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Mrs. Cowboy Boot, Santa Fe Age and Occupation: 25, Magazine Editor Fiance's Age and Occupation: 29, Artist and Whitewater Rafting Guide Engagement Date: April 28th, 2008 Wedding Date: October 2009 Venue: Devil's Thumb Ranch, Colorado About Me: I grew up in Los Angeles and have since lived in San Diego, Boston, Italy, Hawaii, New York City, and Santa Fe. I speak Italian and love pasta. My real passion is the outdoors, though. When I'm not at work, I'm snowboarding, hiking with my two dogs, mountain biking, surfing, cross-country-skiing, or boating New Mexico's rivers. Despite my boyish love for adventure, I'm a girly-girl at heart and am overly-excited to pull off the romantic, vintage-inspired, country wedding of my dreams.
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Hive, I’ve finally made a decision on bridesmaid dresses. Thank you for voting and giving me your opinions! They were so helpful. What I’ve come up with is a collaboration of all of my thoughts so far.

After filling you in on my idea to use various J.Crew dresses (thanks to their many color-coordinated dresses right now), I hoofed it over to the store. I was a little worried that some of the dresses would be too casual, and, boy, was I right. They didn’t have the dresses I was interested in there (regardless of the fact that some weren’t b-maid dresses), but they had other items in the same fabrics, so I was able to nix anything that wasn’t dressy enough. (And, thanks to reader Slicey19 for telling me that linen wrinkles easily).

After my little research trip to J. Crew, I wrote an e-mail to my bridesmaids to present them with their options. I really wanted to make them adorable handwritten letters with printed pictures and swatches, but I was too worried that one of the dresses would sell out. And, I was anxious to share my thoughts with them and get theirs.

So, here you go. My bridesmaid dress choices. Finally. The girls will be able to pick from these:

Option 1: Embossed Cotton Printed Lorelei Dress. Color: Papaya. $118.



Option 2: Any of J. Crew’s silk chiffon knee-length styles in Light Shell. $165-$180.


Option 3: Any of J. Crew’s silk chiffon knee-length styles in Deep Rose . Again $165-$180. This color becomes available in August.

Thanks Ashley from J. Crew for sending me images of fall’s selections

And, for all you Sarah Seven lovers out there, this is still an option. For the girls who liked these custom dresses, they can choose one of four styles from her and get them in a coordinating color. Here are their four options:

The Tulip Dress

Raspberry Perfection Dress

Peachy Keen Dress

Flock Dress

The last option is for the girls to find dresses elsewhere, but to run them by me before they buy anything. I don’t want to be a bridezilla, but I’ve put so much work into making it look coordinated, too. It’s so hard to balance all of that.

Next, I’ll be getting a few swatches in the mail, as well as the printed Lorelei dress to try on. Hopefully, these swatches will confirm my final decision. If not, well, you’re in for another round of bridesmaid dress drama.

So far, two out of five bridesmaids are opting for silk chiffon J. Crew dresses, while another wants a Sarah Seven dress. I haven’t heard from the final two yet. I can’t wait to see what they pick.

Did you have trouble balancing bridezilla-ness, and letting go completely? I’m hoping I’ve found a good balance.

Tags: |   Link for this post | Share this post: Dear Bridesmaids: Here Are Your Dress Options      
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28 Responses to “Dear Bridesmaids: Here Are Your Dress Options”

1.
WorstTwinEver15
Member
WorstTwinEver15 (message)  760 posts, Busy bee

Cute options! I love the look and shape of the Lorelei dress!

 
2.
msashleymarie
Member
msashleymarie (message)  374 posts, Helper bee

I think those are great options for your BM’s Miss Cowboy Boot!

 
3.
Member Icon
Member
mrsbear (message)  156 posts, Blushing bee

gosh I am loving the lorelei dress. LOVE LOVE. As for your bridesmaid dress scheme, I think what you have planned is going to produce a beautiful beautiful aesthetic!

 
4.
LatteLove
Hostess
LatteLove (message)  4,095 posts, Honey bee

those are all great choices! I would love to be a bridesmaid and pick out one of these dresses. They’re all so flattering and rewearable!

 
5.
Bee Icon
Bee
Miss Snapdragon (message)  438 posts, Helper bee

These are great. If I were your bridesmaid, I’d either pick option 1… or splurge and go for a Sarah Seven. It’s funny, the “coordinating, breezy options” look takes a ton of work to put together!

 
6.
Miss Gem
Member
Miss Gem (message)  22 posts, Newbee

What great options! I would be SO happy to pick one of these dresses!

 
7.
Guest Icon
Guest
kvp

How did you figure out what colors are coming up in the next season? and how did you get swatches of them? I’m intrigued…

 
8.
Natakie16
Member
Natakie16 (message)  493 posts, Helper bee

These are going to look great together, I hope everything works out for all of you!

 
9.
Guest Icon
Guest
myDIYweddingday

What a great way to go about this — I love the look of all different bridesmaid dresses, but it would be so easy to end up looking messy if you just told each bridesmaid to get a dress in a specific color. The way you did it is perfect… and I LOVE the dresses you settled on, especially the J. Crew ones. I’d be happy about this as a bridesmaid, too — nice to have some selection in what you’re getting. And they’re totally dresses that could be worn again. Yay!

 
10.
Miss Deviled Egg
Bee
Miss Deviled Egg (message)  893 posts, Busy bee

I really like #1 and #2. I really like the look of coordinating dresses and the ones you picked will work so well together. I’m sure your ladies will look fantastic in whatever they choose!

 
11.
Guest Icon
Guest
Michelle

I can’t tell you how much I appreciated this post. I am new to Weddingbee, and I am officially hooked! I am planning to do coordinated but not matching bridesmaids dresses as well, and I have been going crazy because it seems like no one else has done this! I absolutely love the dresses that you picked out, and I think that you couldn’t be less bridezilla! :-)

 
12.
Bee Icon
Bee
Miss Peep Toe (message)  1,636 posts, Bumble bee

Those options are so fantastic!!! Good Work CB!!! I’d love to be one of your bridesmaids!

 
13.
Bee Icon
Bee
Miss Cowboy Boot (message)  259 posts, Helper bee

@kvp: Heya! You can e-mail their wedding specialist Ashley@jcrew.com. I hounded her for a couple of months for images of the fall styles. The images were just released last week. They don’t have swatches of fall fabrics yet–just current ones–but they will send them to you if you request them. Also, you can go on their wedding section of jcrew.com. Click “bridesmaids”. Then click “color swatches” down on the left. At the top you’ll see “Summer 2009″ in bold. To the right of it (very faintly) you can see Fall 2009. That will give you an idea of what colors will be available in August. For new dress styles, Ashley can send you the images.

 
14.
Bee Icon
Bee
miss mouse (message)  3,324 posts, Sugar bee

Great way to give your bridesmaids the choice to buy a dress they will wear over and over again! I can’t wait to see what they all look like together.

 
15.
AbbieOinCO
Member
AbbieOinCO (message)  146 posts, Blushing bee

I love the choices that you’ve give them. Those colors will look fantastic!

I actually felt like a bridezilla after the 5th go-round with the bm dresses. I finally had to say ‘enough!’ I wanted everyone to get what they wanted, but after many JCrew returns, rebuying and back and forth, I had to cut the opinions off.

 
16.
MightySapphire
Hostess
MightySapphire (message)  2,608 posts, Sugar bee

I had no problems with the bridesmaid dress…I think I’m supposed to be overworked about it, but it never interested me. I want my MOH to feel beautiful and be happy, no matter what style she is wearing. So I told her YELLOW and PRETTY. That worked, and she’s happy!

 
17.
Guest Icon
Guest
NikkiC

Miss Cowboy Boot…may I just say…you get me. And my wedding. I love your posts…and your realizations only help me make sense of my own wedding. I am playing with the same colors for bridesmaids dresses and decor…so thanks for the research!! wedding love<3

 
18.
Guest Icon
Guest
sally

The aqua dress is sooo cute!

 
19.
Member Icon
Member
xLailax (message)  234 posts, Helper bee

Gosh, what I wouldn’t do for that Tulip Dress! *Swoon*

 
20.
Miss French Bulldog
Bee
Miss French Bulldog (message)  6,067 posts, Bee Keeper

Great choices :) How lucky for your BM to have you do all the work for them… I was in a wedding where I had to choose a black tea length dress and then run it by the bride. It wasn’t easy finding the dress on my own and then getting her picky approval. I love that you gave them options but still let them decided what they wanted to wear. I can’t wait to see all the girls in their choices :)

 
21.
Member Icon
Member
browneyes (message)  83 posts, Worker bee

I had a little trouble balancing the bridezillaness! I also picked out options for the ladies to wear. I must say this part was one of the hardest and longest things to do because there were few designers that carried the shade of color that I wanted that were affordable. At some point, I think some control was good - I felt most of my bridesmaids wanted to make sure that I liked what they chose (even though I already “chose” those dresses) while I tried to please them!

 
22.
Guest Icon
Guest
LPC

OK. These rock. That’s all.

 
23.
Lillindy
Hostess
Lillindy (message)  4,269 posts, Honey bee

You have the luckiest BMs ever…makes me wish I was one of them! I would probably pick option #2…or possibly splurge on a custom dress.

 
24.
mrspaetz
Member
mrspaetz (message)  1,707 posts, Bumble bee

very pretty. i can’t wait to see how it all comes together :)

 
25.
Miss Gloss
Bee
Miss Gloss (message)  1,057 posts, Bumble bee

Yay for JCrew b.maids!!
Great choices - I love how light and flowy they all look!

 
26.
Guest Icon
Guest
heavnzbrat

#1, Lorelei all the way!

 
27.
touchdownkatie
Member
touchdownkatie (message)  31 posts, Newbee

I had all of my bridesmaids order J.Crew dresses for my wedding next month and as a side note - for whatever reason, this season’s weddings & parties collection ran REALLY big. So big that almost all the girls had to send their dresses back for a smaller size. The return was no problem, just something I thought should be mentioned.

Example: My maid of honor would usually take between a 4 and 6, is pretty busty, and the size 2 is a little big on her. (We ordered the Loreli and Delores in silk taffeta) It could just be the fabric, but thought you should know!

 
28.
Bee Icon
Bee
Miss Labrador (message)  1,325 posts, Bumble bee

I like them all but I’d love to have the 3rd option in my closet afterwards!

 


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Mrs. Cowboy Boot Mrs. Cowboy Boot, Santa Fe Age and Occupation: 25, Magazine Editor Fiance's Age and Occupation: 29, Artist and Whitewater Rafting Guide Engagement Date: April 28th, 2008 Wedding Date: October 2009 Venue: Devil's Thumb Ranch, Colorado About Me: I grew up in Los Angeles and have since lived in San Diego, Boston, Italy, Hawaii, New York City, and Santa Fe. I speak Italian and love pasta. My real passion is the outdoors, though. When I'm not at work, I'm snowboarding, hiking with my two dogs, mountain biking, surfing, cross-country-skiing, or boating New Mexico's rivers. Despite my boyish love for adventure, I'm a girly-girl at heart and am overly-excited to pull off the romantic, vintage-inspired, country wedding of my dreams.
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