Dressing the Women Folk: Bridesmaids

All but one bridesmaid is wearing Alfed Angelo. Photo by Jason Angelini.

That's exactly how I envisioned my ladies to look: fabulous in mixed, black, chiffon, knee length numbers. There are a bunch more examples of complementary bridal party garb on a fellow bride's blog here and here. I thought it was going to be easy. I pick the designer, pick the color, pick the fabric, and let the girls choose the neckline and shape.  Good LORD I was wrong. PSA to all brides out there: your bridesmaids want more direction than that. They basically want you to tell them what to wear. They want to please you! Or maybe that's just my ladies, they're the best.

My ladies and I hit up a bridal boutique called Charolotte's Weddings in Beaverton, OR. They carried both Jasmine Bridal and Alfred Angelo. I had looked at both lines and they seemed to have what I thought I was looking for. As it turns out, while the dresses that had caught my eye were chiffon, they had way too many layers and were heavy. What's the problem? The wedding is in August, in Boston. Hello heat and humidity! New England natives may think that humidity isn't that bad. Remember, it's called relative humidty for a reason. Compared to Oregon, any amount of humidty in the summer is too much. The girls need light airy dresses that are breathable.

We also hit up David's Bridal since it was just up the street and this would be the last chance we had to shop together. This time we put the kids in the stroller (I forgot to mention our ring bearers were there too!) and I was able to interact with the girls more and actually pick through dresses. Talk about slim pickings. Apparently chiffon dresses are hard to find. Bridesmaid dresses are mostly satin, some other shiny fabric, or even worse...jersey. Jersey knits are not flattering unless you are Gisele Bundchen. And I do not want shiny bridesmaids.

The girls humored me and tried on some dresses at David's. No winners here. BM J is obviously not excited about me and my camera.

For the time being, I'm going to forget about the bridesmaid dresses until next year. Maybe JCrew will have new stylings released by then. And until then, I'll succumb to the idea of matching dresses. They're not so bad right?

Photo from The Knot.

Photo from The Knot.