Bridesmaid dress shopping today.

[MelissaSue]

So i took my best friend bridesmaid dress shopping today. It was a fairly worthless trip, because all of the sample were size 8-10 and she needs at least a 16.. but mostly just because of her BOOBS.. She is at least a 38DD, some bras she wears an 40F.

She probably really needs like a 20 to fit her chest. The other problem is.. most of the dresses that I really LOVE are all empire waistlines.. and we don''t know if even if we ordered a giant size if her boobs would fit entirely above the little waistine thing. We asked one lady at the dress shop but she didn''t seem to really know what she was doing (it wasn''t anyone I had seen there before) and she just said..she didn''t know.. so to be safe we should get a non-empire dress. Its seems as though the top part would have to get significantly larger for larger sizes.. I was just wondering if anyone had any insight on this matter?

On the bright side.. I found out who really makes my wedding gown. I had suspected it was not Forver Yours like I had thought it was because the price was too low..
Its actually a symphony bridals. I really like these pictures of it.

 

[heartsonfire]

I adore your dress, great pics Melissa!
Dunno much about dress sizes but if it's too hard to get the size you need, why not custom make a BM dress for your best friend. I don't think it would cost very much more (will it?). Plus you guys can look for the color and material you like. My mom had an empire dress (with a matching chiffon shawl) made for me for my sis wedding. I think it was organza, silk and chiffon. I'll try to attach a pic, it is orange (my sis color scheme was pink & orange). I hope it helps. (edited: sorry the big picture)

 

[lindsal]

As someone who is pretty much built like your friend (but now on a major downhill weight slide thank goodness for the motivation of walking down an aisle in a wedding dress to help one loose weight) I can say three things emphatically:

1) An empire waist line can work. And can be beautfiul, as long as it does flare in at the waist a bit to give a girl some shape.
2) Unfornuatly she probably will have to order a 20. We all know about how stupid bridal dress sizing is. Suck it up. Order the size that fits your largest measurement WHEN YOU ORDER them. Don''t do the whole "but I can loose 20 lbs. by then" gamble because
3) It is way easier to take things IN then OUT. A GREAT seamstress (and I said great for a reason, really opt to spend money for someone fantastic) can make nearly anything look like it was made explicity for you.

Getting a fair number of bridesmaids into a dress that looks great on all of them is a fairly monsterous task. Good luck.. but take heart, it can be done.

 

[fortheloveofdiamonds]

Oh Melissa Sue,

I sympathize with your big chested friend. I have to order my matron-of-honor dress for my sister''s wedding on Sunday. I have GIGANTIC BOOBS! I wear a DDD! I wore an empire waist to another wedding this summer and it really was not flattering on me whatsoever! If the girl does not look good in the style the dress, which you found appealing in a picture, will not look close to that on your friend... I am the perfect example. Thus, I urge you to task your friend to find a dress that suits her in the color that you want.. this way, you get really nice pictures!

 

[aeli]

I loooove your dress! As for your bridesmaid dilema, my favorite idea is for the bride to choose the color and fabric of the dress, then have each attendant choose their own design (within reason, of course). I believe that many lines that do bridesmaid dresses do this...? I understand that many brides like a uniform look, though...

When I was a bridesmaid, my friend chose silk chiffon halter dresses for us. This was fine for 3 of the 4 girls with average sized busts, but the MOH was a 34DDD. Even though she bought the dress 6 sizes too big, she barely had enough fabric to cover up...the essentials.

 

[MelissaSue]

thanks for the opinions girls.. I like the custom made idea.. I DON''T like the different dresses for different girls idea. I think it is way too overdone now and too P.C. I want all my girls to look beautiful, but I also want to have them look the same. The only exception to that is that if we pick a strapless, they can add spaghetti straps if they want.

So I decided I''ll post some of the dresses we liked.
They had these two dresses in a 16, so they almost fit her. And they both looked good.

I really like the second one.I think it may end up being THE dress. I like the black trim.. and she would wear it with straps.



this one is the only other non-empire gown that I even liked at all..

But they only had it in a dinky size so we couldn''t get a good idea of what it would look like.




These are some other ones we tried on and liked. (I put on anything in less than a 10 because she couldn''t even attempt to fit into those samples.. WHY DON''T DRESS SHOPS CARRY BIGGER SAMPLES?

SOOO CUTE!! I love the colors of this dress.

This one.. She said she REALLY likes it.. but doesn''t know if her boobs would fit in it. We''d do two tone. With the top part either being black or dark pink.

These two have been two of my favorites for a long time and the benfit of these is that you can wear a REAL bra. The samples were SO small for her though that the top part didn''t even reach DOWN to her boobs so we couldn''t get ANY idea how they''d actually look in that area.
<BR

And here is us

Me on the left, her in the middle, and my other flat chested bridesmaid on the right. (in fact all of the rest of my BMs are fairly flat chested.)

Oh.. the other thing.. She might be pregnant by the time I get married!! So.. for THAT purpose an empire waist woudl be GOOD!

 

[heartsonfire]

Love BM dress #3 and #5. An empire dress with straps will look great on your best friend. Do you remember Catherine Zeta-Jones black empire dress? She was pregnant then and it looked lovely and you couldn't even (edited: really) tell she was (edited: already very) pregnant.

http://movies.yahoo.com/shop?d=hc&id=1800019539&cf=pg&photoid=470999&intl=us
whish is a close up of the top

and

http://movies.yahoo.com/shop?d=hc&id=1800019539&cf=pg&photoid=470991&intl=us
full length

 

[MelissaSue]

lol.. Now THOSE are some boobs on CZJ.. She did look lovely. I don''t know about not being able tell she was pregnant.. but she looked AWESOME for someone who was that pregnant!

 

[aeli]

All of the dresses you posted are beautiful. I think my favorites are the pink with black trim, and the last dress that looks like the straps are "pinched" in front (it has a romantic feel, like your dress).

As far as the custom route, I''ve heard that if there are fashion schools in your area, sometimes you can get students to make dresses at great rates. I''ve never checked this out for myself, though...

 

[MelissaSue]

aeli - thanks! The pink with black trim ones are REALLY growing on me. The more i think about it, the more i like the dresses with more than one color on them. They are still simple, but maybe a little more interesting. I am really starting to lean in that direction!

 

[eks6426]

MelissaSue--

You might be able to see how your friend would look in an empire waist dress by finding some other non-bridesmaid dresses in her correct size at regular department stores for her to try on. The dresses wouldn''t be the dress that you want her to wear, but it would give you an idea of how the empire waistline looks with her bigger chest. For me, who is big, but not as big as your friend, I tend to look pregnant whenever I wear an empire waistline. When I was in my girlfriend''s wedding 2 years ago, I tried on all sorts of empire waistline dresses and my friend finally came to realize that none of them looked good on me...and we went with a halter style that was much more flattering. Generally with bigger boobs, you need to show the true waistline or else everything just looks big. CZJ looked great because she WAS pregnant...not something your average bridesmaid wants to mimic.

Just my $.02. Good luck.

 

[MelissaSue]

island dreams - thanks. For some reason, I don''t think that most of the dresses I like will make her look pregnant (although she wants to BE pregnant for my wedding.. so maybe she will look pregnant). If you look at them, most of them have the little empire waist, but still show off the natural waistline. Do you see what I mean? Especially the bottom two.

My main concern (and hers) is whether the top above the little waistline will be enouigh fabric for her boobs to fit in. We don''t want that look where the little line goes across the boobs (my cousin wore a prom dress like this and it still gives me nightmares..)

I think I have decided to try to stay away from the empire waists, but I''m not completely sold.. I just like some of the dresses SOO much and they''d work with all my other bridesmaids perfectly. I know some have suggested that empire waists are flattering on NO ONE.. but they are absolutely by far my favorite style on me. In fact for a very long time I was POSITIVE i wanted an empire waist wedding gown.. and I reallly liked some of them on me. But I fell in love with my gown despite it not being empire waist. I However, have VERY small breasts and a very thick flabby tummy, so I like that it draws attention to the top and sort of camoflages the bottom.

 

[eks6426]

I understand the line across the boob issues...A lot of the dresses did that on me. I was pretty lucky to fit in the samples (size 12) so I got to see them first hand. I love the empire waist dresses too. They''re consistently the ones I like...unfortunately they just don''t look good on me. I''m sure you''ll find one that will look great on everyone. The dresses you have posted have been beautiful. Love the striped inviation too.

 

[MelissaSue]

island dreams- Thanks! I know I''ll find something. I''m just a bit discouraged right now. Two of my BMs will look great in anything...MY FSIL is this teeny little size 2 perfectly toned body.. and she always wants to lose "3lbs.." please.. My other friend isn''t quite as teeny..She''s probably a 6 or an 8, but she''s very slender and everything is "proportional" (she is the other girl in the picture).

My sister is the other potential "problem" She is shaped just like me (Smaller boobs, bigger belly) only a bit bigger all the way around.. She''ll probably need about a 14 in BM dresses, but it will be for her waist, not her chest. She just had a baby in June, but all the baby weight is just about gone now and everything thats not, certainly will be by my wedding.. its just the way she''s shaped though. She''s also much older than the rest of my BMs (she''s 13 years older than me.. so she''ll be 38 for my wedding)

She hasn''t gone dress shopping with me yet, so i haven''t seen what differerent styles will look like on her.. (I''m really sad about this.. she''s supposed to be my matron of honor and has showed about zero interest in my wedding planning so far, other than acting semi-jealous that my mother is spending more time with me.. Its difficult because she has 3 kids, and the bridal shop doesnt open until almost the time the oldest gets off the bus.. but STILL.) I don''t want to put her in anything too cutesy or anything too form fitting. When she finally goes with me, I''ll get a better idea of what things are going to work for everyone.

Ick.. Gotta go to work..

Bye for now girls!