A Whole New Online World
September 6th, 2008 @ 11:59 am by Miss Sea Breeze
Previously in the Purple BM Dress Series:
Purple Dresses: The Quest Begins
The One Where the Bride Takes a Chill Pill
After months of scouring the city on foot, I had finally found Nirvana—a lovely purple bridesmaid dress for my girls—only to have it pooh-poohed.
It was at that point that I realized I had only one place left to turn.
Oh sure, I had dabbled in it before, sending Miss P, Pepperpot, and Lil’ SIL a couple of links to random dresses I found by accident, but at that time I was just trying to get a feel for what they might have liked.
At the time, I wasn’t serious about it. While I’ve done plenty of online window shopping, I’ve never ever actually bought clothes online before.
I don’t know if you American gals know how good you’ve got it.
Most online retail sites don’t ship to us poor J.Crew-less Canadians which means that to buy something, we have to get a co-conspirator involved who lives south of the border. It’s pretty complicated so I’ve only done it once (for my purple wedding shoes, which was totally worth it, of course).
But this time, I had little choice.
I gripped my mouse with determination and plunged into the deep, dark world of online retail.
And WOW, it was a whole new world.
There were WAYYY more purple bridesmaid-worthy dresses online than in real live stores! (Or at least, that was the case in June.)
Would you like to take a walk through my Delicious bookmarks filed under ‘bridesmaid’? Hmm??
All dresses above from Nordstrom.
Above dresses from Alfred Angelo.
From Newport News.
From Cutesy Girl and Sears.
From Bluefly.
From Donna Ricco.
Whew!! And that’s just a sample.
At this point, I wasn’t necessarily restricted to a specific shade of purple, though our invitations featured a royal purple color, so I was leaning towards that.
However, I was still restricted to a budget of $150 x 3, so none of these dresses, with the exception of the ones from Newport News, would do.
Anyway, pretty as they were, none of them gave me that big ‘AHA!’ feeling when I looked at them.
I was almost at the end of my rope, when out of the blue, darling Pepperpot (my maid of honor) announced that she–along with my brother’s wife–was paying me a visit and we were going to take a road trip across the border to Seattle where, gosh darn it, we were going to find us some purple dresses or die in the attempt!
Yay road trip!
(To be continued)
So who out there actually bought their bridesmaid dresses online? Did you like online shopping better than real-life shopping? Why or why not?
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15 Responses to “A Whole New Online World”
WOW. Some of those are gooorgeous. I think my absolute favourite is the bottom left picture of the Alfred Angelo six - it’s so flowy! If your girls can’t agree on something in that lot, you might as well find new bridesmaids.
And you think you’ve got problems ordering online from Canada - try living in South Africa. This is not even an option for me! 
Those are really pretty dresses. I just received the first dress (Adrianne Papelle, first dress in the first row) in the mail from Nordstroms. They were back stocked for 2 months! I’m wearing it to a wedding as a guest and not a bridesmaid! 
Have fun shopping in Seattle!
My bridesmaids are wearing Alfred Angelo dresses, two of them in the Grape color (which I looooooooooove). The other two are going to be in charcoal dresses - and my MOH is wearing the topmost right Alfred Angelo dress (with the bubble hem). She loves it!
We didn’t buy them online; I couldn’t find a place I was confident in and since my mom’s making my wedding gown I haven’t had any real bridal shop experiences. So my MOH and I went to the bridal shop together to purchase the dresses.
I love your post! I am on the hunt for purple dresses for my maids as well. Good Luck, I’ve seen a cute dress at the Limited, if you run across one in Seattle according to their site they have one in South Center lots of purple in their stores right now and it is only $80! I can’t wait to see what you find!
My bridesmaids ordered their dresses from J Crew online. They were very happy with the service. I was also able to go into my local J crew store before they purchased them and check out a sample of the fabric and color.
I own the first dress, the adrianne papelle, and i get tons of compliment on it whenever i wear it. it’s pretty online and looks great on. i like it because it hides a lot of flaws. the only word of caution i would provide is it’s a little short when you’re seated. other than that, it’s a beauty.
i shopped online through ann taylor. i also visited the store in the states to verify the quality of the dress and watched til they went on sale. i also had to talk to their customer service, but they were awesome. i was in montreal but used my folks in colorado to make this all work. it’s annoying that so many american companies don’t ship to canada.
My three bridesmaids used three different purple Maggy London dresses (including the 4th one down in the righthand column). 2 were bought from Nordstrom and one came from Macy’s. I was really happy that they were available online because my bridesmaids were all over the place, and those two stores are so good about letting you make returns to the store (within 90 days for Macy’s, and indefinitely for Nordstrom).
I’m currently going through this purple dress (and shoe) drama as well! Trying to find just the right purple bridesmaid dress has definitely been a challenge. Nordstroms has been a great resource though - they’ve recently added so many dresses - we just haven’t found the one yet. Not to mention, I can’t find purple wedding shoes for me! The quest seems never ending!
I wanted the first Nordstrom dress (the gorgeous Adrianne for my BMs but, unfortunately, it didn’t go past a size 14 and the sending an email to the actual company resulted in nothing. I still may just buy it for myself because it’s so awesome. Good luck!
I LOVE the first Nordstrom dress–it’s gorgeous. My BMs and I found purple dresses by Eden (in the amethyst color) at Macy’s Bridal Salon in NYC. Because I’m registered at Macy’s, each got a discount (I think 15% off?) and the dresses came out to be under $150.
[...] my last post, I showed you about 30 purple bridesmaid-worthy dresses that I had come across in my online [...]
oh wow! so many gorgeous purple dresses out there! do you remember who makes the dress in the second row on the left (from nordstroms)? it would be perfect for my cousin’s fall wedding in nyc.
Miss Sea Breeze, Vancouver/Dominican Republic
Age and Occupation: 30, Communications Manager
Fiance's Age and Occupation: 29, Experiential Marketing Director
Engagement Date: October 6, 2007
Wedding Date: November, 2008
Blogging Since: July 17, 2008
Venue: Majestic Colonial Resort, Punta Cana
About Me: Planning a destination wedding by the sea should be (oh no she di-in't…) a breeze (…*sigh* yep, she did) but when you've never been to the Caribbean, your powers of imagination are really put to the test. Luckily, I'm 90% resourceful, creative optimist (and kooky, neurotic practicalist-if-that's-a-word for the other ten). Other than planning our week-long celebration of family, friends, laughter and love, I adore books, shoes and… you guessed it… long walks on the beach.
Wow, you do have a lot of choices! If I had to pick a favorite, I’d select the Maggy London Ruched Waist Halter Dress from Nordstrom (4th row down on right side). Gorgeouos! Good luck with your quest.