So, last weekend, one of my maids of honor* bravely accompanied me to a place called House of Brides. (If you didn't just now read that like a horror movie title, let me help set the proper mood: "You can run down the aisle. You can throw the bouquet. But you can never escape the HOUSE OF BRIDES AHAHAHAHA!") They have a scary website and an even scarier store. But we went anyway, in search of the elusive bridesmaids dresses.Now, I have been listening to people who are better at this than I am, and the consensus seems to be that mismatchy bridesmaids are the thing right now. You tell the bridesmaids** a color and they choose shades of that color and it all works out. I am wary of this on several levels:
1. We have discussed that any amount of shine in teal fabric turns it into skanky eighties prom.***
2. I have an intense hatred of pastels. I want bright, not-shiny primary colors for the bridesmaids. Different shades of primary colors don't look like a spectrum, they just look mismatched. Also, there is good orange and then there is bad orange.
3. I'm concerned about the shopping options available to some of my farther-flung bridesmaids like Country Mouse, who will have to shop her butt off to find something both right and affordable in her teensy snowbound town. I don't want to do that to them.
4. I don't really want to do the trend thing unless it's something He-Mouse and I really love (like do-nuts). We're actually sort of stodgy and classic in a few particular ways.
Anyway, so bestest friend and I went on a fact-finding mission to HOUSE OF BRIDES AHAHAHAHA. She's good for this sort of project because she is the opposite body type, gorgeous curvy hourglass. Things that look good on both of us probably look good on anybody. And we tried things on, even as the mean saleslady glared at us because we were laughing so hard.
I'll tell you what: HECK NO to bridesmaid dresses. They are terribly made. Puckered seams, misplaced boob-pads, wrinkly ribbing, eff it. I'll just look at regular stores until I find something better.
* Yes, I am having two: my sister, Country Mouse, and my bestest friend (who lives in my city).
** I don't like when people call them maids. I'm not making them scrub my floors or something, just stand with me.
*** Which, by the way, would be a cool theme wedding for someone with less particular parents than Mama Mouse.
16 comments:
Oh poor Mouse. All that polyester and puckered seams!
My mom, who was paying for the bridesmaids' dresses, hated the polyester ones so much that she offered to buy $250 Amsale dresses. (I think she was relieved when I found those J. Crew dresses on mega-sale instead, but she was indeed serious about not sending my friends down the aisle in cheap chiffon with half-exposed boning.)
Good call. By the way, a friend of mine got married and her colors were bright pastels (I know not exactly the same thing as brights, but close enough), and each bridesmaid wore a different color dress and a slightly different style. There was a green, a blue, a pink, and an orange. And it looked amazing! She got her dresses from J. Crew, but you can probably find somewhere cheaper.
I never liked the "maids" thing either (unless it's paired with the word milk). I had my sister and best friend as well and they were my women-of-honor. Good luck in your search!
I hate it when brides-to-be refer to them as BMs. Gross!
Do not purchase a dress from House of Brides. They totally screwed up my friends order and didn't care that her dress never came in (totally their fault, they forgot to order it TWICE), told me I just had to deal with it, that was after they hung up on me three times and refused to tell me what really happened. My friend had 22 emails going back and forth and they never took responsibility.
The only name worse than *maid* is matron. I was in a wedding this summer and found the matron title hard to swallow. My dad even declared that he was "too young to be the father of a matron!" Hahaha.
Catherine, "matron" freaks me out, too. It sounds like "matrons" should have "bosoms." My "matron of honor" is flat as a pancake just like me, and is younger than one of my bridesmaids. Can't they just all be bridesmaids?!
PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE make them all bridesmaids. I wish I could have asked the bride if she could name me a maid just for my ego's sake, but felt like she might feel too pressured to err from protocol (which she was pretty tied to).
Is that the place just off the Brown line at Chicago? I ride past it everyday on my way to and from school/work and it gives me the heebee jeebees. I'm amazed you weren't bound and gagged with taffeta and tulle.
And yes please just get matching dresses from a nonbridal store. As we all know, anything associated to weddings jacks the price up. And bridemaid dresses have some of the worst quality construction and fabric I've ever seen. What kind of style are you looking for (ie. sleek, retro, feminine, elegant, informal)?
Nordstroms is having some seriously good sales - at a quick glance, here are a few you might be interested in:
http://shop.nordstrom.com/S/3036977?Category=&Search=True&SearchType=guidednav&keyword=dress+%3E+Blue+%3E+%2450+-+%24100&origin=searchresults
http://shop.nordstrom.com/S/3022608?Category=&Search=True&SearchType=guidednav&keyword=dress+%3E+Blue+%3E+%2450+-+%24100&origin=searchresults
http://shop.nordstrom.com/S/3012777?Category=&Search=True&SearchType=guidednav&keyword=dress+%3E+Blue+%3E+%2450+-+%24100&origin=searchresults
http://shop.nordstrom.com/S/3055590?Category=&Search=True&SearchType=keywordsearch&keyword=maggie+london&origin=searchresults
http://shop.nordstrom.com/S/3064597?refsid=271468&refcat=0~2376776~2374327~6005464~6005511~6005548&SourceID=1&SlotID=2&origin=related&cm_Sp=Related-Items-_-Product-_-Manual
Good luck Mouse! It'll all turn out!
If you're having two this is NO PROBLEM. Dude.
"Different shades of primary colors don't look like a spectrum,they just look mismatched"
That's false. We had no pastels. All Jewel tones. Lots of people. No picking. I did *not* look mismatched. It also didn't look like we were trying to match. It just looked generally happy and bright. More like "hey, no one clashes and it's bright." It was lovely.
Tell them roughly what you like, color-wise, and have them browse online, and then the three of you can come to a conclusion.
Thanks for the ideas, guys!
Meg, I'm on board with this idea for jewel tones, or a wide variety of shades of one color. What I worry about is my five bridesmaids* in a wide variety of only THREE colors (orange, yellow, teal, with teal needing not to be shiny). The fabric combination is actually really tricky.
* Two maids of honor, five bridesmaids total.
See, I'm solving this by having them in BLACK. Hard to mix and match shades.
The only thing is that I would LOVE LOVE LOVE for all my girls to find J Crew styles they like.... but one of them is on the plus side and is juuuuust out of the J Crew size range (she's an 18/20, and they stop at 16). I don't want to insult her horribly, but I'd love it if they all managed to pick J Crew. SIGHHH.
i'm having a similar dilemma regarding colors and styles. i think i've decided on spiced wine jcrew dresses in different styles in silk chiffon...that seems to be what my girls want and i'm cool with that. typical bm dresses and bridal shops are freakishly scary, so ordering online is the way to go. i just kind of liked the idea of different colors, but i'm not sure how to do different shades of wine? good luck!
btw, i'm having two too - my sister and best friend, and even tho she's married, oh noes to the matron title. :)
J crew has some really good sales, I got the dresses for $40, you just have to keep an eye on the sale section of the website
Post a Comment