bridesmaid dresses

[caribqueen]

The wedding dress and BM dresses are a big deal for me, because I take fashion seriously and I want to make sure my girls look good. I have a bunch of questions and I thought I'd just lay them all out here and see what, if any kind of help you girls could offer. My wedding is a little over a year away, and yes I have time, but it'll be held in my hometown which is thousands of miles away from where I live now. Because of that, I'll have to condense some wedding planning into a few short trips. On my next trip home in July, I hope to finalize my wedding dress as well as bridesmaid dresses to give them ample time to get their money together. (It's not in FI and my budget to pay for dresses). My wedding colors are berry, sugar plum, and cream/ivory.

Question 1: What is a reasonable cost range for bridesmaid dresses?
Question 2: How important is it that it matches the wedding dress?
Question 3: To do something different, I'd like to have all BMs wear the same style dress but the MOH wear berry and the 6 BMs where sugar plum (I was hoping for some sort of ivory sash or embellishment like that to bring them all together in a uniform look. (I plan to wear an ivory gown). What do you guys think of that idea for BMs?
Question 4: Are there any places/companies that you guys can refer me to for CURRENT BM fashions at reasonable prices? (my BMs are somewhat spread out, so a company that is located in lots of cities would be great).
Question 5: We are having a formal wedding that will begin at 4 p.m. followed by a cocktail hour/reception at a venue. Do the BM dresses have to be floor-length? Would cocktail length be okay? Is it bad to go shorter?

I think this is it for now. Please help.

 

[Sparkalicious]

Question 1: What is a reasonable cost range for bridesmaid dresses?
- I found that the average was somewhere between $150 - $300+

Question 2: How important is it that it matches the wedding dress?
- I don''t think that it''s important that it "matches" your wedding dress so much as matches the theme and general feel/style of your wedding

Question 3: To do something different, I''d like to have all BMs wear the same style dress but the MOH wear berry and the 6 BMs where sugar plum (I was hoping for some sort of ivory sash or embellishment like that to bring them all together in a uniform look. (I plan to wear an ivory gown). What do you guys think of that idea for BMs?
- This sounds like a great idea and immediately thought that something like this Jim Hjelm dress might be nice to try to pull together a uniform look.
- What might also work is allowing your bm''s to pick the style dress they want from a particular collection providing that it falls within your stated parameters with regards to the following:
- length
- fabric
- color etc...

Question 4: Are there any places/companies that you guys can refer me to for CURRENT BM fashions at reasonable prices? (my BMs are somewhat spread out, so a company that is located in lots of cities would be great).

- Some recommended designers to fit your fashion forward yet budget conscious needs might be ... (just click on the names to go to the links)

Jim Hjelm
Bari Jay

Priscilla of Boston - Any of the lines, Priscilla of Boston, Melissa Sweet or Vineyard Collection

Jasmine Bridal - Any of the lines, Belsoie or B2

Additionally, all of these lines are widely available nationally.

Question 5: We are having a formal wedding that will begin at 4 p.m. followed by a cocktail hour/reception at a venue. Do the BM dresses have to be floor-length? Would cocktail length be okay? Is it bad to go shorter?
- BM dresses do not need to be floor-length, however, if you plan on having a significantly formal affair, it might be suggested given that you wouldn''t want your guests to arrive more formal in appearance than your bms .... This being said, there are plenty of formal and fashionable cocktail/tea lengths bm dresses available.

Best of luck to you ... I hope that this helps.

 

[Squirrly]

1. depends a lot on the financial security of your bridesmaids. my girls will all be either fresh out of college or still in so my limit is fairly low. when i''ve been in weddings i''ve generally been willing to pay more than the others because i have a yearly formal event to wear the dress at, often the other bridesmaids do not. iv''e found many dresses i''ve liked for 150 or less.

2. matching the wedding dress can have a nice cohesive effect, but so long as the bridesmaids match in some way (style, color, similar colors) the effect is still pretty uniform.

3. your idea sounds lovely. one of my friends let her bridesmaids pick anything so long as it was the same color, and i believe they had the same skirt, but they each wore a sash and they looked wonderful.

4. from my experience david''s bridal has been wonderful for when all of us bridesmaids were spread out, they''re a fairly common chain and, at least in my town, very helpful. they just added new dresses to their collection and one of them has a top that can be worn 6 different ways if i remember correctly.

5. there are very formal and classy styles in both tea-length and full length gowns and you could always accessorize a shorter dress (gloves, matching shoes, hairstyles and jewelry) some even come with wraps, though i''ve used one in both of the weddings i''ve been in and trying to keep that thing at a remotely uniform height as the others while worrying about bouquet/bride''s train/runaway little flower girl/moving arm and messing up height when being escorted isn''t the most enjoyable.

 

[caribqueen]

Thank you ladies so much for your suggestions. I already feel a little less overwhelmed. This is more work then I thought it would be.

 

[havernell]

Q4: Some of the current Ann Taylor bridesmaid dresses come in a color called "Rosette" which I would say is like a berry color (I have no idea what color sugar plum is, so I can''t help you there) . Ann Taylor is nice because you can retun/exchange a bm dress if it doesn''t fit, you can shop online or in stores, and I found that their bm dresses were of higher quality (fabric and construction) than a lot of "traditional" bm dress lines. Ann Taylor also often puts their dresses on sale as new seasons are approaching, so you could get $200 dresses for $60.

J Crew also has bridesmaids dresses you might want to check out (again, for ease of ordering without having to go to a bridal salon).

Good luck in your search!