Today I planned to spend from 10 am to 2 pm shopping for bridesmaid dresses. Instead I spent from 10 am until 6:30 pm plus another half hour later in the evening on-line all devoted to this activity. What's wrong with this picture? If we can find the perfect dress, then it will be worth it. But really... it consumed my day.
A message to future brides: do not plan to do anything else while you are planning your wedding. If you can figure out how to survive without having to show up at a job during this time period, that is ideal.
Also - do not bother envisioning what you want to wear or what you want your bridesmaids to wear until you've taken yourself and your real-life bridesmaids to the stores and actually figured out what really looks good. And don't look at fabric colors on the Web. And if the stores tell you to allow 3 months for ordering the dresses, then allow 4 months. And if one of your bridesmainds shows you a picture of what she thinks will look good on her - trust that she knows her body better than you do... and don't try to morph the "look" into something else. Just go with the thing that looks good. Because you will have your wedding photos for the rest of your life... and you really want everyone to look good in them. Oh yes - and most importantly, choose to visit stores that have a lot of real estate. The bigger the store, the more variety in dresses. Hind site is 20/20.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
3 comments:
I am a woman of color and I am getting married in June, too. I have six gorgeous bridesmaids. Three black girls, two white girls, and a bronze-skinned Mexica. You can't imagine the NIGHTMARE of finding one color dress for these six bitches. Any advice? Sounds like you've got it goin' on.
I'm SO glad you asked... if possible take all of your bridesmaids to the largest possible bridal gown store that you can stand driving to... in other words, if everyone is willing to drive an hour to go to a store that is very large, and carries several designer lines for bridesmaid's dresses - do it. If you go to as small boutique store... you will only fit the size sixes with fair skin. Once you get to the large store, pull every dress that every girl thinks will look good on them, and then have them try them on. If your problem is color and not size - you can just hold the color up to their skin. They won't have the dress you like in the color you want. But they may have the color you like in a different dress. Match each girl to the dress.
Most people choose "colors" for their wedding - regardless of skin color issues. They pick the colors just because they like the colors. And the girls have to live with it. I don't have skin color issues in my situation - we happen to all be the same. But any issue you have becomes a big issue - because everyone wants and needs to look their best on that day. Listen to your bridesmaids and don't force them into something that doesn't work for them. It's better that they look and feel good about themselves on that day, than to fullfill some abstract "vision" that you might have about dress style or even color. When and where is your wedding?
Set my girls free in one big dress store? Lord I'm asking for it! But you only live once.
My husband is an Alvin Ailey dancer from Ethiopia. We are having a Jewish wedding in Tacoma, Washington State, the second Saturday in June. His momma's family owns a clothes factory in Africa. When I started SCREAMING about the dresses, he said, get on a plane and buy those dresses in Ethiopia. I swear I about did.
Post a Comment