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When I first started shopping for BM dresses, I headed straight to one of my favorite retailers that carried BM dresses. I’d bought many regular dresses in the past there, and have always been happy with their styles and quality. Usually I spent around $80-$120 for dresses there, and figured their bridesmaid collection would fall in the same price range. I was a little bummed to learn that the dresses fell somewhere in the $200-$300 range, and eventually moved on to a more affordable bridesmaid’s dress designer. (I had great success with the online retailer House of Brides, which carried the dresses we chose for $50 less than any local boutiques. My only advice is to order as early as you can from them [15 weeks + if you can], and you shouldn’t have any problems!)
Everyone has an ideal bridesmaid’s attire price in their heads, and we thought it would be interesting to do a few polls to see what the hive is paying these days for BM gear!
Are you surprised by any of the above results?
We’re going with J. Crew bridesmaid dresses. The dresses are over $200, but J. Crew had some amazing sales over the holidays for up to 30%, which dropped the dresses down into the ~$150 range (much more reasonable in my opinion). I told my BMs about the sales, and encouraged them to buy their dresses at that time. Only 1 took me up on that. I feel like I’ve tried my best to keep the costs down for them. At this point the rest of them may be paying full price, unless another sale comes up soon…
I managed to find my bridesmaid dresses four days after getting engaged: an Ann Taylor Celebration strapless dress marked down from $200 to $34 with shipping. Needless to say that made the decision for me. Also, it was only available in a purple hue so guess what? That decided one of my wedding colors. With that price not one bridesmaid complained about not being given a choice in the matter. They all ordered their dress ASAP. Easy peasy:)
Once I found a group of dresses in a color I liked, available in everyone’s sizes, for $75 on J Crew, I just bought them all and had the girls pay me directly. They weren’t anything like what I had in mind, but it was an easy decision, because it was SO much easier than picking one, looking at it, having everyone order it, dealing with alterations, etc.
I bought one BM’s dress and another bought her own on cyber monday when Ann Taylor had everything 40% off. My last BM doesn’t want to buy a dress till she loses some weight and now I have a junior bridesmaid I wasn’t planning. I think she can just buy a non-matching dress and I’m giving her $100 for her birthday next month so she and her mom can go shopping.
I kept my eyes open for great cocktail dresses at department stores and found a lot of beautiful dresses in the 50-100 price range. I never understood why so many brides buy “bridesmaid” dresses when a lot of non-wedding dresses are nicer and cheaper. I often feel like anything named “bride” in retail is marked up 100%.
I’ve told my BMs to wear a knee-length-ish purple dress, silver shoes, and whatever accessories they want. Ideally, they’ll either pull stuff from their current wardrobe or use this as an excuse to go shopping and buy something they like. They all have such radically different body types that it would have been impossible to find a dress that flattered them all, and I’ve really been digging on the mis-matched dress look.
my answers seem to fall within the majority at the moment. i wouldn’t expect my girls to spend more than $200 for the entire shebang and hopefully i can keep it below that!
Jcrew and Ann Taylor were too expensive for me and not dressy enough! Go figure. I kept the price under $160 as I think any more than $200 is just ridiculous. I paid close to $300 for my sisters BM dress and it was the most hideous thing that I will never wear again. I vowed not to do that to my ladies, and they can choose their own shoes and I’m buying the jewelry.
I was going to go with the Dessy Twist dress (AKA chameleon, infinity or convertible dress). But after seeing the actually dress and the 200+ price tag, my mom decided that she could either make them or just have a seamstress make them for very cheap. They are on Etsy for about 80, but we are going to try to find someone local and see if we can get an even better price.
I think it’s so interesting to see that the dream dress category is 200-300, but almost no one thinks that’s a reasonable amount for a dress alone! Come on designers, get with the program!!
I’m not asking my friends to buy a specific dress, just give them some guidelines of what NOT to wear (any kind of jersey material… we’re having a semi-formal wedding, I think).
I agree with G-Piggie; sad that so many people’s dream dresses are so much costlier than what we’d like to pay!
I think the hardest part for me is that I typically buy really cute party dresses for $150-$200 ish that have a lot of fun detailing and interesting fabrics, so it was a bit of a bummer to see plain, cotton dresses or even synthetic fabrics for well over $200 when it came to BM dresses!
I loove a few ones that I found that were in the 200+ range… umm no. And there are LOTS of great deals to be had if all your girls are in teh same area (a la South East or North West etc so that all the stores carry similar line) and SUPER easy choices if all your girls are of a similar (smallish) build. But the reality have having my girls range from big to boy figure, and from New York to Hawaii meant it was ordering for us! So I picked a company and let them pick their own because the dresses only ranged about $30 from each other.
@Miss Guinea Pig: I agree completely. We should start a petition! LOL!
my votes pretty much went with the majority. I’m about to be in 2 weddings- but no bridesmaid dresses have been chosen yet- so time will tell 
@Penguin, one of my complaints when I was a BM in weddings wasn’t necessarily the price of the dresses, but it was the fabrics and materials. If I’m going to spend $200, I want a quality fabric.
My BM bought dresses on Final Sale at JCrew and no one spent more than $75! They all wore shoes they already had, so I felt good about helping them save a little money.
So interesting, I was just talking about BM dress prices with one of my BMs today!
Everything that I love is in the 200-300$ range, but I really can’t ask them to do that. I’m at a loss for what to do. 
I’m not picking a specific dress, just giving them some ideas of things I like (they said they needed more guidance than just “a knee length black dress”) and things that I’m not very fond of (things that wouldn’t be appropriate for our church ceremony). I want them to love it and be able to wear it again. I’m not picky about shoes either. Just black. Hopefully the flexibility will offer plenty of opportunities to cut on cost.
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Mrs. Penguin, Northern California Age and Occupation: 27, Weddingbee Editor in Chief Fiance's Age and Occupation: 30, Doctor of Physical Therapy Engagement Date: January 29, 2007 Wedding Date: June 7, 2008 Blogging Since: September 14, 2007 Venue: Winery in the Gold Country About Me: I love the Spice Girls, dogs with underbites, bean burritos, making messes, high fives, avoiding showers, crossword puzzles, blogs, weddings, and blogs about weddings!
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