Show me your bridesmaid dresses!

[NakedFinger]

I have a confession to make....

I HATE BRIDESMAID DRESSES! They are ugly. I hate all the ones I have gone to see. Ugly fabric, ugly cuts, unflattering, and cruel & unusual punishment to impose on people who are supposed to be your friends. lol

PHEW Vent over! Ok but seriously , am I the only one who wants my bridal party to look hot and not 6 months pregnant because the cut of the dress? Why do designers come out with such ugly dresses? I must have looked at 800 dresses and dont like any of them. And unfortunately, I dont have much more time to think about it since the wedding is in a few months, and the dresses will take about 3 months.

So pleaaasseeee........show me pictures of your bridesmaid dresses, I need inspiration! (if you have a pic of it in real life even better). I cant surf the web anymore, my eyes hurt! lol If it helps, I prefer to have long dresses since my venue is more formal.

Thank you!

 

[LtlFirecracker]

I hate BM dresses too

I was initially going to do J-crew but the colors were not right, and than one of my BM''s told me she was TTC. J crew dresses do not adapt to pregnancy. So that was out.

I am now going with a priscillia of boston dress. I am waiting to for the swatches to come in to decice which one but it will be one of these to

Bridesmaids favorite

Back up dress if color does not work

I also saw on a website where a girl found some dresses from Anthropolgie, waited for them to go on sale, and bought one in a bunch of sizes. She ended up using them as BM dresses, other than the fact they matched, they didn''t look like BM dresses at all.

I have also seen people doing non-matching department store dresses in the same color family (but not the same color). They coordinated, but did not match.

 

[missjaxon]

I just posted mine in another thread, but I do have a real life picture of it. I will get it uploaded to my computer later today and post it here. I chose Impression Bridal Style#1736 because I am not a fan of the thick fabric, shiny and what I call "costumey" dresses. The ones I chose for my girls are light weight, extremely flattering and totally re-wearable for other functions. My girls all love them and the fact that they are a nice formal gown they are excited to add it to their wardrobes for dress up occasions. I also have to say that the dresses look just as good if not better on my girls as in the picture, which is not the case for all dresses.

 

[LtlFirecracker]

Here is my MOH in the dress she liked best (the first one I put up).

 

[CDNinNYC]

I bought the dress for my bridesmaid at BCBG. I think they have great options for long and short dresses. That said, I also loved Pricilla of Boston BM dresses. Eta: A bonus to shopping at BCBG is that you can walk out with the dress once you make a decision. You won't have to order it and wait months for it to arrive.

 

[ladypirate]

What color do you want them to be? Do they have to match? Do you have a budget in mind for your girls?

The hardest thing for me was finding something that was universally flattering on several different body types. You may want to consider letting your girls choose their own dress in a color you select (I think it was claritek who just had her girls choose blue knee length dresses--they were all different shades, but the effect was awesome!). If you care more about being matchy matchy, you could always go with a designer who has a range and just pick the exact shade you want and let them choose the style.

I picked mine because the cut was flattering, they were in my colors, and they were on sale for $70 bucks a piece (from J Crew). At first a few people thought they wouldn't look good on them (they are a warm peachy orange), but they are super flattering on everyone.

 

[parrot tulips]

My sisters got their BCBG dresses from Bloomingdale''s (marked down quite a bit at the time).

 

[that_someone_special]

I chose this dress from DB. It has straps as well. I had to dress two VERY different body types and this one looked the best. I think one of the girls is getting her shortened as well. The other girl is tall enough that it sits higher.

I wanted something black, shorter, and sexy. Well, this was the only thing everyone agreed on.

 

[Rock_of_Love]

I hear ya...I want my BMs to look HOT! This is mine and I

it! It seriously looks fantastic on all the girls...and there are many different body shapes/sizes in my "entourage."

Victoria's Secret Convertible Dress

It is essentially a copy of the Butter by Nadia Wrap or the Two Birds Bridesmaid Dress for a MUCH better price. If you check out the **Please do not link to personal networking websites to protect privacy** you will see a ton of "real life" pics. Pretty cool!!

 

[havernell]

Have you checked out Ann Taylor bridesmaids dresses yet? That's what my bridesmaids wore. The fabric of AT dresses are a lot nicer than traditional BM dresses in my opinion, plus you can buy them right in the store or order them online (with free returns if I recall correctly), so there's no guessing your correct size and waiting three months for them to come in. Most of them are tea lenght, but there are a few longer gowns as well in some limited colors.

I also second someone else's suggestion of looking in higher-end department stores. Nordstrom's website has a lot of nice designer dresses that could be used at BM dresses.

Finally, you could just give your BMs guidelines (color, length, type of material) and have them find their own gowns if you are just really fed up with trying to make a choice yourself.

Good luck!

 

[sammyj]

NF, I completely agree with you about BM dresses! Even if people say that you ''can totally wear them again!''...you can always tell that it''s a BM dress!

For me, I didn''t want to put my BMs in a dress that they would never buy if they were shopping on their own. I also didn''t want to go the matchy-matchy route. So, what I ended up doing was scouring the internet and ebay and consulting with each of my 5 girls to buy a dress that:

a) matched their skin colouring
b) flattered their figure
c) was in their pricepoint
d) met my criteria (which, to be honest, was non-existent!0

As far as I know, everyone loves their dress and, IMO, they all look fab in them. I wish I had taken a pic of each dress to make a collage but I didn''t...

For reference, the dresses are from J.Crew, French Connection, ABS by Allen Schwartz, Sunner and Newport News.

 

[Bjedifish]

Below is one of my bridesmaids with the actual dress they will be wearing pinned to her. she actually had another dress on underneath so it makes it look a little messy. Here is the link to the actual dress on the Coren Moore website. They have fantastic stuff!

 

[Bjedifish]

oooh! Also on the Coren Moore website you can click on the "Real Weddings" link and there are pictures of people in real life wedding wearing their dresses. The dresses are all listed on the side captions to help you see what you like! Happy hunting!

REAL WEDDINGS LINK

 

[caribqueen]

Here''s mine - also POB. I went into the search knowing that I wanted my girls to look sexy. This one works well on my pear shaped girls. We all have butts. My MOH and one of my BMs picked this one after we found my dress.

http://www.priscillaofboston.com/dress_detail.jsp?gid=2&sfid=51153&f5=POB

 

[inloveinpa]

I have always known that I wanted my BMs to look gorgeous on my wedding day and I wanted them to decide what their dresses would look like based on what they LOVED on themselves. The only thing I wanted was for the dress to be a shade of red..whether light, dark, etc. because shades of red are flattering on pretty much all skin tones, and I have seen my BMs wear red and they look HOT! Well we went shopping and I thought they were all going to choose different shapes, lengths, designers. I was so wrong. They tried on this Jim Hjelm Occasions dress and all 3 of them looked AMAZING! And they all loved it on themselves, which was the most important to me. I want them to look and feel beautiful! So, all 3 of them are wearing the same dress and they all look statuesque and beautiful! My BMs are different shapes: my MOH is 4''11," my sister is 14 y/o and still growing, and my 3rd BM is 5''8." Needless to say, they are all very different, but this dress just accentuates all of their figures and they look so beautiful! I have attached pictures of the dress from the web-site and the color swatch, which is the Garnet color! So pretty!

 

[inloveinpa]

Here is the color of the dresses from Jim Hjelm!

 

[lilylover]

Mine are getting theirs from JcPenney! It''s the last place I thought I would find them. I looked forever and ever for the right color and finally came across these. I am letting my girls pick which one they want to wear. They have them in different colors if you search under bridesmaid dresses. Good luck!

http://www.jcpenney.com/products/Cg17017.jsp

 

[lilylover]

Oh, and here''s a picture of me wearing one of the styles. it''s a little big on me, as you can tell.

 

[mrscushion]

Date: 4/17/2010 7:04:56 PM
Author: Bjedifish
Below is one of my bridesmaids with the actual dress they will be wearing pinned to her. she actually had another dress on underneath so it makes it look a little messy. Here is the link to the actual dress on the Coren Moore website. They have fantastic stuff!

I really like Coren Moore dresses, Bjedifish! I had my maids try on some, too!

 

[mrscushion]

I went with Jenny Yoo dresses for my BMs (www.jennyyoo.com). I gave them a lot of choice, and that's what they settled on. I went with the Pewter color, and they can each choose the cut of their dress, which works well as they all have different body types.

Here's a dress one of them will be wearing (though in the wrong color).

 

[mrscushion]

I actually went BM dress shopping with them and while I agree that in general many BM dresses can be a total disaster, I also did like quite a few I tried on. This particular one I also really liked, but we decided that the white top would not be flattering on busty girls.

This is Lula Kate.

 

[jjc]

I got my MOH's dress at Anthropologie, on crazy sale. It was everything I wanted - the color, the fabric (bit of a jacquard, I'm obsessed with texture at the moment), and she looks and feels HOT in it

Anthro has so many cute dresses that could ostensibly be used as BM dresses, and they're actually coming out with an extensive wedding line soon.

 

[FrekeChild]

Mine wore a Calvin Klein LBD that I got on super sale ($160 down to $30) at Dillards. Thank goodness she fit into the 2, because it was the only size left! I wanted her to wear something very classic that she could wear again, and no one would think that it was worn in a wedding. BINGO!

Plus, she looks hot!

 

[monkeyprincess]

My sisters chose this dress in marigold.

http://www.dessy.com/dresses/lelarose/lr108/

 

[marlie]

my bridesmaid''s will be wearing this...it''s wayyyy prettier in person:

http://www.priscillaofboston.com/dress_detail.jsp?gid=51&sfid=51161

and my sister/moh will be wearing this:
http://www.priscillaofboston.com/dress_detail.jsp?gid=2&sfid=50851

 

[PilsnPinkysMom]

My choices were typical BM dresses, but better (IMHO) than many options out there. Plus one was worn to the Academy Awards in black by one of "The Cove" award recipients (though plenty of ugly gowns have been worn to the Oscars, to be fair

).



ETA: MARLIE! I just read your reply and noticed your sister/MOH will be wearing this dress... My ladies loved them, and I found them to be flattering on all of their very different body types. What color did you choose?!

 

[PilsnPinkysMom]

Another view..

 

[KittyGolightly]

The current front runner is the dress on the left - Enzoani Love B19. It comes in several colors, but for some reason, Enzoani chose to feature the army green version on their website. My sister and I absolutely love this purple color ("Lavender").

 

[lulu66]

all my lovely ladies are having to fly cross country for the wedding, so i didn''t want them to pay bunches for a dress they might wear once. i had wanted black, knee-length since i don''t know when; so, i almost gave them those guidelines to run with. in the end, i happened upon a short black tafetta dress on target.com for $40. i sent the link to them & they all liked it & the price. so, they will all be in the same black dress. pic from website attached below:

 

[Clairitek]

Date: 4/17/2010 11:40:41 AM
Author: ladypirate

The hardest thing for me was finding something that was universally flattering on several different body types. You may want to consider letting your girls choose their own dress in a color you select (I think it was claritek who just had her girls choose blue knee length dresses--they were all different shades, but the effect was awesome!). If you care more about being matchy matchy, you could always go with a designer who has a range and just pick the exact shade you want and let them choose the style.

Yup, that was me. I had a less formal wedding (and only had 3 months to plan) so I decided to go the route of letting the girls be more autonomous. Two of the dresses shown are actual BM dresses from a bridal salon, two are J Crew, and I''m not sure where the last one came from. The girl in the cobalt dress (over my shoulder on the left) is wearing a Calvin Klein dress. The cornflower blue one is from David''s Bridal, and I''m not sure who made the navy with lighter blue accent. The aqua dresses are J Crew Sophia dresses.

I also included a shot of a wedding I was in last October. We wore a WToo dress in brown chiffon.

Then finally I am showing a Jim Hjelm dress I bought from last seasons''s line. It is in silk dupioni. I am going to wear it to a wedding in October but I also plan to wear it as a guest to two other weddings (it cost me enough... I want to get the use out of it). The picture aren''t the best but give you an idea. It has a babydoll silhouette and the color is papaya (bride wanted an orange dress).

So there you have it. All of the BM dresses I have had the pleasure of working with.

FWIW I really loved most of the JH dresses I''ve ever tried on. Have you checked out their line in person?