Weddingbee Blog

Bees, I went bridesmaid dress shopping this weekend, and I learned things. Lots of things. Like organza is not the same as chiffon. Beading = expensive. Proper lining is important.

I also learned that I can’t take these people anywhere:

This is Goober and Wrigley-T. They’re crazy for fashion.

Thank you, David’s Bridal, your patience knows no bounds.

Now, between Bossyboots’ two groomsladies and my seven bridesmaids, we have a whole heckuvalotta dresses up in here. Everyone’s spread out between Texas, Chicago, Arizona (and DisneyWorld at the time of shopping); so that meant the task of choosing The Hauteness was up to my three Chicago bridesmaids: Wrigley-T, Colo, and Goober.

We started the day by meeting at my house for breakfast quiche:

Yes, I used a store bought crust, and I apologize. I made up for it with cheese and heavy cream. Also nutmeg.

The four of us have a spirit of adventure, which often ends in disaster. I wanted to surprise them with champagne and gummy bear snack packs for our day of power shopping. Conversely, they wanted to surprise me with champagne and gummy bears for our day of power shopping. You can guess how that ended… three bottles of champagne, a family-size bag of gummy bears, and then four of their mini bag friends. Not a problem.

After stuffing our faces with quiche and a mimosa (each—we did not share a mimosa singlet), it was time to find The Hauteness.

Our day started at David’s Bridal. From the beginning, I suspected certain bridesmaids were going to be a problem.

First dress: we liked the neckline, but the hem wasn’t our favorite. Next!

Now we kinda liked the dresses pictured above. However, the capelet part of the skirt didn’t feel quite right, and Goober was not sure the belting on her dress was going to work out. The ladies must feel good in their dresses… NEXT!

Oh wow, a normal picture. They must have been coming down from a gummy bear high.

We actually liked this dress too (flattering, sexytime), but—as you can see above—it had magical powers that toned down their pleasing personalities. No go. Try again!

Now this dress had potential… fun, flirty, dancy, personality-plus. Let’s see what it looks like on everyone:

Happytimes High! Everyone looked cute. This dress *almost* landed itself on the short list. Colo brought up the point that the dress felt a bit young for us (you know, because we’re senior citizens). This was a good critique, and we ended up in agreement. For you twenty year olds… try it on. So fun to wear and swishy. You know you love a swishy skirt.

The staff at David’s Bridal was SO NICE and let me try on one of those White by Vera Wang numbers, even though I already have my wedding dress. This lady is a whole lot of dress, but super fun to wear. I loved it! Also, it made me look skinny. Wins on all fronts. If I were a two-dress bride, I’d be thinking about this! The White by Vera Wang bridesmaids dresses were fun to try on, too. The ones you see below were much loved by Goober, Colo, and Wrigley-T, but in the end, they didn’t exactly fit the bill. Vogue!

After the Vera fun, the Marx sisters really lost their minds and I had to hustle their booties out of there (minus ass-bows, of course). I don’t know if I am supposed to say “ass” on Weddingbee, but sometimes things just happen—you know, like when you were single and used to lie to your girlfriends about Friday night’s blind date. We all hit dry spells. Don’t be ashamed.

Oh Colo…put down your skirt. Put it down!!

Let me take a minute to praise David’s Bridal. We didn’t end up short-listing any of the dresses we found there, but we had a great experience. I was extremely pleased to find that they stocked a wide variety of sample sizes, so everyone could try on most any dress that caught their fancy. We appreciated that a great deal. Great marks from us!

Getting back to our regular program…we had a bit of a break before our second dress appointment, and we made the most of it:

For a moment, we considered ditching dresses in favor of LV handbags and totes. This lasted 30 seconds, as we soon remembered that we don’t usually like walking around in public naked. Well, except for that hussy who won’t put her skirt down.

FYI, I am actually looking for an LV fanny pack, so if you know where I can buy one, hook me up. No seriously, I’m looking for a Louis Vuitton fanny pack with buckles. Universe, bring it to me, please!

Our second and final dress appointment yielded our top two contenders… World, meet Player #1 and Player #2:

No jokes, we like these dresses. The price, cut, and color options were great. Score. At this point, we were ready to send the photos to our entire wedding party for voting. In fact, as you read this, the ladies are all sending in their personal picks!

Wrapping up our dress shopping meant it was Big Star taco lunch time. All that foolin’ makes a girl hongry!

We had the best day evarrrr. Really. My only tiny sad moment was that everyone in our bride/groom party couldn’t be there, but I know there will be many fun wedding events ahead where we’ll all be together. If this is how the wedding will be, then I can’t wait!

Were you able to take any of your bridesmaids dress shopping?