Bridesmaids Dresses!

Little black dresses...

Not exactly my first choice of color, as you might have speculated from my earlier posts regarding pastels and spring colors, but I must admit there are a myriad of reasons that make it a logical color choice for a wedding. First, although I like soft pastels and cool colors, I can't argue with the fact that black has been a forever timeless and elegant color. It's slimming qualities make it a great choice for anyone wanting to flatter their figure. Secondly, the shades of black are easier to harmonize if everyone ended up getting a different dress style, unlike trying to harmonize various shades of blues, pinks, greens, or other colors. This was a major deciding factor when I considered that all my bridesmaids lived states away and that there was the potential of having a different dress style for each girl with little means of comparing dress fabrics. Another factor was that the color black can go with any other accessory color and white. Third, I wanted to buy stylish dresses that my bridesmaids could potentially wear again and black is perfect for: black tie affairs, dates, or God forbid funerals. I didn't want anything that screamed, "I'm a bridesmaid dress!" You know the ones I'm talking about? For the record, I really hate the tradition that bridesmaid dresses have to be ugly in order to not outshine the bride. I think that way of thinking is incredibly juvenile and silly. As beautiful women whom I adore, I want my attendants to look their absolute best not just at my wedding, but again if they should reuse their dresses!

So the ugly dresses aside! I spent a couple months sorting through images on Google and Pinterest and in bridal magazines for the styles that I liked. I found several evening gowns at Macy's and on Edaydress that were quite elegant, as well as some great suggestions from my sister Michelle, that were at JJSHouse. Two of my favorites are pictured to the right. (On a side note, most retail stores have a "Little Black Dress" section, which I also found helpful.) I must admit however, I was terribly disappointed in general with the cocktail length dresses that are in style right now. Perhaps, it's just me, but everything seems a bit short for cocktail length. I'm certainly not a prude, but I don't think anything shorter than mid thigh should be worn at a wedding. But that's just me...

Once I had a general idea of the look I wanted for the dresses (which was quite broad), it was time to go shopping.  I'll use any excuse to go shopping and the search for bridesmaid's dresses seemed like as good a reason as any! The occasion also supplied me with the perfect excuse to meet up with my best friend and bridesmaid, Haley. So I enlisted her services (which wasn't very hard) in the pursuit for dresses and we delved into our task at hand. My little sister Michelle, (my maid of honor) was currently deployed and overseas, so I let her off the hook this time! (Wink wink!) Since we are roughly the same size, I tried on dresses for Michelle in her place.

We started our shopping expedition at Belk. Our goal was to find a dress available at a well known retail store like Belk, Dillard's, or David's Bridal. Stores that are throughout the United States and could be accessible to all my bridesmaids. Ordering from an online site was our backup plan. I wanted to start searching early for the dresses, because I knew that online sites often require 12-16 weeks of notice for their products. I didn't want to delay looking and then feel rushed later. Our timing might not have actually been the best though, since it was just before Prom. Most of the stores were discounting their current stock (which was good) and replacing them with the springier designs. It was sort of hit and miss. Everything had been kind of picked over, but we were able to find a few items that had multiple sizes and were decently priced. Finding a dressing room however, proved to be the harder task. Actually, I found that task to be quite annoying, considering that trying on the dresses was half our reason for physically being in the store versus finding something online. Being an experienced online shopper, I can profess that not everything that looks good online will look good on all body shapes. The same can be said about clothes on hangers and manikins. They don't always flatter the figure either. An important factor of our search was to find a dress that looked good on everyone or a dress for each person that would suit their figure. We found two dresses at Belk, but own that stood out as "The One." We continued our search and moved on to Dillard's, whose selection of evening gowns seemed to be a bit more broad and in a variety of colors. Suddenly, excited again by colors (yes, I know, I'm terribly indecisive at times) we tried on several of the dress styles, becoming quite attached with a plum colored gown with lace. Yes, I have a major weakness for lace as we have also previously established.

Unfortunately, this dress wasn't exactly what I was looking for either, but while we were at the checkout looking up the sizes for the plum dress, my eyes fell back onto this black dress I had past over because it was a size eight. For the heck of it, I decided to go ahead and try it on, even though it didn't look that great on the hanger. (Now what did I just say about hangers and their deception?) Turns out, it was perfect! Well, perfect except for being 2-4 sizes too big. It's perfect because it goes really well with my wedding dress. I really can't say too much more other than that though, but I can post a picture which is to the left. (Ignore the white socks.) I really love the chiffon rose rosettes. The top is actually a spandex material. The only draw back to this dress was that its smaller sizes were only available online and in sizes 6-16. Later, after we ordered them, Dillard's had issues actually locating our dresses and had to search its 300+ store locations in order to find them. I had my fingers crossed until I got a confirmation of Michelle's dress being shipped from the Dillard's in Nashville. Turns out these dresses were meant to be. :)

Now, I am just short a dress for my junior bridesmaid Samantha. She has the same problem I had at her age, she's tall and skinny. However, I think I can modify a plain black dress that I already have that is made out of the same chiffon fabric. It is pictured to the right. I'll need to dress it up a bit, maybe by attaching a belt with some rosette flowers or something. I'm open to suggestions since I have time to think and work on this project in the next couple months. All things considered, I am very pleased with the bridesmaid dresses. I'm really excited to see how they all look on the bridesmaids together and how they look with some bright colored flowers, which is an entirely different post altogether. :) At least, with my wedding date drawing ever closer, I won't have to worry about dates or deadlines to order either my wedding dress or bridesmaids dresses from a bridal shop or to keep appointments for alterations. I can check this task partially off the list for now. :)