Weddingbee Blog

From the get-go, I told my bridesmaids that they could pick whatever style of dress they wanted for the wedding. I pick the color. They choose the dress. Since 3 of the 4 bridesmaids (my 2 sisters, and Mr. Toucan’s sister) went to Hong Kong with me, we decided to try to have their dresses custom made while we were over there. This way they could truly pick whatever style they wanted, and I could ensure they all matched in color by picking the fabric that they used.

While we were in Shenzhen to make my qipao and Mr. Toucan’s tuxedo, we asked the dressmaker who made my qipao if she would also make my bridesmaid dresses. She agreed to make them for 400 Chinese yuan (about $55 USD) per dress. So, on to picking fabric!

Picking fabric!
(Note: all the mall shops in Shenzhen are super teeny tiny!)

I chose dark teal Thai silk as the material to make the dresses (as you’ll see later, the fabric is a lot bluer when looking at more than a 4×4 inch square). I chose the color mostly because it looked great against all of their skin tones (I did actually hold it up to each of the 3 that were there).

With the fabric chosen, it was onto the style of the dresses. Before we left for the trip, I asked them all (including my cousin, the fourth bridesmaid) to find a picture of a dress that they would like to wear so the tailor could copy it. Some of the girls had trouble picking a dress with complete free reign so, I made a little “look book” of different dress styles and necklines. After they all looked at the “look book” of ideas, 2 bridesmaids chose one dress, and the other 2 chose another dress!

These two lovely ladies:

My MOH sister and FSIL waiting in the shop to be measured

Chose this dress style:
And my cousin and other sister:

Here, I’m the stand-in for my cousin, with my other little sister

Chose this dress style:After the fabric and dress styles were chosen, all we had to do was get measured,

FSIL getting measured!

and play the waiting game… tick-tock, tick-tock, tick-tock. Ding!
Ta-dah! The final product!

MOH sister in dress style #1:
Back view of dress style #1:

FSIL in dress style #1:
Side view of dress style #1:
Back view of dress style #1:

Little sister in dress style #2:Side view of dress style #2:Back view of dress style #2:

As you can see in these pictures, the dress looks blue - not teal. As it turns out, the fabric I chose only looks teal in some lighting situations, and pretty much blue in most light. Though it throws off my color scheme a little (luckily I haven’t done anything in teal yet), I’m still really lovin’ the color of the dresses - the girls look great in it!