Weddingbee

You know that gorgeous song, ‘At Last’, by Etta James? The one that just makes your heart melt each time you hear it, even if it’s the umpteenth time? Yeah, that’s the one.

A lot of people use it as one of their wedding songs—to serenade them at the rehearsal dinner, to walk down the aisle to, or dance their first dance to. But me? I could NOT get that song out of my head the other day…

… the day I finally bought my bridesmaids’ dresses, that is!

Yep. After much pavement pounding, stressing out, extensive online shopping and a trip south of the border, I came full circle and found my bridesmaid dresses—at last—at a store right here in my hometown.

Argh!!!

I guess everything happens for a reason though.
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In my last post, I showed you about 30 purple bridesmaid-worthy dresses that I had come across in my online searches.

Sadly, although several were very lovely, almost all of them were out of our $100-but-if-we-find-one-for-$150-I’ll-ask-for-forgiveness-later budget range, and none of them sparked a twinkle in my eye.

So, bridesmaid Pepperpot (who just so happens to be my awesome cousin) and my brother’s wife, A. (who totally would have been a bridesmaid if she wasn’t going to be looking after my darling one-year-old niece) flew to Vancouver, and together, we three musketeers headed south for a road trip to Seattle.

Wait, did I say road trip? I meant shopping trip!

And at the top of our list: bridesmaid dresses.
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Haven’t we all be in a wedding where we’ve had to wear a hideous dress? And by hideous, I mean not only was the dress ugly, but it was an awkward length, and it probably cost somewhere around $300. Well, I don’t know about you, but I don’t like wasting money. Especially not on a lime green dress with a pink sash and orange tulle underneath (don’t forget the matching flip-flops and straw hat!), nor on a dress with shoulder pads that went out of style during the Brenda & Brandon years (90210, holla!). Whatever the bride told you, you absolutely, positively wouldn’t have worn such a dress again. It would have been so obvious to everyone around you that you were wearing a recycled bridesmaid dress!

Check these out. Tell me these aren’t hilarious!

From Ugly Bridesmaid Dresses, where people freely submit their own pictures.

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As I mentioned in Friday’s post, I’m still on the hunt for affordable, stylish dresses for the six ladies in my bridal party. Thus far in my search, it seems like in the bona fide “bridesmaid dress” world, there are two types of dresses: 1) decent (or even cute) but way overpriced or 2) cheap but . . . well, cheap. Designed by Blayne cheap. Cheaplicious.

I’ve thus been branching out in my search, looking for off-the-rack options. Let me show you what I found at the Nordstrom sale!

For those of you with ladies sized 10, 12, and 14, here’s an elegant dress for a formal wedding, on sale for $87:

[Image Source]

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Previously in the Purple BM Dress Series:

Purple Dresses: The Quest Begins
The One Where the Bride Takes a Chill Pill

After months of scouring the city on foot, I had finally found Nirvana—a lovely purple bridesmaid dress for my girls—only to have it pooh-poohed.

It was at that point that I realized I had only one place left to turn.

Oh sure, I had dabbled in it before, sending Miss P, Pepperpot, and Lil’ SIL a couple of links to random dresses I found by accident, but at that time I was just trying to get a feel for what they might have liked.

At the time, I wasn’t serious about it. While I’ve done plenty of online window shopping, I’ve never ever actually bought clothes online before.

I don’t know if you American gals know how good you’ve got it.
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I think I might have a problem. I’ve spent the past three months agonizing over what to dress my pretty bridal babes in. It has to be formal. It needs to be navy blue. The ladies insist it must be roomy enough to cut a serious (more likely than not, drunken) rug in. Easy enough, right? Wrong.

I have two bridesmaids and one maid of honor. That’s only three girls. And yet, I seem to have chosen three ladies with the most polar opposite body types (although the one thing they all have in common is being quite, um, endowed in the chesticular region). Now, I know it’s quite fashionable to dress ‘em up in different gowns that are all similar but are different styles, but I really love the traditional coordinating dresses. I mean, I big puffy heart matching bridesmaids, and matching in general!

I also have it in my head that I want the dresses to be floor length gowns. I’m not saying that my gals hate this idea, but I do distinctly remember my sister saying something along the lines of, “It’s a good thing Mom and Dad are buying my dress ‘cause I know I’ll never wear a long dress like that again.” A bummer, but probably true.

Lastly, we have the issue of the Island Bridesmaid. It would be nice if the dress could be ordered online, since one of my best friends/bridesmaids will be in the middle of the Caribbean until February.

All these factors add to my hesitation to make a decision. I’ve already turned to Mr. Lemonade, my parents, and many lovely random residents of the Great State for advice… perhaps you could help?
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Haute Cocoa, my bargain-loving alter ego, is baaaack. And look what she found! This stunning BCBG dress has a flattering empire waist, a gorgeous beaded tulle skirt, and comes in a charming blush color called “corozo”. It’s a little sweet, a little saucy, very stylish, and at under $100, very affordable.

[Image Source]

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In my last post, I was telling you about how Mr. Breezy and I had decided to take care of our girls’ bridesmaid dresses, and how I had taken it upon myself to find said dresses.

After more than three months of scouring the city’s stores, I came upon what I thought was the perfect purple bridesmaid dress at Jacob.

After I sent my girls the pictures, I got a reply from Miss P. She said she was in, so I went back and scooped up one for each girl, juuuuuuust to make sure that Jacob didn’t go out of stock or something.

Well, that turned out to be entirely unnecessary. Because when I went back a month later to return all the dresses, they still had oodles and oodles of them in each size.

I guess you could say I was overcautious.

Not to mention over-optimistic, over-exhausted, and over- OMIGOSH-ONLY-SIX-MONTHS-LEFT-WHAT-ARE-WE-GONNA-DOOOOO???

Yeah. Six months. Not six weeks. Months.

It was time for this bride to take a chill pill.
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When I called to ask my lovely maiden sidekicks to stand at my side on our wedding day, I didn’t take them out for a ‘will you be my bridesmaid’ dinner, or make them thoughtful gifts or even send them a card. It was before my days of obsessive wedding magazine/blog reading had begun, and I didn’t even know people did that.

But I did do one thing.

I told them that having them fly down to the Caribbean for our special day meant so much to me that I wanted to make the rest of the whole bridesmaid adventure as easy and stress-free as possible.

So I thought back on my own bridesmaid experiences (and two flower girl experiences), and tried to think of the most painful part of them.

Was it curling ribbon ’till the wee hours of the morning for favors? Stringing lights throughout the hall and angling all the chairs just so the night before? Trying to stuff a crinoline explosion into a bathroom stall and make sure she didn’t pee-pee on her wedding shoes?

Nope.
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The whole BM dress situation was a huge headache I brought onto myself. Let’s just say we were working with a long list of criteria and the perfect dress was impossible to find. The mister and I seriously considered just selecting a fabric so the girls could pick their own dresses, but since we’re limited to choosing an online Chinese dress vendor (each girl lives in a different city), we decided it would be easier for everyone to just pick out one single dress. We settled for a black dress for $110, which has beautiful embroidery on it. The dress is well made, but the piping turned out BURGUNDY instead of red like in the picture! I was upset for awhile, but having each girl return and repurchase dresses seemed too much to ask, so we’re living with it.

Here’s my MOH modeling the whole outfit:

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