Weddingbee Blog

So all the bridesmaids had accepted…now what?

I was starting to think about bridesmaids’ dresses, but with all the inspiration and options out there, it was impossible to narrow down. I decided who better to ask for feedback than my bridesmaids themselves!

To get (honest, open) feedback, I decided to prepare an anonymous questionnaire via Survey Monkey. Judge away, but Survey Monkey was an amazing resource to me during business school—to choose team leads for projects, resolve team issues, and, most importantly, collect data.

Image via Survey Monkey

My goal was simple: see if there was any sort of consensus on color or style for the bridal-party attire (dress, shoes, accessories). Let’s face it, it’s rare for a bridesmaid to rewear a dress, no matter how thoughtful or stylish a bride is. By asking these women, my hope was that this was a step in the right direction in minimizing the chances of simply contributing a dress hanger to their spare closet.

So, here are the details of the survey. (If you’re nice and read to the end, you can even see the results.)

1. The colors for the wedding are navy and green (closer to a kelly green…a little darker), so the bridesmaids’ dresses would be in one of those two colors.

So, what would be your preference for a dress color?

• Navy
• Green
• Navy with a green sash/embellishment
• No preference
• I really like burnt orange better

2. I don’t want to dictate a dress for anyone, so here are a few options of how it could work…please rank your preference. (1 = most preferred, 4 = least preferred)

• Pick my own dress style (color would be given, multiple styles to pick from)
• Pick my own color (same style for all, would be able to choose green or navy)
• Pick my own color AND style (either navy or green, multiple styles to pick from)
• I want to just wear something out of my closet

3. What do you think seems like a reasonable dollar range for a bridesmaids’ dress?

• $100–150
• $150–200
• $200–250
• Money is no object—I’m rollin’ in the Benjamins

6. Any other thoughts/comments? Things you’d like to be involved in (cake tasting, floral/centerpiece design, bar tasting, etc.)? Advice on how not to be a bridezilla (if you don’t already think this is kind of making me one)?

There you have it, the six-question survey for the bridal party. As for the results, here are the highlights:

• They had no preference on dress color.
• They wanted to pick their own dress style (color given).
• They wanted the cost to be somewhere between $150 and $250 (skewed to under $200).
• They were OK with buying specific shoes for the wedding, but if they had a choice, they liked wearing silver shoes of their choosing.
• The idea of a fun accessory shopping trip was well received.

Now that you all know the results, when you see the bridal-party attire, you can judge whether I stayed true to their requests.

Did you ask your bridal party for feedback when making decisions?