The Belles of Our Ball!
October 6th, 2008 @ 3:56 pm by Miss Meatball
For the whole year we’ve been engaged, the hardest decision has been about the bridesmaids’ dresses. The one thing I knew for sure was that I always pictured my ladies in the same dress in several colors. For months, I’ve been scouring the internet seeking the perfect dress… affordable, beautiful, re-wearable. Not too dressy, not too casual… in just the right colors, and complementary to my dress style. Of course, anything I found and loved was too expensive. Anything within the price range I set, I didn’t care for. It was starting to seem impossible.
The saga left off with me finding a style I adored, by an indie clothing shop near my house. What better way to dress my ’maids than by getting custom-sized dresses while supporting a small, local business, right? Umm… not so much, apparently.
Long story short, the business owner didn’t seem to want my order. Basically, “she isn’t into doing bridal parties” and thus was resistant to break the price even though I was promising an order of four dresses.
So, after much debate with myself, I resolved to let the girls resolve it. I planned to give them a color palette to choose from, some inspiration photos, and let them pick any knee-length dress they choose within that framework.
I went online to look for some inspirational photos, and noticed an email from J. Crew in my inbox. I opened it. “Final Sale On Now”.
“Hmmm,” I thought, “maybe there’s some good examples of what to look for here…” And there it was. A dress I saw months ago and loved, but dismissed due to its high price tag. Now it was on sale, in the right colors, and in plentiful sizes. Could it be?
I quickly emailed the girls and explained the situation. The situation being that I was on the verge of giving up and letting them have the choice, but then I noticed that this dress was on sale. No refunds, no exchanges… catalog/online only so no try-ons…. just blind faith. Would they go for it?
Well, the stars must have aligned, because along all time zones, my girls checked their email within half an hour of each other, and quickly responded. Hell yeah, they were in! After endless months of searching and frustration, I picked out my bridesmaids’ dresses and it was settled within 30 minutes!
Meet my ladies!
J. Crew Silk Taffeta Ballerina Dress
Le Sigh. Isn’t she dreamy? The empire waist is universally flattering, and the colors suit our sunset palette so well! The real kicker is the price… $79 yo! That’s a broke-ass bargain if I ever heard of one!
I’m so thrilled to have this decision made. It’s such a relief. I mean, how silly was it that the bridesmaids’ dress has been the hardest decision to resolve thus far? But it was, and now it’s done. I couldn’t be happier, and I hope my ladies feel the same way.
How about you? What’s been a surprisingly hard decision to make?
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18 Responses to “The Belles of Our Ball!”
Bridesmaid dresses were my hardest choice too! I love yours and J. Crew is wonderful to work with:) I’m not sure if you already ordered them (it looks like you did) but I opened up a store credit card when I did; you get 20% off, free shipping (on your first order) and $25 for each $500 you spend.
ya know meat, if you call them and talk to them, they’ll do exchanges and returns for you, especially if you talk to the bridal dept. they’re so nice. i got my dresses on their website too. love the awesome sales!!!!!
They are absolutely adorable and definitely re-wearable! I love the idea of online ordering as my maids will be mostly out of town. How great that your girls all agreed!
I am actually getting to that point myself. I am just hoping that all of the girls can agree. We have to go for fittings at 2 different salons and I just hope that it will not be like the Apocolypse! (:
The BM dresses are absolutely gorgeous! The stars were definitely aligned.
HOLLAH! Great deal and I love the colors! Good work Miss Meatball 
Bridesmaids dresses were my hardest decision too!
Oh my gosh, your dresses are so cute! I hope and wish my bm dress shopping will go that easy!
I was the MOH in my best friend’s wedding earlier this year, and we did the EXACT SAME THING! Final sale, J. Crew… great minds must think alike.
On a side note, I love those dresses too! I’m sure your girls will look so lovely in those!
I was looking at those, do your girls have them. How did the sizes run?
That’s what I did with my bridesmaids dresses too — we took advantage of a few styles that were being phased out by Ann Taylor — original price tag, around $200ish — my girls got their dresses for $39-75 (the prices kept dropping over the course of a week so my MOH hit the jackpot with the lowest price of all :P). I was really happy to have resolved it too, since we’d be batting pictures and ideas back and forth. Now they can take their time finding their own cute shoes to match!
I used this same style for my wedding this past July in the burnished yellow! Here are some pics from my wedding…they dresses are super cute and flattered everyone (even one of my BM’s was 6 mths prego!)
I actually ordered that dress in whatever they call the bright pink. Love. It. So. Comfy!
Miss Meatball, Hollywood
Age and Occupation: 30, Actor/Writer/Office Maven
Fiance's Age and Occupation: 28, Actor/Writer
Engagement Date: October 7, 2007
Wedding Date: May, 2009
Blogging Since: September 16, 2008
Venue: Private Garden/The Bungalow Club
About Me: I love melty cheese and diet coke almost as much as I love my man. I'm from Chicago, he's from NYC, and we both miss public transit and great pizza. We have an adorable muppet dog called Paco. I'm part hippie with a healthy dash of hip hop superstar, have excessive empathy for animals, and have not one, but two bionic eyes (long story). We're broke and it ain't no joke. It can't stop us from planning the bold and whimsical wedding of our dreams, but we've had to get pretty creative to make it work, yo!
great find! i love those dresses! i’ve been eying them for a while. it’s a shame my wedding’s so far away or i’d be jumping on that bandwagon!