Weddingbee Blog

Let’s see, where did we leave off? Ah, yes: my BMs and I were headed to J. Crew with these dresses in our minds.

1. Arabelle dress from J. Crew

2. Juliet dress from J. Crew

3. Sophia dress from J. Crew

4. Taryn dress from J. Crew

While there, I wanted to:

a) see if the color was as nice in-person as it was online
b) see how the dresses fit on my gals
and c) make sure I liked the silk chiffon fabric.

Mr. CA and my mom ended up accompanying us to the store. Poor Mr. CA - we didn’t have an extra car that weekend for him to use, so I dragged him around to everything. It’s okay, though, because he was able to check out some fun socks and ties. And, wander over to the Apple store next-door.

Anyway, the fitting experience at J. Crew was a little, well, hectic. They didn’t have a separate fitting room area for wedding parties (which I found odd since they are one of the few stores that carries the wedding collection) so other people were trying on clothes at the same time in the same place. Which sort of annoyed me, because we were all crammed into one area of the fitting rooms. We at least had our dedicated consultant, who was grabbing us dresses and helping with fit, etc., and we did have enough fitting rooms reserved for each girl.

So, to the dresses! The fitting definitely involved a whirlwind of fabric, and dress-exchanging over the walls of the rooms.

Juliet
I was not huge fan of this dress going into the fitting. When the girls tried it on, it made their boob-area look a little saggy and weird (which they AREN’T!! obviously. they’re not 75 year old women, and shouldn’t be made to look like that), and I didn’t like the mid-calf length. I realize that can be altered, but I wanted to make things as easy as possible on the girls. So we nixed that style fairly quickly.

Sophia
This was one of the front-runners going into the experience. Several of my BMs have this dress already in different colors, and I wanted to enable my gals to have the option of straps. However, while they were trying the dress on, it was just sort of meh. The front where the straps come together at the boobs gaped a little, and it just seemed a bit ill-fitting. So we ended up nixing this one as well.

Taryn
My original inspiration, and the reason for this whole J. Crew dress extravaganza!! I actually liked this dress on the ladies - it fit them well on top, and I liked how the bottom was flowy. However, as some people have mentioned, the fit does make my teensy-tiny BMs look a bit preggo. I think where the top ends and the bottom flows out just gives that appearance, no matter how itty-bitty you are. A little like a muumuu. So, it wasn’t the MOST flattering. Plus, the way the top hits meant that my girls would be having to tug it up all day/ night. Which is annoying. But, I did still like the dress, and was keeping it in mind. Until they tried on…

Arabelle
To tell you the truth, this dress was my favorite going into the fitting, but I wasn’t sure if this would be the best fit on all of my BMs. However, when they actually tried the dress on, the style was super-flattering on all of them! My BMs are all stunning, but it’s not easy to find a dress that looks amazing on different people. This one did.

It has a built-in corset that offers a bit more structure than the other dresses. This means that ladies with larger or smaller boobs will get some extra hold up there. Plus, the way the top part hits at the waist means that it definitely gives more support than the Taryn dress, so they hopefully won’t have to be pulling up on it all night.

The clear winner of the day? Arabelle! So much for my idea of different styles in the same color and fabric…

{Silk Chiffon Arabelle dress by J. Crew}

My gals even got a discount for purchasing the dress that weekend. Score!

We were informed upon ordering that the dresses wouldn’t be shipping until June, which made me worried that they wouldn’t have enough time for alterations, but they ended up shipping in late March/ early April. So, they have all received their dresses in the mail at this point, and have assured me that they look great and love them (are you guys lying? I can’t tell… heh). So I am a happy bride.

Although the BM dress experience was a bit more stressful than I had thought it would be going into the process, I’m glad that everything worked out in the end. We found a dress that looks FAB on my ladies, and that will hopefully be comfortable enough for them to wear all day. I can’t wait to see them in all the bridal party pictures! Hooray!

How was your BM dress fitting experience? Were you able to be with the gals when they tried them on? Did you go into the store with one vision in mind, only to have it change after seeing the dresses in-person?