Bridesmaid Dresses

I had to laugh when I read this post by SocialDesign a few days ago because they are so right- the entire bridesmaid fashion industry is a total rook! The truth is that there are so many better alternatives if you just do a little research. Trust us, sometimes non-matching bridesmaids can look eclectic and really cute.

Both of these brides chose colorful bridesmaid dresses, but be careful with this idea- you don't want to end up with a jelly-belly wedding:

{photos from The Knot from Rachel & Mike and Brianne & Derek}

Here the bridesmaids looks are more uniform but still do not matching exactly; in the first wedding, the bride chose a mix of nutmeg-brown and antique gold dresses and in the second wedding, the bridesmaids wore dresses in shades of green.

{photos from Brides from Rebecca & David and Katrina & Jason}

We decided not to have a traditional wedding party because my new sister-in-law is 16 years old and I have one cousin who is 15, so we thought it would be perfect to have the two girls in the wedding with his sister next to him and my cousin standing by me. After researching bridesmaid dresses on the internet, Faye and I were both appalled not only by the style and quality of many of the bridesmaid dresses we looked at, but also the styling of the pictures online- almost all of them feature ridiculous cleavage and windblown hair to the point where we sometimes felt a little dirty just looking at the pictures! With only two bridesmaids, we knew they should probably match, and because they are so young, we quickly decided to look elsewhere like J.Crew, Ann Taylor, White House Black Market, E-Dress-Me, and Nordstrom. Finally, we found the perfect dress for everyone's comfort level at Anthropologie of all places, which actually has a nice selection of both patterned and solid short dresses. We chose the Crosswinds dress in nautical blue, made from summery crinkled gauze with a v-neck and a smocked waist, and for only $88. I should add that I liked this dress so much when I modeled it for my fiance, that I bought one for myself! I know both me and the girls will wear this dress over and over again.

{photo from Anthropologie}

If you are absolutely bent on having your bridesmaids match, one good option is for you to choose the fabric and color and let them choose the best style for themselves.

{photos from Brides}

Finally, we agree with SocialDesign's recommendation to look for designer dresses that will often be less expensive than traditional bridesmaids dresses and will look so much better. Check out these foxy Catherine Malandrino dresses with metallic sandals- if the bridesmaids must match, make sure they all look and feel beautiful and comfortable!

{photos from Brides}