Weddingbee Blog

The next phase was the Age of Mismatched Dresses.

Image via Cap Classique / Photography by Anjuli Paschall of Photorange Photography

People could choose one that fit their own body, style, and pocketbook. The cherry on top was this way, I wouldn’t be responsible for picking.

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…Miss Raccoon created an idea. Only this idea ended up not being an original and was not quite as phenomenal as the heavens and the earth. It was simple. It was the pencil skirt.

Image via The Bride’s Cafe / Photography by Nashville’s Phindy Studios

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Hey hive! I haven’t been up to much wedding stuff the last few days. Assignments and spic ‘n spanning the walls of our home for the repainting that’s coming up kind of took over. Wouldn’t it be great if you could put regular life on hold for a few months to look up pretty pictures and watch TLC shows?

Image via Merry Maids UK homepage

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It’s getting closer and closer to the wedding and I realized I haven’t even mentioned what our bridal party will be donning for the affair. Fairly early on in the wedding planning process, I decided I wanted my girls to wear short black dresses; somewhat similar to Mrs. Avocado’s girls.

Via Mrs. Avocado on Weddingbee

I have been in several weddings, and generally speaking, the dresses are frightening (I’ve got some pictures of flower girl dresses I wore as a child that make Ronald McDonald look fashionable) and most certainly will never be worn again. Let’s just say Miss Ticket does not look good in yellow…
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Over the Labor Day weekend, I took a trip with my mom and Mr. Aardvark down to Ohio to visit my grandpa. We also got to catch up with Mr. Aardvark’s parents and MOH MD. It was a very nice family-filled weekend with lots of chit chat, catching up, and just a splash of wedding talk. It was the first time I had been able to meet with MOH MD since becoming engaged, and though it was only a few hours, it was so nice to have some time with a member of the wedding party. As we were heading home, across four states, it got me thinking about my side of the wedding party. You see, as the title implies, I have five bridesmaids in five different states. That’s right: MOH MD is in Ohio, Flossy is in Nebraska, Red is in Minnesota, Sis is in Michigan, and OT is now here, in Wisconsin. That’s a pretty big spread!

So far it has not really caused any issues. Everyone is pretty computer savvy and email has been a life saver. Not all of the girls knew each other when we started, so I made a private Facebook group to facilitate stalking, or at least putting faces with names. That also seems to be working well. They are all such fantastic ladies I can’t wait to have them all in one place at one time!

Speaking of one place at one time, there has been some talk of a group-dress-shop-weekend in Chicago in the fall. This would be the best case scenario. All of us are very busy, but we should know in the next week or so whether or not our schedule stars will align to make this possible. (Keep your fingers crossed!)

If that falls through I think we may divide and conquer and have   “West of the Mississippi River” and “East of the Mississippi River” groups and shop that way. If that also proves impossible (hey, we are some busy ladies!) we will do a virtual group shop, in which everyone would go to her local store with a list of “contender” dresses. Take pictures, send pictures and comments, vote. For obvious reasons, the biggest one being I would not get to hang out with my ladies, this would be less than ideal.

Earlier in the planning process I isolated the dress styles pretty quickly and sent the following image out to my girls.
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Part two of the bridesmaids’-dress hunt began on a gray day in NYC, the day before Hurricane Irene was set to strike. I was feeling a case of the blahs.

I didn’t have high hopes for the first stop: Here Comes the Bridesmaid. The shop is located in an office building, which I didn’t realize when I made the appointment. Nothing wrong with that, but it’s a weird feeling walking into an office to look at dresses. I took the elevator up and found the office suite. Although not what I imagined, the store has a great selection. The sales associate pulled every single one of the dresses I hoped to have the girls try on. When the girls came in, we started the try-on.

We immediately had a case of the Goldilocks (this one’s too big, this one’s too little, this one’s juuust right—or not).

Image via The Dessy Group

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I am having the bridesmaid blues…literally and figuratively, it seems.

On top of being really picky about bridesmaids’ dresses (nothing stands out to me), I cannot find the right shade of blue on the right dress. Yes, this sounds ridiculous, but here’s my problem.

On the rare occasion a designer has the right blue, they do not have it available in a dress I like. Most designers go with the standard royal, navy, teal, and baby blue. Those aren’t really my colors. I want deep blue and deep green. Navy can work, but I’m not ready to settle on navy yet. I have hope.

One Friday afternoon, on a glorious half-day summer Friday, a few of my bridesmaids who were also free (i.e., the teachers, nurse, and student) met up at RK Bridal in the city. We looked through the racks, and I picked a few dresses that I had already spotted online and also let the girls pick out what they liked as long as it stuck with the overall look I was going for.

I had previously thought my solution was found with Wtoo’s sapphire/emerald combo. I loved the colors together, and although it is simple I thought it had a unique look to it. The first bridesmaids’-dress fail, however, was seeing my very favorite dress from the interwebs off the rack. Apparently I forgot how different online vs. real life can be.

Image via Watters

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With the girls picked, we needed a plan for bridesmaids’ dresses. OK, plan made: “Girls, go pick out a dress.” I offered no color, style, length, or sleeve guidelines. I think that it proved to be a little unnerving to my girls. Actually, I know BM C. Koala may have been ready to kill me at various points in her search. The only thing I asked was that they all wear cowboy boots. I’m not a particularly country girl, but there was no way that I was going to wear heels all day during an outdoor wedding. This bandwagon I wasn’t going to miss hopping on!

Image via Happy Go Lucky Wedding / Photography by The Nichols

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Remember my previous post on bridesmaids’ dresses? The one where I played the part of the gracious bride who left the dress decisions up to the girls? Well, I kind of went back on that a teeny bit. OK, maybe more than a teeny bit, but I’m still being flexible!

Dessy Twist Wrap Dress / Image via Dessy.com

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I have written a couple of times about bridesmaids’ dresses and different options I have considered. I started off wanting to just let my girls pick out their own dresses. I often dreamed of us frolicking in the white, powdery sand in gorgeously mismatched dresses.

Like these…

Photo by SugarLove Weddings via Polka Dot Bride

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I like to consider myself a rebel in some respects. I know it’s not wholly true, but it’s really fun to talk and blog about. So in continuing with the rebellious spirit of previous posts, I’d like to cover all the “rebellious” things that concern our wedding-party attire that have gone down so far.

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Several weeks after the first bridesmaids’ dress excursion, MOB, MOH, and Bridesmaid S met up in South Bend, Indiana at a bridal salon to try on more styles. I wasn’t able to make the trip out there, as it was during tax season and I was slightly busy.

The ladies did an amazing job at taking lots and lots of pictures and calling me with questions and opinions on what they liked best. I wanted my girls to be comfortable and like what they would be wearing, so I was happy for the feedback.

Warning: Picture-heavy post ahead! Because I wasn’t there, I don’t have style numbers for many of the gowns and I apologize for that.

B2 #B2078

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When it was time to look at bridesmaids’ dresses, my MOH, Bridesmaid S, and Bridesmaid K joined me and MOB at a shop near my house. We had an appointment, but when we walked in the door, there was no one around! We waited a few minutes and hollered out a hello or two, but still no one. We finally had to walk to the back of the store to find the associate. This rough start made me a little nervous, but I was determined to have a good experience and have fun!

I told the associate we were looking for floor-length dresses for a winter wedding and were looking for options in silver, pewter, or charcoal colors. She directed us to the right area of the shop and let us look at our leisure.

The girls knew I really liked dresses that had a brooch or beading embellishment—something to make them stand out and have a wintery feel. Other than that, I was pretty open to styles and suggestions.

Bridesmaid S in Belsoie #L1069

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Look, I picked out the bridesmaids’ dresses! Ha, just kidding ladies!

Image via Thecinemasource.com

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After doing some research on bridesmaids’ dresses, I knew I wanted my girls to wear something pretty, but not too stuffy and formal. It is a beach wedding, after all.

I happened to stumble upon Target’s website, and it turns out that they actually have some really cute dresses that could work as bridesmaids’ dresses. Here are a few of the cute dresses that they have.

Image via Target

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