The MOB dress has been found! Hooray!I really appreciated all the wonderful tips (and encouragement) from my previous post, Mama Trauma. When Mama Peppermint and I set out to find her dress, I was definitely nervous. I imagined hours of disappointment and frustration as we searched for something that would fit the bill. In truth, we did have some low-points, but all in all, we found a winner and actually had a great time shopping!
I have to second the tip to avoid bridal salons. The selection was modest and the prices were very high. Granted, we only browsed a small number of bridal salons with MOB dresses, but from that limited experience, we were disappointed.
When we arrived at the mall, our first stop was Nordstrom’s. I have to agree with Miss Corn, the selection was very limited. Online we had found a few things, but none of that was in the store! Fortunately, we managed to remain hopeful and continued on our way…
As it has been noted MANY times on the bee, it is next-to impossible to find a decent Mother of the Bride dress out there these days. The options seem to be:
- Boring beige (albeit with sparkles) MOB dress ordered from a bridal store. To be honest, this dress comes in a rainbow of colors, but it is still prohibitively expensive which is worse when you realize it will only get one wearing.

Does this look like your Mom??
I know I’m not the first to complain about this, but why is finding a Mother of the Bride Dress so hard?? My mom is petite which has made it that much harder. Not only can we not find any ‘regular’ dresses, but now we have an even smaller market to look at!
After months of searching, my momma *finally* found something to wear to the wedding.
Momma Eggplant always has a difficult time finding clothes that fit right because she’s pretty petite (which is where I inherited my 5’2″ genes). Usually the petite section of stores don’t have much to offer, but she found a simple pink dress on sale at Nordstroms for $108. My mother isn’t one who cares much for shopping or cutting edge fashion, so for the wedding she wanted to keep it simple and buy something off the rack. She’s extremely practical when it comes to clothes. If it’s comfortable, durable, appropriate, and most of all, inexpensive, she’ll wear it.
Now, where I inherited my awful shopping habit, I have no idea. ![]()

Well after two full weekends of shopping over the past few months, my mother and I finally found her a dress this past weekend! Hooray! My mother is petite and very fashionable, but has her own style. It would just not do to have her in a typical “mother of the bride” outfit. We went to every department store in NYC and finally found “the dress” at Bergdorf Goodman (on sale, thank goodness). I only have a quick shot of her in the dress with a camera phone — I promise to take more later.
My mother in her dress:

Hi,
My sister and I got married a few months apart but had very different weddings. I got married in a hotel ballroom in New York while she got married in Asia. I planned my whole wedding while she had to rely on others for advice and planning. Recently, she confided in me that she was unhappy with our mother’s lack of interest and participation through her wedding process and on her wedding day. My experience was different because I had complete control of my wedding and I delegated tasks to everyone in the wedding party. My sister, however, felt like she needed guidance because she wasn’t familiar with wedding traditions in Asia and our mother simply did not step up to help her even after she asked.
A good friend of mine got married last year and I noticed that her mother stayed behind the scenes. What are the duties or what kind of expectations do brides have of their mothers? How involved were your mothers? I usually hear stories of brides complaining about their mothers or their in laws getting too involved and not the other way around.
A
This year for mother’s day, I decided to be a little “cheaper” than usual and make my mother-in-law a gift rather than purchase one (bc of the wedding and all
).
The other day when I was at her house, I was making 2 dahlia pens for my bridal shower - apparently, she’s never seen a “flower pen” before - so she was all excited and told me “what a cool idea” it was.
Soooo, that’s how I came up with the idea to make her a whole vase full of flower pens for her to enjoy. (I used peonies and tulips - which is appropriate in the Vietnamese culture because the translation of ‘peony’ literally means ‘mother’ - a little useless fyi of the day!)
Here is what I made:

The ladies in my family are built weird, short and waistless. We have short torsos and carry most of our weight there, to add to the many reasons we loathe to shop for dresses and things like that. So, I guess you’d say we’re plus-sized, or just “not small”. 
Now that my gown has been found, and my FMIL has her gown set, my mom is lagging. I know she’s been waiting until the “right time” to shop, but honey, it’s now. Who knows if she’ll need alterations or something? So, I’ve got to point her in the right direction. But where to find petite large sizes?
I went to Chadwicks, the place where I’ve heard a ton of MOB dresses have been found, and loved this dress: Beaded jacket dress $159.00, in gold.

My mom has gone and done it…
She finally found a dress (it is incredible!) and has ordered it from NetBride. I know several of you have inquired as to the reliability of ordering from an online company and so far, we have been extremely happy with their service. I will keep you posted as the order progresses.
So, without any further ado…

The top color is champagne and the bottom is acorn. This picture makes it look much lighter than the dress really is. The dress is from Watters & Watters.
I can’t wait to see her in the dress! It is so pretty and motherly, without being frumpy. We had a really hard time finding the perfect dress for her, as they all seem like evening wear attire (which she did not want to look like she was going to the prom) or matronly and inelegant, so we were very happy when she tried this on and it looked beautiful!
Yesterday my future mother in law forwarded me a picture of the dress that she would love to wear for the wedding. Since she’s been a mother of the groom as well as a mother of the bride before, she wanted to wait for my mom to get her stuff, and then try to accent her dress, not overshadow.
According to these sites:(scroll down to the bottom), this is the tradition when it comes to the mothers of the groom. Mr. Kiwi’s mom is very traditional, and wants to do things according to the book (like the rehearsal dinner I posted about previously!) which I think is very nice.
Anyway, my FMIL ran this dress by me, and she wanted to make sure it was okay. Then she called this morning and said that if my mom is wearing a gold dress as we’ve planned, then she’ll wear beige, or a copper color. Because, and I quote, “She’s the star.” Well, actually, I’m the star, but whatever.
Kidding.