Though I have always loved the romantic notion of being a bridesmaid and secretly hoped friends and family members would ask me to be part of their weddings, I have only been in the wedding party for two weddings. I was two years old when I was a flower girl in my aunt’s wedding. I don’t remember anything about that day, but my family tells me I loved my dress because of the hoop skirt and all the lacy layers. I was so excited about them, in fact, that I wanted to show everybody. However, temperatures reached 90 degrees that day and neither the wedding or reception site had air conditioning, so in a few hours I was whining that I was too hot and wanted to take it off. I also was not happy because I could not take a nap in my dress. I doubt my bridesmaids will need to take any naps, but because of this experience, and the fact that I hope to take my wedding pictures outdoors, I am choosing spaghetti strap, tea length dresses for my bridesmaids—something light and summery.
My second experience came at 19 as a bridesmaid in my cousin’s wedding. The groom’s family is very conservative and his mother refused to let the bridesmaids wear any dresses without sleeves. There was only one dress at David’s Bridal that met the criteria. You know how there are some dresses that look good on the hanger until you try them on? Well, this one didn’t even look good on the hanger. Still, I tried to be supportive as I walked into a fitting room. As soon as I slipped the dress on, I knew we were in trouble. The dress was made of clingy material that stuck to every bump and wrinkle. I looked terrible…and I was the thinnest one, so I knew the others would not be happy with their appearance either. Still, I loved my cousin, and though I was in support of telling her mother-in-law to be, “This is my wedding and I really don’t care what you think of the bridesmaid dresses!” I knew she would never do something like that. So I paid over $100 for a dress that I hated and I will most definitely never wear again.
This is why I am trying so hard to find a dress that I think will look good on all of my bridesmaids…and also hopefully cost them less than $100. I know a growing trend is to give bridesmaids a color swatch and let them pick out their own dress, but I personally like the uniform look better. I know my dress choice will never make all of the bridesmaids happy, but my hope is that when they look in the mirror, they at least won’t hate what they see.
I wanted to make a comment on your attempt to keep from spending too much money. My wife and I paid for much of our wedding and took it VERY easy on her father's pocketbook, (especially considering what he had to shell out for his other daughter's wedding some years later). For example, Lisa's wedding dress was only $300. We got married at Christmas, so the church was already (mostly) decorated.
ReplyDeleteA few months before our wedding, Lisa's friends Kim and Mike got married. They spent a fortune. I think she almost spent more on her dress than we spent on our wedding. Anyway, they were divorced within a year. This December we are celebrating 20 years.
I'm not saying that big weddings are bad and small are good. But I am saying that some people focus too much on the wedding on not enough on the marriage.
P.S. I think you guys look really cute together. You should write a post about him. You could also write about what HE is doing to get ready. I think it would be interesting and amusing.