Okay, so I decided to tackle this whole bridesmaid dress thing for my friend’s wedding. She wanted lace, she wanted sleeves, and she wanted everyone to look amazing. Sounded simple enough, right? Let me tell you, it turned into a bit of a project.
First, I hit up all the usual online stores, you know, the ones everyone uses. I found some cute stuff, but nothing that really screamed “wedding” to me. And then I found the prices, some of them are really high! I mean some of them are like 60% off, but still expensive. Plus, my friend, bless her heart, has a pretty diverse group of bridesmaids, and I needed to find something that would work for everyone. So I decided to try the traditional way, go to some local stores.
We made it a day out, bridesmaids in tow, and tried on like a million dresses. We saw all kinds of materials. There’s this chiffon stuff that’s super light and airy – great for a summer wedding, which this is. Then there was mesh, which was stretchy and comfy. We even looked at some crepe dresses, which felt kinda textured, and satin ones that were all smooth and silky.
- Chiffon: airy, lightweight, good for warm weather.
- Mesh: stretchy, comfy, breathable.
- Crepe: soft, textured, works all year.
- Satin: smooth, silky, good for spring, summer, and early fall.
The issue we kept running into is that the bride wanted everyone in the same color, which is fine, but she also kinda wanted everyone in the same style. It’s a classic thing, you know, to make everyone look all matchy-matchy in photos. I get it, but finding one dress that fits everyone perfectly and that everyone loves? That’s tough.
I remembered watching one of those wedding shows, “Say Yes to the Dress”, I think it is, on TLC. There was this one episode where the bride wanted eight different vintage-style dresses for her bridesmaids. These consultants, Lori and Stacey, were running around trying to find them. I felt like them, seriously.
Finding “The Ones”
But we persisted! We hit a few more stores, and finally, we started to find some real contenders. There was this one shop that had a bunch of lace dresses with sleeves, and they were actually pretty nice! We tried different styles, different lengths of sleeves, and mixed and matched until everyone found something they felt good in.
We ended up with a few different styles, all in the same color lace, but everyone looked amazing and, most importantly, they felt comfortable. It was a bit more work than I anticipated, but seeing how happy my friend and her bridesmaids were made it all worth it. Plus, we got some great photos of the whole dress-trying-on adventure, which is a fun memory in itself. So, if you’re ever in charge of finding bridesmaid dresses, my advice is to be patient, be prepared to try on a lot of dresses, and don’t be afraid to mix it up a little to make sure everyone feels their best!
