You can pick your friends, and you can pick your clothes, but you can't pick the dress you wear in your friend's wedding.
How to Choose a Dress
How to Choose a Dress
You can pick your friends, and you can pick your clothes, but you can't pick the dress you wear in your friend's wedding. By the time you've squealed "Of course I'll be your bridesmaid!" it may be too late. The bride, your best friend, (snort) may attempt to put you in some ruffled, vomit green, satin-and-lace masterpiece (Designs by Satan) that makes you look dumpy, fat, or sexless.
What is it that makes usually fashionable women act this way? It is not a complete mystery. Maybe as a bride you want them to secretly look worse than you. Harsh, but it is what your bridesmaids are thinking when you unveil that horrible sky blue satin with deep sighs and ahhhs (as if!)
Brides, first off, try to remember that these are your bestest friends in the whole world, who you've chosen to be by your side to celebrate your big day. Keeping this in mind, do you really want them to wear puffy pastel atrocities made from fabric not available in nature? Since they are paying for them, it would be great it they could wear their outfits again -- but we admit that could be wishful thinking on everyone's part.
Here are some dos, don'ts, and basic truths to consider when choosing your bridesmaids' dresses:
What is it that makes usually fashionable women act this way? It is not a complete mystery. Maybe as a bride you want them to secretly look worse than you. Harsh, but it is what your bridesmaids are thinking when you unveil that horrible sky blue satin with deep sighs and ahhhs (as if!)
Brides, first off, try to remember that these are your bestest friends in the whole world, who you've chosen to be by your side to celebrate your big day. Keeping this in mind, do you really want them to wear puffy pastel atrocities made from fabric not available in nature? Since they are paying for them, it would be great it they could wear their outfits again -- but we admit that could be wishful thinking on everyone's part.
Here are some dos, don'ts, and basic truths to consider when choosing your bridesmaids' dresses:
- Do try to find a style and color that is flattering to the different sizes and skin tones of your bridesmaids.
- Do try to keep the price at something that everyone can afford. $200 is a good figure to keep in mind, but if you can do it for less, everyone will be happier.
- Do consider letting your bridesmaids wear clothing of their own choice. What you lose in uniformity will be made up for in comfort and happiness, which will be apparent in the way they carry themselves and smile. A variation on this theme is to let them wear dresses of their own choosing as long as they are a certain color.
- Do think about suits (jackets over dresses or jackets and skirts), slipdresses, and sheath dresses, all of which are extremely rewearable as well as fashionable.
- Do consider dress length: Formal and semiformal weddings call for long, ballerina-length, or tea-length dresses. At an informal daytime wedding, bridesmaid dresses can be the same length as the bride's dress, short or long. The only exception: If a bride is wearing a floor-length dress, bridesmaid dresses should not be short.
A few more words of advice:
A few more words of advice:
Your bridesmaids are all members of the human race. Sure, they're all beautiful, but they're beautiful in unique ways. Consider body types -- if one's voluptuous, another's rail-thin and yet another is tiny and boyish, you can't wedge them all into something skin-tight or cleavage-revealing. Very few figures are flattered by a big old contrasting-color bow on the butt or hundreds of tiny, ballooning pleats. Simple, elegant designs are the most flattering to all figures.
Girl, not everyone looks good in seafoam green. Perhaps you have your wedding colors in mind, but are these really colors you would ask your friends to wrap themselves in? Be careful about colors that rarely occur in nature, or only on football uniforms. Remember, some colors are truly neutral -- navy blue and even black are good choices for formal weddings.
Your friends are not rich. They do not buy dresses that look terrible on them and toss them out after one occasion, just for laughs. Think about dresses they could REALLY wear again.
Finally, you want your friends to like you before, during, and after the ceremony. A few years ago a major wedding site hosted a "Tackiest Bridesmaid's Dress" contest, and we were amused and horrified at the hard, cold evidence of what friends will put friends through. Don't jump on a trend (pink mylar fabric! sleeves like tulle waterwings! Anita Baker raggedy hemlines!) without thinking of how your friends will feel and look.
Now all you have to do is find something in the most flattering cut and color, at the most reasonable price, that your bridesmaids will be able to wear again. Hey, how hard can that be?
Girl, not everyone looks good in seafoam green. Perhaps you have your wedding colors in mind, but are these really colors you would ask your friends to wrap themselves in? Be careful about colors that rarely occur in nature, or only on football uniforms. Remember, some colors are truly neutral -- navy blue and even black are good choices for formal weddings.
Your friends are not rich. They do not buy dresses that look terrible on them and toss them out after one occasion, just for laughs. Think about dresses they could REALLY wear again.
Finally, you want your friends to like you before, during, and after the ceremony. A few years ago a major wedding site hosted a "Tackiest Bridesmaid's Dress" contest, and we were amused and horrified at the hard, cold evidence of what friends will put friends through. Don't jump on a trend (pink mylar fabric! sleeves like tulle waterwings! Anita Baker raggedy hemlines!) without thinking of how your friends will feel and look.
Now all you have to do is find something in the most flattering cut and color, at the most reasonable price, that your bridesmaids will be able to wear again. Hey, how hard can that be?
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