Weddingbee Blog

There’s nothing quite as jaw-dropping as an ugly bridesmaid dress. While there are some super cute styles out there these days, there are a TON of not-so-cute styles. While wading through the sea of organza, taffeta and satin, there were three things I was looking for in particular:

1. Not outrageously expensive. Like Miss Spaniel, I set a $200 limit - anything over and I would pay the difference.
2. Long and formal-ish. Our wedding is going to be somewhat fancy-pants, so I was looking for dresses that matched that.
3. Could possibly be worn again.

Unfortunately, these stipulations ruled out the gold lamé. Darn.

Source

My MOH/sister and I visited three stores that specialized in bridesmaid attire for “your special day” (shudder). There were quite a few doozies, but a few passed muster. The first that was “okay enough” was this champagne number by Amsale:

MOH-ster really liked this one, but it was a whopping $330! Whoa. That not only means that I’d max out the $200 limit, but I would also be forking out an additional $720 on top of that (since I’m paying for MOH-ster’s dress). Bleh. And while I felt the dress was nice enough, I didn’t think it looked amazing.

Next!

I loooved the color of this next one (although each dress could be ordered in any color) but once again, it was outrageously priced. Onward…

The next store had a wider selection, budget-wise, of bridesmaid dresses. The following actually was within budget, but the fit left much to be desired - even though this is a size 2 gal trying on a 12, something was off. Besides, look how thrilled MOH-ster looks to be wearing it:

… and so we moved on.

The next had a bit of an interesting back, but the front was pretty shapeless, despite some pretty severe clipping on my part.

As you can see, we were literally ankle-deep in BM gowns. I could just picture the headline now: “Two Asian Girls Found Smothered Under Pile of Not-So-Cute Dresses.”

By this point, we were getting frustrated and cranky, from the lack of appealing, affordable dresses as well as skipped snack times (girls’ gotta eat). At the third store, we found a dress that MOH-ster and I really liked:

so we inquired about the color options and price. I was disappointed to learn that the dress didn’t come in a midnight blue, but I was willing to consider the eggplant since I thought the style was quite beautiful. But THEN I found out that this dress was also way above budget. Come on, people!!

I was thoroughly disheartened after this bridesmaid dress search. Almost all of the dresses we saw were outrageously expensive for the quality received, not the most amazing styles, and honestly, not the most flattering (and all my BMs are petite and/or slender, so quite a few styles look good on them!). I felt as if the label of “Bridesmaid Dress” automatically yielded a price premium for compromised quality. What was a Hamster to do? Stay tuned…

Did you also have trouble finding nice bridesmaid’s dresses, or was it easy peasy?