A Bride’s Guide to Planning Bridesmaid Dresses

Once a wedding dress has been chosen, the bride can start thinking about bridesmaid dresses. If possible, allow at least six months, for shopping, ordering, and alterations. Brides and bridesmaids, who don’t have the luxury of time, have faster options, such as buying off the peg and hiring dresses. A benefit of dresses for hire is that cleaning is usually included in the hire fee.

Where to Begin When Planning Bridesmaid Dresses

A good way for a bride to begin is talking with her bridesmaids. Unless your family is paying for the dresses, you’ll want to get an idea of how much the bridesmaids can afford to pay. When making a budget, take into account extras such as alteration fees, shawls for cold weather, matching shoes, and possibly handbags. Find out what styles and colours the bridesmaids wear well.

There are basic guidelines for choosing bridesmaid dresses. They may sound obvious, but it’s easy to get dazzled by exciting pictures in magazines and catalogues. It may be helpful to keep basic principles in mind:

• Bridesmaid dresses must go with the wedding dress. The colours, fabrics, styles, and trim must complement and not overpower the bride’s dress.
• Certain style choices may clash--for example, if the bride is wearing a short skirt, the bridesmaids should not wear long gowns. If the bride has a very plain wedding gown, the bridesmaids should avoid ornate, jewelled dresses.
• The appropriate colours and fabric weight will depend on the time of year. The greatest distinction is between light, airy fabrics for summer and warmer satins and brocades for winter.
• Bridesmaids will be happy and confident in styles that suit them; and awkward in styles that don’t flatter their figures.

When deciding on colours for bridesmaid dresses, the starting point is the colour of the wedding dress.  From there, decide on whether you would like one accent colour, several shades of one accent colour;  or two different, but complementary tones,  such as pink and apple green.  Using the same fabric for all of the bridesmaids helps to keep colour depth and tones consistent.

Choosing the best colour(s) is a balancing act.  Start with the colour of the wedding dress and a seasonal palette (spring, summer, fall, or winter).  Then balance your personal preferences with an awareness of colour tones that look best on the bridesmaids.

There is more than one way to organize dress selection.  A traditional approach is to have all bridesmaids wear the same colour, fabric, and style.  If this is your approach, shop with each bridesmaid to discover which styles suit her and which styles will not work.  Hopefully, there will be one style that all bridesmaids can wear reasonably well.  Unfortunately, some bridesmaids may be happier than others when one colour and style is chosen.

Another method of organizing dress selection is to set guidelines and to allow each woman to select her own bridesmaid dress, limited only by the guidelines.  An advantage of this approach is that each person will be able to choose a style that suits her well.  Also, individual style selection makes it more likely that bridesmaids will be able to wear their dresses again at other special occasions.   Following are examples of guidelines for bridesmaid dress shopping:

• Select a dressmaker or  wedding boutique where all dresses must be made or ordered;
• Provide a colour swatch or colour range;
• Specify a particular fabric that must be used;
• Indicate the appropriate length—long, tea length, or cocktail length (keeping in mind that some lengths may be more practical for reuse);
• Specify any other style requirements for details such as sleeves, neckline, shoulders, and back;
• Specify a uniform skirt style and invite the bridesmaids to select a separate top in the style of their choice;
• Specify three or four style choices.

Visit wedding boutiques online or near where you live.  Bridal collections offer a wide range of appropriate styles organized in colour groupings, making shopping quite easy.  Some people object to bridal collections thinking that the quality may be lower and the prices higher.  If this is a concern, start with a bridal collection, and then make comparisons with offerings in other shops.  Some brides choose a dressmaker, or think about having dresses made by a friend or relative.  Before deciding to have outfits made, compare the costs and expected quality.

Once you have chosen bridesmaid dresses, your work is done, unless there will be a flower girl.  A flower girl’s dress won’t be exactly the same as the outfits to be worn by the bride’s older attendants.   While the colour and fabric will be similar, choose a style that reflects the flower girl’s younger age.