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When I first thought about what my lovely ladies would wear on the big day, I instantly thought that I would dress them in the cutest and easiest bridesmaid solution there is: J.Crew. I thought that they could just pick out any dress in Chocolate Brown and we’d call it a day. Plus, the dresses are fairly affordable in comparison to other dresses, and they all seem to go on sale at some point!
I mean, how cute are these:
P.S. - This last one is currently on sale for 69 bucks!!
Yet, like everything wedding related, it wasn’t that easy. A good friend of mine swore by Bella Bridesmaid in the Marina—it’s an entire store just for bridesmaids and they have stores all around the country—check it out.
This summer after going to Haute Bridal down the street to try on wedding dresses, I dragged Sister/MOH Peep and a good friend of mine to check it out. My sister was 5 months pregnant, so I really didn’t think that we were seriously looking.
Yet, within 15 minutes of walking into the store they had tried on more than a dozen dresses. And Sister Peep had slipped on a dress that she loved! Enter Vera:
She loved it, it came in a great chocolate brown, and even at 5 months pregnant she looked awesome! Price wise it wasn’t what I had in mind, but first and foremost I wanted my ladies to love what they were going to wear. I thought the other girls would look great in it, and if they didn’t like it, there were two other dresses in the collection that they could choose from.
A month later, FSIL Peep and Bridesmaid K came to San Francisco for our engagement party, so I scheduled a quick trip to Bella before they both went home.
They’d probably kill me for posting this picture—we were all exhausted and hung over from the night before, but Mama Peep insisted on taking a picture (shh, don’t tell Bella, I don’t think pictures were allowed):
FSIL Peep, Bridesmaid K, and me. Just check out the rack of dresses! Those are just half of the dresses!
Turns out that on their petite frames, the Veras were not looking so hot.
Enter Melissa:
As a well endowed bride I would have never picked out this strapless number, but both of them really liked it. And like I said, my main goal was letting the girls pick a dress that they would actually enjoy wearing!
Due to a few circumstances, one being Sister Peep’s pregnancy, we put off purchasing the dresses.
I contacted Bella a couple of weeks ago to find out that Melissa Sweet dresses take 16 weeks to order! Gasp! That means they would arrive only two weeks before the wedding!
Up next, do we take a chance and risk ordering the Melissa Sweet dress? Or do we go with our standby designer—J.Crew?
PSA: Listen up all June Brides- if you want your ladies to wear anything from the Melissa Sweet, Vineyard, or Priscilla of Boston collections—you must order your dresses within in the next couple weeks!
What brand of dress did your BMs pick out and how long did it take their dresses to ship?
Still deep in the trenches of looking for bm dresses but I absolutely LOVE that MS dress! Are those pockets I see??? Swoon.
I thought we’d go with Simple Silhouettes, but my BMs shot them down for being a bit too unforgiving (unless you’re amazingly svelte).
Next, I figured a dress with straps would be the way to go, and found some Jim Hjelms I LOVED. But my semi-busty MOH sister was popping out of the samples, so I knew it would never work on my chestier BMs.
Finally, I’m hoping we can settle (like you, Miss Peep!) on strapless — in our case, a beautiful kneelength Amsale. Seems like boobs work best all covered up. (And in case you couldn’t tell, I was NOT blessed in the chestal region, thus my lack of knowledge in this area.)
We ordered our dresses from David’s Bridal. It’s a fairly seasonal dress, so I called in late summer to check and see if the dresses were being discontinued into the fall. Sure enough, they were, and the deadline to order was in 2 days! I panicked and scrambled and got the dresses ordered (though they weren’t yet in the budget for all my girls). Over a month later, I went into David’s to purchase a simple blusher that I’ll use for my veil. Turns out the dresses were STILL on the racks and available to order. Talk about ticked off! I guess it’s better to be safe than sorry, though!
We went to David’s Bridal, then to a store that carried Simple Silhouettes, Charsa, Coren Moore, Amsale, and Wtoo. Some of the dresses were lovely but all in a price range that I couldn’t make my bridesmaids pay. Then finally to a House of Brides where we tried on an Alfred Angelo (simple, standard, strapless but flattering to both the girls who are blessed in the chest, and those who are not…) and the price wasn’t bad either.
I’m an early June bride myself so I need to order these dresses soon! They said 12 weeks!
By the way, I LOVE those Vera Wang bm dresses, Miss Peeptoe. I found a wedding where the bm’s wore that dress in purple and its been my inspiration ever since!
My sister (aka the “other” wedding planner) has chosen the J.Crew LBD in either of the 3 styles you’ve chosen, we just want the fabrics to match!
I heart J. Crew!
Had to add: Since she is the matron of honor, she wanted to pick out a style she would love to wear..she says they run true to style and size pretty much and I trust her! She used to own two boutiques!
i love the j. crew dresses, but if their heart is set on the melissa sweet dress, order now!
Honestly, if your girls like/fit into the J. Crew dresses (or even Anne Taylor, or Maggy London @ Macy’s/Nordstrom), I think that’s the way to go. Cheaper (custom-order BM dresses are never ‘on sale’), less alteration costs b/c they’re street sized, and wayyy less turnaround time. I’ve tried on Vera, Simple Silhouettes, Priscilla of Boston, and Thread (and worn Amsale) as a BM, and nothing ever struck me as being worth the price when compared to a good department store find!
Those last dresses look a lot like the ones I eventually picked out (of course, mine are blue, though.)
http://i150.photobucket.com/albums/s86/smokeyblue02/IMG_0198.jpg
I love Bella Bridesmaids - I went to the one in Chicago, and they had the prettiest store, and the nicest people - they even gave me tips on where to get my dress from!
Unfortunately we decided to get the BM’s dresses in the UK, but if we’d done it here I definitley would have gone for BB!
i lovvveee the Melissa sweet! my bms are going with Priscilla of Boston! and my dress is also from them!
My 4 bridesmaids wore the J.Crew bridesmaid dresses of their choice - all in chocolate brown. They loved them because they each got what they knew would look great on them. I loved them and my girls looked amazing! J.Crew was wonderful to work with. I know some comments above mentioned color variations between different fabrics. Two of my girls had cotton cady dresses, one had a silk chiffon, and one had a silk faille. The color variation was extremely slight. Hope this helps!
I loved an Amsale dress, but I couldn’t make my BM fork over that much for their dresses, no matter how much I liked them.
I ended up going with Bill Levkoff (floor length) & I actually negotiated the costs down a little before having my BM purchase them. Yay! Since they are floor length, the girls are going to wear whatever shoes they want– preferably ones they already have so they don’t have to buy new ones!
I was a little indecisive about picking the bridesmaids’ dresses, so I didn’t order until mid January. The dresses are taking about 8-10 weeks to arrive.
I found a few Priscilla dresses that I liked, and a Vineyard too… but those ones would take even longer to arrive, so I decided not to risk it.
If you’re going to order the Melisa Sweet ones, order today! Or tomorrow morning! Don’t wait! Can all of your bridesmaids pick them up? Because my store reminded me that the “ship date” is when they ship them from the factory to the store. My store would then have to ship them out to the bridesmaids, adding on a few more days!
The melissa dress is stunning!!! Can’t wait to hear how it turns out. 
The Melissa Sweet dress is one of my sister’s bridesmaid dress options! Two of the girls are wearing it. It is very beautiful andd flattering!
You’re not kidding! My own dress is Melissa Sweet and I figured it’d be fine to take my girls there to pick out their bridesmaid dresses over Christmas when everyone was in town (my wedding is in May). I got a stern talking-to from the saleswoman, who told me that she would have refused to place the order if we’d come in just one day later. Oops. The dress we went with is very, very similar to the Vera your sister is wearing!
We chose off the rack dresses from Victoria’s secret. It only took 2 weeks for them to come. I may be slightly gloating…. 
i used bella bridesmaid to buy my dress for my best friends wedding. the store might look great, but the customer service stops once you buy the dress. i went with jcrew for my bridemaids dresses. at least u can exchange things if a size doesn’t work out.
So pretty miss peep toe!! We went with the coren moore posie long.
I love the Melissa dress, but the J Crew options are great as well. I can’t wait to see what you all choose.
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Mrs. Peep Toe, San Francisco Age and Occupation: 29, Policy Analyst Fiance's Age and Occupation: 36, Olive Oil Production Manager Engagement Date: December 16, 2007 Wedding Date: May, 2009 Blogging Since: November 26, 2008 Venue: Hotel Vitale About Me: I am a west coast lady who loves the San Francisco Bay Area. I love living with Mr. Peep and our animals: Huck the Dog and Ferris the Cat. I work to save the environment in San Francisco, while Mr. Peep makes ridiculously delicious Olive Oil. On any day you can find me reading the latest book I have gotten my hands on, eating Swedish Fish, and perusing wedding blogs! We are both champagne drinking foodies on a Bud Light budget. We are planning an eco-chic, intimate, and interfaith San Francisco City wedding.
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