Bride-to-be Blogger Carly: Finding My Bridesmaid Dresses!

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I’ve seen the movies (27 Dresses, Bridesmaids, etc.). I’ve heard the horror stories (frills and chills). The tales of Bridezillas and the ugly, awful dresses they force upon their innocent bridesmaids.

Between my girlfriends’ stories and the wonderful world of chick flicks, I have determined that the whole bridesmaid dress thing isn’t a favorite for most, with complaint topics ranging from fabric texture to color choice, from costing too much to looking too cheap, from too much booty, too little boob. How can you make everyone happy?

In my opinion, there is no such thing as one-size-fits-all when it comes to bridesmaid dresses. I’ve always been a fan of letting each girl pick a shape/style that looks best on her body. My girlfriends are not cookie-cutter, and I want them all to look and feel fabulous at my wedding! So I decided that I wanted to choose the color, and let each girl choose the style that best suits her.

Soon after getting engaged, I was browsing jcrew.com and I found myself clicking on the wedding section, just to take a peek. Clicking through the bridesmaid dresses, I absolutely fell in love with what they had to offer. I knew I wanted my girls in long chiffon dresses, and found a few styles on the website that were just gorgeous. On top of that, they had the color that I’d been imagining, a vey light mint-ish green. Only problem: the price. I had vowed to myself that there was no way I’d ask my bridesmaids to pay a fortune for their dresses. So I pinned the picture to my Wedding Pinterest board and prayed for a sale.

Having dinner with my best friend Jill one night I showed her the dress, with the disclaimer that I had no intention of asking the girls to shell out for it. Being the great friend that she is, she said she really liked it and wouldn’t mind paying a little extra for a great dress. Nonetheless, I resolved to keep looking, as there was plenty of time to find something else.

But, as luck would have it, a few weeks later I was doing some online shopping and navigated to J.Crew’s website. I decided it couldn’t hurt to click over to the bridesmaid dresses. As the site loaded, an ad popped up announcing a sale on two of the styles that I loved! Quickly I did some math and realized that the sale would knock $100 off the price tag, and put the dress at a price I was much more comfortable asking the girls to pay. Frantically, I emailed the link to my lovely ladies asking if they liked the dress, were okay with the price and, if yes to all of the above, which style and size should I order them? Much to my excitement all the girls were on board and I was able to order my six bridesmaid’s dresses the next day. J. Crew has bridal consultants you can call and place your order with, so I opted to place the order over the phone. Tip: you can score an extra discount by opening a J. Crew card, so I decided that I would do so and just order all the dresses myself.

A few months, and a couple of size exchanges later, all girls have their dresses. They all will require some hemming (be warned, J.Crew dresses run long), but I’ve seen the dress on three of my six bridesmaids, and I think they all look amazing. The girls ended up choosing two different styles: two will be in a gorgeous one-shoulder gown, and the other three in a sweet, strapless number. My sister, my maid of honor, will also wear the strapless version, but in a different color: rose-coral. I am ecstatic at the color and fit of the dresses, and know that each of these wonderful girls is going to look absolutely stunning on my wedding day! (Though they better look slightly less stunning that me … wink wink.)

How was your experience finding bridesmaid dresses? Was there any drama, or was it an easy-breezy search?

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