Bridesmaids and Juniors

[fisherofmengirly]

All along I thought I''d have my Bridesmaids in one dress, and my Juniors in another. The problem comes in finding a dress that comes in kids'' sizes *and* in Junior/adult sizes, as one of my Juniors is already in adult sizes now. So, when I brought home the Bridesmaid dresses for my girls to try on, my Juniors LOVED them and wanted to know if I could get them the same. I called, and miracle of miracles, the outlet in Georgia had only TWO left, one being just the right size and the other will have to be altered (my other Junior is only 9 and she is extremely thin) drastically, but my mom knows how to do it, and we''ve measured and tried it out temporarily on another''s dress, and it worked and looked really cute, other than it''s too long. Mom is going to work on that, too, but it will be a bit of work, since the dresses are something called hankerchief hemmed. *There are staggers all around the dress, with different pieces of sheer silk coming to points all around the dress.*

Anyway, on to my question: Is it okay for the dresses to be exactly the same?

My flower girl dresses I plan to go get today. My sister-in-law helped me find a store called *Little Dimples* that has all sorts of options, and I think I''ll go with the plain white, and then add a wide sash of the soft violet (by the way, my mom calls it mauve, but it''s purple, dang it!) with a BIG butt bow. I just love that on little girls! They are so, so, so excited. Yay!

 

[griffitk]

As long as the dress is "age appropriate" for the 9 year old, they can all be the same. Usually the problem comes when the bridesmaids choose a low-cut or strapless dress and the parents of the junior bm don''t feel comfortable letting their kids wear it. If you dress is modest, I don''t see any problems at all!

 

[fisherofmengirly]

Oh good, they are modest. Empire waisted, not low cut, straight across neckline, ribbony silky straps.

I don''t really do the wedding etiquette thing that well, particularly since I don''t know most of it, or I don''t agree with what I do know. I just didn''t want to do something where people would be thinking, "um, why did she do that? Doesn''t she know anything??"

Also, do Juniors sit down while the ceremony is taking place, like the flower girls do? I would assume so, in order to make the line up on the groom''s side and the bride''s side match.

 

[sumbride]

I don''t know that there are any hard and fast rules on junior bridesmaids since they aren''t all that common. I think you should feel comfortable with whatever decisions you make being the right ones. As for the dress, as griffitk said, as long as it''s age-appropriate it will be ok. If you want them to stand, they can stand, but if they get fidgety, let them sit.

I''m having a jr. bridesmaid too and wasn''t quite sure if it would impact the number of bridesmaids but I decided it doesn''t. i''m going to have her stand next to the MOH, but not in the line of bridesmaids. Her father is the best man, so during the recessional, he can escort both my MOH and the Jr. BM, and she''ll be happy because he''s her dad. Then the rest of the attendants will be matched up correctly.

 

[fisherofmengirly]

Hmm. I didn''t even think about the recessional. What usually happens in those cases? Do the flower girls walk out alone? If Morgan *a Junior, who is my niece* would prefer to walk out with MY husband, as she claims if she found him first, he''d be hers. Haha.

There are two, sisters, so maybe the could walk out together?

 

[sumbride]

I think the sisters can walk together. I have four flower girls and only one ringbearer so I''m thinking they''ll walk in sort of a herd.

your neice is too cute!

 

[VRBeauty]

The hemline might not be a problem if your mother can shorten the dresses at the waisltine rather than at the hem. This would involve taking the dress apart at the waist and re-sewing at least part of the zipper, but from your description, it might be less work than shortening and re-hemming the bottom. On other option for the Jrs. is to add a sash or wide ribbon to their dresses, if you want to set them apart from the BMs a bit.

 

[fatafelice]

Fisher, I think having them all in the same dress is fine. I you really, *wanted* them to be different, though, you could do something like adding a different sash, giving them a shrug to wear, or even hemming the bottoms differently (which would also solve the length problem).

I just want to add that I am so jealous of you ladies with flower girls! I keep seeing all of these adorable little dresses and I have no one to put them on. All of my options are either too young or too old. Sumbride, you have FOUR?! No fair! I wonder if I could hire one for the day?

 

[sumbride]

ha... Fata, you''re welcome to them!

FI and I each have two young nieces in the right age range and we didn''t want to make an issue of choosing between them so we figured "the more the merrier" and it turns out we''re actually right on trend... I''m seeing lots of pictures with gaggles of flower girls! It''s been so cute because both pairs assumed they were the flower girls so when we told them there were more they said "OH!" as if they were horribly shocked, but I think it will work out really well in the end. And if the young ones freak out, we''ll have backup! The oldest one asked me what color dress I wanted her to wear and I said "blue, either light blue or dark blue" and she said "I think light blue... I don''t really like dark blue..." I was impressed that she had an opinion!

 

[fisherofmengirly]

I couldn''t imagine NOT having all my kiddos in my wedding. I have four nieces and a nephew. 11 and 9 are my Juniors, 7 and 4 are my flower girls.

I added violet ribbon to the dresses that we got today for the two little girls. It was an inexpensive (relatively, anyway) dress that''s all white, with little flowers along the waistline, with delicate little white bows and long ribbon hanging down from the waist, to about the midpoint of the dress'' length. It''s cute. While we were there, I saw that the flowers are just pinned on, to make it easier to clean, I suppose, so I thought, *ooh, we can add the exact right color ribbon to match the wedding colors!* Came home, asked Mom to see some of the ribbon she has to tie the favors and *Bing* there you go. Little hot glue, and we''re good to go.

The dress looks like this one, only imagine little lavendar ribbons mingled in with the white:

http://lildimples.com/images/dresses24_0022.jpg

Mom''s going to make them little capelets, too, so I think we''ll unpin the flowers at the shoulders. It''s very cute with the extra color flowing into it! And to see them on my girls: LOVELY!!! They smile and twirl and giggle when they try them on. And yeah, we''ve had them less than 12 hours now and they''ve been tried on at least three times, for different audiences: the lady at the store, my mom, my grandpa, my brother and sister-in-law *their parents,* and I''m sure they''ll think of more reasons to delicately put them on again before the night''s over.

The littlest girl called her *uncle Paul* to tell him how cute she is in it. She said she''ll be almost as cute as her Jenny. Too sweet!!