Bridesmaid Dress Stress, But A Solution Arises

In my last post, I left off with ominous words. Yes, we left David's Bridal and headed to Eva's Bridal. This wasn't the Eva's Bridal in Tinley Park where I bought my dress. This was the Eva's Bridal in Orland Park. They had dresses and were up the street, so we figured we'd check them out so the day wouldn't be a total waste.

After the magic with the first dresses, I didn't think we'd find it again. But I went through the same routine nonetheless:

1. Have the girls pick out dresses they all seriously like.

2. Veto the ones I hate on sight.

3. Have them try on the dresses they picked.
4. Have other girls try on dresses as I decide they work on each successive girl.

We changed it this time and made Step #3 "make sure the dress is available in our color choice." We looked at all the purples and ultimately chose that same blue-ish purple color we now know is called Regency.

I didn't have high hopes that we'd find yet another dress that looked amazing on every girl. They're just too different. They have seriously different body types. Kind of like this.


Image: Keen Eye Style post on Body Types

 We did manage to find something that worked. After trying on a number of dresses...

Personal Image: MOH Sis trying on a great satin dress and looking super tiny. I really didn't like the dip in the back though.

Personal Image: BM Law trying on another great satin number. Can you tell I was trying to stick with satin at this point? And who doesn't love pockets?

Personal photo: sorry for the skinny photo. I had to crop out half-naked MOH Sis. Apparently, not wearing pants runs in the family.



Personal Image: BM Libra trying this one on. Still cute. At this point I'm thinking maybe my commitment to satin isn't so firm.

Personal Image: BM Law trying it on too. Still cute! I was pretty much sold at this point. I just needed the girls to okay it.

This A-line, floor length was really the ticket, even though they all have great legs. The surprise to me was the empire waist. I figured a natural waist would be more universally flattering. I don't care about being wrong because this dress is just fabulous.

Here's the dress we ended up deciding on that day.

Image: BIll Levkoff #537

We're getting it, of course, in Regency.

Personal photo: Regency is the one all the way to the left.

 This dress is all over weddingbee, much like my wedding dress. It's because it's awesome and fits a variety of body types. Momma Kettle worried that putting my bridesmaids in a dress longer than mine (dress hint!) would be backwards, but I figured it would be okay.

We let the jr. bridesmaids also try on dresses though we knew at this point we'd just get them the coordinating dress.

Image: Bill Levkoff #53702

Personal photo: This looks too much like an overgrown flower girl dress in my opinion, I wanted my girls to look like young ladies.

Personal photo: Even worse. I just had to show this photo of when bustles go wrong.

So we were all set, right? Not even close. I don't want to get into all of it here so I will gloss over the details, but just know that this whole situation made me bury my head in the sand for a few days and not answer phone calls or texts from my girls for a few days until they worked it out amongst themselves.

The price was an issue. BM Law expressed on behalf of some of the other ladies that they couldn't afford the price at Eva's. After some drama in which she ended up apologizing for speaking for people out of place, we settled it. They really wanted this particular dress, so they would make it happen.

I had already talked to each of my girls about what they could afford, but I ended up finding the dresses for much cheaper at >House of Brides online.  If we order them all together, we'll save a bundle on shipping and insurance. So I'll be collecting everyone's money this week and ordering the dresses.



Our bridesmaid dresses will be here by mid-December. Mima Kettle just informed me the flower girls dresses have arrived (let's pray those 5 years olds don't grow too much in the next 6 months!). Now we just have to find 7 more dresses and we're done.

What 7 more you ask? 3 dresses for my hostesses. One for Momma Kettle, Grandmother Kettle, Mima Kettle, and FSIL Grand. They're very important ladies in this whole thing too!