My Bridesmaid Dresses from “Louisa” from J. Crew my 1st and approx. 250th choice.

I have only been a bridesmaid twice in my life and both Kendra and Sarah made my life as a bridesmaid easy. They both did the choosing and I did the buying, just the way it should be. Brides if you need one of your bridesmaids to try on dresses for you, it is totally acceptable. But only ask 1 person to go try on dresses. All of your bridesmaids don’t have to be there. I did this for Sarah’s wedding and she did this for mine. If you are the “chosen” bridesmaid just model them and give both positive and negative feedback and most importantly don’t be a bitch. The best way to give your opinion on if you like a dress is to give a grade “A+ to F”. It is the easiest way for the bride to get true idea of what dresses you like best instead of calling each dress “cute” or “pretty.” If you are a bride, it is still your wedding you should pick out a dress you like and would want to wear and if your bridesmaids like you they will like the dress you pick. For the past couple of years it has been a trend to have mismatched bridesmaids dresses you give your bridesmaids a color and and they go out and pick out a dress they like. To me that is flat out being a lazy bride. “But, Alysse if I just give your bridesmaids choices they will be happier and they will love their dress so much more that they will wear it again!”  This is false, bridesmaid dress shopping is stressful there are a lot of stores and styles and different dresses to choose from, you don’t want to pass that stress onto your friends and family. If you want the mismatched look, pick 3 or 4 dresses yourself and have your bridesmaids choose from those 3 or 4 dresses or you can pick a color and fabric by a certain designer they pick from the different styles.

This 1/18th of the dresses I found when I was looking for a bridesmaids dress.

Let me tell you about my journey of finding a bridesmaids dress to enlighten you on the situation. All bridesmaids dresses look the same. You got your strapless dress, you got your spaghetti strap dress, you got your edgy one shoulder, you got your Duggar cap sleeve dress, a cool back dress, you got your halter dress, and finally you got your regular strap dress. The dresses come in three fabrics chiffon(two kinds), satin, or jersey. Add some sparkly brooch or a rose and you got a bridesmaid dress. I wasn’t floored by any of the bridesmaids dresses I saw at bridal shops or online bridal shops. So I thought I would just search other dress shops and websites that didn’t sell exclusively bridal stuff. You would be surprised how many everyday brands have bridesmaid dress lines including J. Crew, Ann Taylor, The Limited, Nordstorm, Guess, BCBG, and a few more. There are also a few websites that sell bridesmaids dresses like ASOS, Monsoon, BHLDN, and ModCloth. I spent about 3 months searching these websites and checking them a  minimum of 3 times a week looking for dresses. I wanted a dress that was 1920s inspired but didn’t look like a costume. Due to the movie The Great Gatsby coming out this May there was a lot of 1920s/ Art Deco style dresses out in the stores for the holiday season. But a lot of these dresses were too flashy or too slutty. I knew that I liked J. Crew bridesmaids dresses and that was my backup plan if I couldn’t find an unconventional dress. I figured out why so many brides buy dresses from bridal shops because every time I found a dress that I liked it either was too expensive, didn’t have all the sizes of my bridesmaids, or sold out too quickly. It was not only hard to find a dress that was in stock and had the right number of sizes it was just as hard to find the right color. There are tons of different shades of blue especially my minty/seafoam/grayed jade blue I had picked for my wedding color. Even if I wanted to shop at a bridal shop for the dresses there wasn’t a designer that sold a dress in my colors. I found a dress at BCBG that I really liked but it was $325 and since I would never spend that much on a bridesmaids dress I wasn’t going to have my ‘maids spend that much either. So I waited to see if it went on sale and unfortunately that dress was so popular  that it sold out before it hit the sale rack. After ordering a few other dresses online and then returning them because they were just a hot mess; I went with my 1st/backup choice the J. Crew dresses because they are so pretty aka an A+ and the dusty shale color was the perfect color I was looking for. The “Louisa” was also flattering and had the 1920s inspiration I wanted with the V pleated on the bodice. So ladies you see how time consuming and options there are for bridesmaids dresses, don’t let your ‘maids bare that burden.

Sarah in the BCBG dress…she will probably kill me for posting this…so if I go missing you’ll know where to look first 🙂