decision what your girls will wear — but don't you want them to feel as beautiful as you will that day?
(Look to the right for some examples of "matching, mismatched" styles.)
(What did you do for your wedding? If you're a future bride, do you have ideas for what you want to do for the bridesmaid dresses? If you have any fashion questions, please email me at sarah_stright@yahoo.com.)
