Wedding Blog

When it came to our bridesmaid dresses, I knew 2 things. One, it would not be expensive and secondly, it would not be a typical “bridesmaid” dress. You know the ones I’m talking about - they’re ordered at a bridal salon, take 3 months to arrive and then it doesn’t even fit properly? Now, I don’t mean to disrespect anyone who has gone this route. To be sure, those dresses are beautiful and sometimes necessary for a formal wedding, but I wish more brides would start choosing simple cocktail dresses. Honestly, I think it’s less stressful than ordering from a bridal salon. To future brides-to-be who are looking for bridesmaids dresses, don’t be afraid to go against the grain. As Flor said in Spanglish, “Just try it on.”

You may recall I love J.Crew, so naturally I began stalking their frequent online sales for a dress. This was back in October of 2007, when I was a good 7 months away from discovering my true color scheme. First mistake: I picked out the dresses way too early. Mr. Coconut kept telling me it was too early, but I couldn’t pass it up. I had found some brown strapless dresses for $39.99. Seriously! I was trying to save my girls some money, so I didn’t really think about whether I liked it or not, I just went with it. They were quite pretty and brown was such a basic color, I thought anything I picked would go well together. (Hint: This is called foreshadowing.)

Here are some pictures of Sister Coconut with her head chopped off. Check out her shoes, they are cute, right? That’s another thing - unless the girls can all agree on one shoe, specify a color and give them some autonomy. They will love you for it, I promise.

To spruce up the dress, I found 5 champagne sashes at Ann Taylor. I bought all 5 for about $35 total. (Before you buy anything online, just google the store’s name & coupon. I found one for 20% off and free shipping.)

They’re cute, right? Super affordable and all of my bridesmaids said they would wear it again, so I thought to myself, SCORE! Little did I know what a long engagement would do to me eight months later…