Bride-to-be Blogger Alyse: Bridesmaid Dress Woes

iStockphoto courtesy of ThinkStock.com.

I’ve got no one to blame but the dresses.

Finding bridesmaids dresses has quickly become one of the more frustrating parts of wedding planning. I have, so far, been to four different shops with three different groups and still, no dresses. I could tell you about how indecisive I have been recently, and how I still cannot commit to colors. Or I could tell you about how my bridesmaids’ heights range from 5’3″ to 5’10” and how their ages range from 17 to 30. But why blame myself or my close family and friends when I can blame the selection?

Unlike searching for my dress—which I wanted to last only one day—I kind of knew that searching for bridesmaids dresses would take considerably longer. I looked at a lot of dresses online, but I was never super excited about any of them. I started the physical search at Van Cleve in Paoli. They have a great selection of popular designers, so I thought it would be a great place to start looking. I found a few that I liked, but the problem has been the color/style combination: I have found some styles that I like, but they don’t come in colors that I like. In some rare cases, I have found a color that I like but, of course, then, I don’t like the styles.

I went to a few more large-selection stores. One was a warehouse-type setting where we rummaged through loosely organized racks of dresses, elbowed our way to a dressing room and fought for mirror space with people who could definitely beat us in a fight. It was quite the experience, but hardly conducive to making a purchase. I also made a highly anticipated trip to the J.Crew Bridal Salon (I think that deserves its own post), but still, have come up empty handed. I even started looking at just regular non-bridesmaids dresses online, but just can’t commit.

After all of these unsuccessful attempts, I’ve decided that I will put bridesmaid dress-shopping on hold for a while. This might be one of those decisions that will benefit from a little pressure.

Was the bridesmaids dress decision easy for you, or did you struggle with it like me?

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