Wedding Blog

Finding the perfect bridesmaids dresses proved harder than finding my wedding gown. I have six fabulous ladies in my bridal party and I wanted them all to look and feel great, thus I really cared about what they thought of the dresses they would be wearing. Since they were paying for them, I really thought that it was only fair that they genuinely liked the dresses. I definitely wanted a line that carried multiple styles within the same fabric to suit each of their tastes and body types.

After I purchased my dress, I started actively looking for bridesmaids dresses. My search began at I Do in Wallingford, Seattle where I narrowed down the choices to Bill Levkoff dresses. I didn’t want the dresses to cost more than $150, but they had to be of good quality. And of course, the criteria of every hopeful bride, I wanted them to be able to wear them again. I Do was fantastic. I brought in bridesmaids on two separate occasions when they were visiting and as usual, we received the best service. Bridget had all the dresses from my previous dresses laid out as well as some new suggestions. Here were our contenders from Bill Levkoff:

I was really drawn to Bill Levkoff’s dresses because of the taupe and champagne combination (photo on the left). This may sound crazy, but he makes the perfect taupe! It’s not too light where it washes out someone fair-skinned and it’s not too dark where it starts to make people look sallow. It was just-right taupe!

I also really liked the simplicity and the cuts of the dresses.

I don’t think any of the catalog pictures do the dresses justice. One of my bridesmaids actually balked when looking at the dresses online, but was really shocked when they looked so great in person.

The quality is just great! I loved the look of the satin and how well it photographed. The photo above is from a real wedding. I found it on the Knot… if this is your wedding, sorry for stealing your pic! I just think the bridesmaids in this photo look great and the dress looks very flattering.

But I wasn’t completely sold. I was set on the Bill Levkoff dresses, but kept browsing through magazines and sites looking for alternatives. I don’t know what exactly was bothering me about the dresses… they looked great… everyone seemed to agree on them… but I just didn’t love them. They looked and felt like bridesmaids dresses and I know the girls will never wear them again!

So while flipping through one of my bridal magazines, I found this picture:

It’s from a Jenny Yoo ad and I just LOVED the vintage cut and design, particularly the pockets!

I immediately called Jenny Yoo to book an appointment, but found out that the dresses weren’t available yet since it was for the 2008 season. So I booked an appointment for a month out and posted the photo to my bridesmaid discussion board. They were all pretty excited and didn’t mind that I was looking into other options.

I found more dress styles in the Jenny Yoo preview catalog and noticed that they had five styles in the same fabric and similar cuts and length. My only problem with it was that they were all made of silk taffeta. I have a love/hate relationship with silk taffeta.

Although I love the texture, at times it looks like it’s wrinkled and the sheen off the fabric is really distracting in photos. But in the Jenny Yoo catalog (see above), the fabric seemed to photograph really well.

The dresses were also a $100 higher than what we had hoped to spend, but all the girls are huge fashion fanatics and were really gung-ho about the fitting appointment (this deserves a completely separate post, but suffice it to say, I have the BEST bridesmaids ever. One flew from Seattle to LA just to go to the Jenny Yoo showroom to try on dresses. Another one visiting NY from San Francisco, stopped by the NY showroom just to try as well). Two of my East Coast girls accompanied me to the New York showroom for our appointment and we were so pleased from the moment we arrived.The store is SUPER organized. Everything is arranged by color and length. The showroom is very spacious with lots of fitting rooms and seating/lounge areas. We were there for close to two hours and the girls tried on more dresses than I could count, but the staff was very helpful and engaging. We even saw Jenny Yoo herself!

The dresses the girls tried on were not cut to size - they were production samples so we had an idea of what the actual dresses looked like, but small details would be adjusted (i.e. the neckline or length). A huge pro is that they allow pictures, so I was able to gauge my color choices based on how they looked when photographed. It was also really helpful because I could post the photos to the board for the girls on the West Coast to see the fits and styles. Here are the photos that I posted (with notes… I definitely have OCD):

The taffeta looked best in the Sorbet (reddish/pink on left) when photographed with or without flash.

The sash/bow that can be knotted in the front or the back. I prefer the back much more.

That taffeta sheen strikes again! I love this cut! I think it’s so cute with the two bow straps on the shoulder.

The reason we considered Jenny Yoo in the first place… the Paige dress. It wasn’t very flattering on any of the girls.

After all that, what did we end up with? These lovely selections from the line all in Sorbet (the reddish/pink color):

The funny thing about the whole selection process was that no one chose the Paige, which was the original dress that caught my eye in the ad. Everyone chose a dress that fit them well. I got over the taffeta issue now that I had a whole new rockin’ color scheme! Also, one of the girls learned from the LA store that the dresses are dye-able, so you can wear them again as the little black (or blue or purple) dress! Touche! Everyone is really happy with the dress selections (most of all, me!) One of my bridesmaids commented when I was waffling between the Levkoff and the Yoo dresses, that I wouldn’t be considering other dresses if I had LOOOVED the Levkoff dresses. She thought that the Jenny Yoo dresses fit my personal and wedding style better: simple, modern, and fun!

I’m so lucky to have the most perfect (and super accommodating, patient, and amazing) bridesmaids and to have found awesome dresses for them!

How many bridesmaids do you have? How did you decide on your bridesmaids dresses? Are they all wearing the same one?

{All professional dress images from either BillLevkoff.com and JennyYoo.com}