<p>Didn’t all Talbots’ recently go out of business?</p>
<p>Where to Find the Bride?</p>
<p>:( 
:p</p>
<p>No, Talbot’s is still in business. Fine and dandy where I live. Online if your local store is gone.</p>
<p>Ditto LongPrime.</p>
<p>Coldwater Creek has some very lovely dresses…check the website as their catalog seems to be getting more casual.</p>
<p>We were just discussing this last week at my book club as one of the members will be a MOB this fall. She is very stylish and is looking at dresses at JCrew. They have a nice wedding section on their website. Congrats!</p>
<p>In prepping for her kids’ weddings, a friend bought SEVERAL dresses she tried on and liked – then decided among them when the wedding drew closer and she knew what the other mother was going to wear. She then returned the other unused dresses. I teased her about this, but honestly, it was probably a smart idea.</p>
<p>Thanks for starting this, as I have a kid getting married this summer. However, looking at the links, I felt pretty depressed. First, my upper arms aren’t what they used to be and so many of these dresses are sleeveless. (All of those at Ann Taylor, for example.) Second, the colors are AWFUL. Nordstrom’s especially–I am not wearing black, navy, or other dark color dress to a summer wedding. I don’t look good in those colors and I don’t think they are appropriate for a wedding. I know, I know, times have changed, but a black and white dress for the mother of the bride or groom!!!</p>
<p>So, please keep suggestions coming.</p>
<p>I just saw Momofwildchild’s dress on Facebook - Maaahvelous…of course, it helps that she has the great body to go with the dress.</p>
<p>Lots of the sleeveless dresses come with little elbow length or three quarter length jackets or sweaters.</p>
<p>I will tell you that the sleeveless mother of the bride thing truly inspired me to start working with weights about a year ago. A woman in my Sunday School class was a MOB and, while she is a lovely woman, her upper arms probably would have appreciated a sleeve of some sort. My kids are quite a bit younger than hers, so I thought that if I started working my arms years before any wedding, maybe I wouldn’t have to worry about that issue. I recently upped the amount of weight (pursuant to advice on this board) and they are showing improvement.</p>
<p>I LOVE Coldwater Creek! That said, I know people who have gotten mother of the bride and mother of the groom dresses in just about every type of store. I would find out the style and colors that the wedding party is wearing and some idea what the other mom is wearing since you will be in pictures together. Not for strict rules but just some guidelines. </p>
<p>My mother ended up buying an absolutely gorgeous dress for my brother’s wedding at a bridal shop after we had dissed that option. We just had some time to kill and walked into a store and there was that dress on a sample sale. Perfect ending to hours of fruitless search. It was a tough one for her as it was a very formal wedding and the other mom was wearing a ball gown she had worn to the presidential inaugural which was very rich looking. For her to walk in with something too simple and inexpensive, could have led to a contrast that she did not want. She looked every bit as magnificent in her dress, I 'm pleased to say, in fact, better.</p>
<p>At my wedding which was a summer wedding with a luncheon buffet, things were much more casual. My bridesmades wored long dresses but they were pretty rather than elegant. For that, my mother wore an inexpensive light dress in a flattering color that she picked up at some inexpensive store. Looked great and in place at the wedding and the color, which was a deep periwinkle blue was stunning and flattering. </p>
<p>One thing I would advise, is to stay away from the lighter yellows and buttercreams. I wore what I thought was a bright pretty dress for my brother’s wedding. In all of the pictures,the flash just ate up the buttercup yellow, and washed it down to beigish dress which was not all photogenic or pretty. A lot of those pastels, for that matter do not show up well with flash photography. When it comes to weddings, the memory of the outfit stays alive in pictures for a long time afterwards so a pretty dress that does not photograph well lives on that way. I have another shimmery ice pink dress that is very lovely and attracts many compliments, but for any occassion where flash photography will immortalize the outfit, I have to remember that the pink gets lost in the flash and it looks like I’m in white.</p>
<p>Jonri, by summer, you can have upper arms of steel. Really, in just half an hour each day at home with some weights. I really enjoy events like these to push me to better some part of my aging self!</p>
<p>My sister bought her dress from Neiman Marcus to be MOB. My sister had her mom get her dress made by a dressmaker (she’s short so has to have everything altered anyway). My mom got her MOB dress at a nice little boutique in the mall; the next year she got her GMOB dress there as well (my sister got married when she was in her 40s & then my niece got married in her 20s the next summer).</p>
<p>I have seen other MOBs get dresses from the bridsemaid section at wedding shops & agree they look MUCH less frumpy than many of the MOB dresses. My D is just 19, & S is 21, so haven’t had to look for MOB or MOG gear yet–since no significant others in their lives, I’ll have some time to think about it & look around.</p>
<p>This is the day for recurring trauma around memories of my late MIL. </p>
<p>She asked me what my mother was going to wear, and my mother said “linen.” (This was a garden reception in July in NE.) So MIL got a perfectly nice tailored linen dress–nothing extravagant, and she could definitely wear it again quite often–and then was peeved because my mother chose to wear something else. This was thrown in my face later, with a whole bunch of other “stamps” as referenced in Teriwtt’s thread! </p>
<p>Sorry.</p>
<p>Anyway, it seems to me that department stores like Saks and Lord & Taylor usually have a wider variety of dresses than most other places. I’d be inclined to get something with sleeves or possibly a jacket, so that weather isn’t a big issue. I’m also old-fashioned enough to think that while one need not be frumpy, it is the duty of the other women at a wedding to fade into the background a bit. :)</p>
<p>As a someday/maybe MOG, I recall the adage: “keep your mouth shut and wear beige.”</p>
<p>LOL</p>
<p>Please don’t wear beige. My mil wore bubble gum pink and while it’s not what I’d have chosen it was her. My Mom wore a blue African tie die dress that wasn’t quite as dressy as what I’d have chosen, but it was equally her. I smile when I look at those photos - they bring back lots of memories. I do like the plain-ish dresses with jackets on the various websites.</p>
<p>If you need something drop-dead gorgeous and unusual (say for a very formal evening wedding) try Victorian Trading Company. They have some amazing dresses, though they are not cheap. But I think you could be safe in knowing that nobody else will be wearing your gown.</p>
<p>[Tadashi</a> Lace Sleeve Silk Gown - - Nordstrom](<a href=“http://shop.nordstrom.com/S/2972714?refsid=220597_2&refcat=0~2376776~2374325~2380800&SourceID=1&SlotID=1&origin=related]Tadashi”>http://shop.nordstrom.com/S/2972714?refsid=220597_2&refcat=0~2376776~2374325~2380800&SourceID=1&SlotID=1&origin=related)</p>
<p>That’s the one I wore. Hope it links.</p>
<p>mathmom–I’m with you.</p>
<p>At our wedding my mother wore a very nice ice- blue/green gown and my MIL (artsy sculptress/musician) wore a sort of African print long gown. Both reflected their taste and neither “matched” my bridesmaids’ dress colors (pink print). I love looking back at my wedding photos.</p>
<p>I love how the ads at the top of this page are all for special occasion dresses. Gotta love technology.</p>
<p>teriwitt–my ads are for colleges. 
</p>