reader help
I received an email this morning from a reader of mine regarding the well known bridesmaid outfit problem. Maids of all different sizes (4-24), in all different locations. She is looking to get them all in black, tea length dresses that are similar but vary slightly from girl to girl, while staying away from bridal salons. Here is what I came up with. If you have any ideas, please comment and leave a link!
Getting different dresses for each maid is super smart. This allows them to find something that flatters them, and when you go with black, you really can’t go wrong.
The two retail stores (that I know of) that carry bridesmaid dresses that you can mix and match are J. Crew and Ann Taylor. Neither one offers plus sizes however, so no to those. My only other “same fabric, different dress” idea would be David’s Bridal. (i know i know, no salons…) But they do offer a lot of different styles in the same fabrics and are located all over the USA. Here are some options (sorry for the random sizes!):
They also offer sashes, which can coordinate all the dresses, even if they aren’t of the same fabric/from the same store. (sorry for the color, it’s random!)
As it may be difficult to find one store that offers different dresses in such a wide range of sizes, I would recommend letting the girls pick their own, but give them a few rules. I would say that hemline and fabric are the two most important thing when it comes to coordinating. Ask them all to find tea length dresses in a certain fabric. Satin, chiffon, or just a matte black. This way you don’t get someone in a silk taffeta ball gown and another girl in a black mini dress 
Here are some dresses I found:
(macys)
(spiegel)
I hope this helps! I am sure no matter what you end up picking for them they will look stunning! And again, if anyone has any ideas, please comment!
3 comments
I know that everyone thinks that David’s Bridal sucks. But it was honestly the best decision that I made for our wedding.
We had bridesmaids all over the US and all over the size charts. Each girl was able to go in and tell the consultant that they needed a black, tea length satin dress. The consultants only pulled dresses in those requirements.
Every bridesmaid found a dress that they loved. And all of them have worn them again.
Don’t rule it out before you try it!
You know that’s what I did (giving the girls some guidelines). Obviously they would match even more closely in black since black is usually black… here was the post (http://katystreamsherconsciousness.blogspot.com/2008/08/little-bridesmaid-creativity.html) and here the finished product (http://katystreamsherconsciousness.blogspot.com/2009/01/thanks-for-reminder-heather.html)
Girls bought from Watters and Watters, DaVinci, After Six, Nordstrom… and so on and so forth.
I had my girls buy black tea-length dresses of their choosing. I was only specific about the fabric. Each girl looked beautiful on the big day and felt good about themselves b/c they chose the style and fit that would compliment their figures. I still get compliments on the girls and the idea.
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