Wedding Times

Whether you have chosen your bridal attendants after you have chosenyour own gown, you will absolutely need to decide on whom they will be and how many you will have before you even consider looking at bridesmaids’ dresses. Once you have chosen your girls, you will then have an idea of a style, design and shape of dress that will most flatter everyone’s body type and figure. While it is your day, you want your bridesmaids to feel beautiful in their own dresses and you also want them to look great too, to complete the overall look of your wedding. You can also begin your search by staying within the tone ofthe wedding. Just as you chose your dress, don’t choose casual wear forf ormal weddings and vice versa.

Choices for Design

Once you have pinpointed who your attendants will be and a type orcolor of dress that will flatter everyone, you then have many choicesfor the design of the bridesmaids’ dresses. You may choose these thesame as you chose your own dress, by picking out samples and picturesfrom bridal magazines and shopping around or you can give yourbridesmaids a few options, which they may appreciate even more.

Traditionstates that it is the bride that chooses the bridesmaid dresses. Whileyou are certainly free to go this route, it is becoming more popularfor brides to allow the bridesmaids to choose their own dresses, withsome basic guidelines. You could give your bridesmaids the option ofpicking their own dress, but state that it must be in a certain coloror that it must be a certain length. Your bridesmaids will still haveplenty of wiggle room to pick a dress they love but you will still behappy with its overall look.

If you’re truly not comfortableleaving it entirely up to your bridesmaids, you can still give them theoption of choice but still make the ultimate decision yourself. You cando this by choosing two or three dresses that you love and let thempick whichever one they would like to wear. This way, you can still becertain to get the exact look you want but your bridesmaids will feelas though they had a say too!

Sorting out the Details

The good news is that once you’ve sorted out the tough details suchas what your bridesmaids are going to wear, be sure to order thedresses plenty of time in advance. The general guidelines are that onceyou have chosen your dress, you should choose your bridesmaids’ dressesas soon after as possible and order them as soon as you have decided.This will give your bridesmaids plenty of time for fittings andalterations.

When it comes to paying for the dresses, it is notonly acceptable but expected that you will ask the bridesmaids to payfor their own dresses. However, it’s a nice courtesy to keep in mindpeople’s personal financial situations and what their budget mostlikely is. You can also buy the dresses as your bridesmaids’ gifts.This is even easier to do if you buy the dresses from the same vendorand have a group discount applied. This is a great way to make yourbridesmaids feel even better about wearing the dress you chose!