Weddingbee Blog

When I called to ask my lovely maiden sidekicks to stand at my side on our wedding day, I didn’t take them out for a ‘will you be my bridesmaid’ dinner, or make them thoughtful gifts or even send them a card. It was before my days of obsessive wedding magazine/blog reading had begun, and I didn’t even know people did that.

But I did do one thing.

I told them that having them fly down to the Caribbean for our special day meant so much to me that I wanted to make the rest of the whole bridesmaid adventure as easy and stress-free as possible.

So I thought back on my own bridesmaid experiences (and two flower girl experiences), and tried to think of the most painful part of them.

Was it curling ribbon ’till the wee hours of the morning for favors? Stringing lights throughout the hall and angling all the chairs just so the night before? Trying to stuff a crinoline explosion into a bathroom stall and make sure she didn’t pee-pee on her wedding shoes?

Nope.

It was finding and purchasing the bridesmaid dress.

So began my bridesmaid dress nightmare.

Now, obviously, doing this for your bridesmaids is not for everyone. I know that in most situations, the bridesmaids pay for their own dresses. But I thought that since it’s a destination wedding and they’re already going to be spending quite a bit to go to Punta Cana with us, it would be a nice thing for us to do.

Now, before you start thinking I’m going all P. Diddy on you when I said I was going to take care of the dresses, let me make it clear that it was not the $400 David’s Bridal ones I had in mind.

That kind of dress is absolutely stunning but for the kind of easy-breezy destination wedding I am envisioning, I was thinking more along the lines of lightweight, simple and… CHEAP! (And by cheap I mean ‘affordable’ of course, but somehow I just don’t get the same satisfaction from saying: “look what I bought… and it was so affordable!!!”)

Mr Breezy and I agreed upon a limit of $150 each (oh ok, so I told him it would be $100 but I figured if I went a bit over for the right dress, I could beg for forgiveness afterwards).

With these criteria, along with the color purple, in mind, off I skipped merrily into shop after shop after shop.

I thought it would be sooo easy! I mean, it was spring, I was looking for springy purple dresses, that wasn’t THAT much of a tall order, right???

WRONG.

(Sidenote: This especially kills me lately because, is it just Vancouver or are you seeing a definite purple trend in all the stores these days? Wait, I take that back, it’s not a trend–it’s a tidal wave. I mean, you couldn’t have instigated this a few months earlier, fashion mavens of the world? Argh!)

So after three months (and much foot mileage) I was so thrilled when I found this dress at Jacob – a lovely, flowy, $110 masterpiece.

It was a darker purple than I had hoped for but hey, purple of any hue was rare and this would definitely do the trick. I tried it on in the store and sent the pictures to the girls:

I know, the socks are a nice touch, eh?

I thought it was neat how the back mimicked the front neckline.

Totally cute, right? Simple, yet unique, and comfy and light.

I had this bridesmaid thing in the bag, no?

Um… no.

(To Be Continued)

Anyone else brave (or delusional?) enough to try to single-handedly find the perfect dresses for their bridesmaids?