Weddingbee

Unless you give her free reign to pick the dress, let’s face facts. She will NOT wear it again. So if it’s going to be a one-off, why not buy something as inexpensive as possible?

Yesterday Creature Comforts had a feature on when to save and when to splurge for weddings, and her illustration included a bridesmaid dress from Forever21. Brilliant!!

If your ladies can rock a short skirt (the longest of these models is only 33″ from the shoulder, warns the Amazon…), there are some surprisingly great options.

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I know that you are eagerly waiting to hear the story of Miss Coconut’s first bridezilla moment, right?!?!  Okay, so picking up from Part 1, I had scored some awesome, affordable bridesmaid dresses from J.Crew, but the color bothered me a little. Fast forward to Memorial Day weekend, when we found those kick-butt sport coats for the groomsmen, NOW the color really bothered me. I felt that our bridal party was too bland, too Mr. and Miss Gap if you know what I mean. I wanted a punch of color, and this time I wasn’t afraid.

I went directly to my laptop, well it was already in front of me, but whatever and went to my beloved J. Crew, and began perusing their sales. It just so happened they were offering an additional 20% off, and you know how Miss Coconut loves a good bargain (by Mr. Coconut association). Now, I didn’t want to shamelessly copy everything that inspired our groomsmen attire, but I did want something bright.

I was also looking for something non-strapless and non-bridesmaidy because one of my bridesmaids is well endowed. Which, I always think that’s a good thing but it means she can’t comfortably wear a strapless dress, so that was my new requirement.
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When it came to our bridesmaid dresses, I knew 2 things. One, it would not be expensive and secondly, it would not be a typical “bridesmaid” dress. You know the ones I’m talking about - they’re ordered at a bridal salon, take 3 months to arrive and then it doesn’t even fit properly? Now, I don’t mean to disrespect anyone who has gone this route. To be sure, those dresses are beautiful and sometimes necessary for a formal wedding, but I wish more brides would start choosing simple cocktail dresses. Honestly, I think it’s less stressful than ordering from a bridal salon. To future brides-to-be who are looking for bridesmaids dresses, don’t be afraid to go against the grain. As Flor said in Spanglish, “Just try it on.”

You may recall I love J.Crew, so naturally I began stalking their frequent online sales for a dress. This was back in October of 2007, when I was a good 7 months away from discovering my true color scheme. First mistake: I picked out the dresses way too early. Mr. Coconut kept telling me it was too early, but I couldn’t pass it up. I had found some brown strapless dresses for $39.99. Seriously! I was trying to save my girls some money, so I didn’t really think about whether I liked it or not, I just went with it. They were quite pretty and brown was such a basic color, I thought anything I picked would go well together. (Hint: This is called foreshadowing.)

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Like many, my bridesmaids live all over the country and won’t be coming to Colorado until the wedding. In addition, they are all different sizes and heights from 5’1″ - 5′ 11″, size 0 - 14. I wanted to find them a dress that they could potentially wear after the wedding, made them feel comfortable, and universally looked good on each bridesmaid. My mother also graciously offered to pay for the dresses, so I had wanted to find them for under $100 each.

Back in November, I was surfing the internet at work (I know I am a bad employee!) looking at the Ann Taylor Celebrations dresses. Luckily, they were having a sale on the Chloe Dress in Espresso. It was brown which fits with our wedding colors, A-line to fit all the different body types, and at $79.44 I couldn’t beat the price.

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My original plan for the BM dresses were damask b&w prints, and I haven’t really found anything I’ve liked so far. So these are my final choices for dresses. Here are two that are pretty decent. I have one word: pockets!

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(think Christian from Project Runway when saying “fierce”) 

To help you guys get a better idea of what we’re basing the tuxes/dresses around, here is the color palette we’re working with:

For the ladies, they will be wearing navy dresses with brown ribbons from Priscilla of Boston. It took me forever to find something that was somewhat vintage-inspired and something the girls could see themselves being able to wear more than once, but I think we did it! As far as shoes and accessories go (along with brooches), I told my bridesmaids they could all choose whatever they wanted to go with their dresses, since each of them has such a unique sense of style.
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Unfortunately for my bridesmaids, I found the dress I wanted them to wear before I even got a chance to formally invite them. (Way back in December.) This was a bit distressing to me because I wanted to do things “the right way,” but I had to move to buy the dresses right away because they were in a color that was being phased out with the winter stock.

( Sophia silk dress in Vintage Burgundy )

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Although I could whip up the most awesome purse in a matter of minutes, I’ve only half finished many-a-clothing-projects. But I’m happy to report that I successfully made a test dress. Becoming disillusioned with finding the perfect cocktail style BM dresses on macys.com, and fueled with a bit of frustration and rage, I went out and bought patterns even though I abhor patterns like I abhor sewing pins.
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Most people are hesitant to order from an online bridal gown/bridesmaid gown website like HouseofBrides.com. I know I was…until I saw that the bridesmaids’ dresses that we wanted were $60 cheaper online than in-store and I said…why not?

Bill Levkoff #455, House of Brides.com

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