<p>^^^It was 40+ years ago now, but that’s what I did. I found a basic style in a voile fabric that came in several colors, and I let the girls choose their color. It was an garden wedding, and the colors they chose - deep pink, lime green, powder blue and turquoise, were very pretty outdoors. They were all beautiful girls- it would have been hopeless to try to make them any less so.</p>
<p>I was married in 1986 in January and I let the girls choose a jewel tone color and pick their own dresses. It was amazing how similar the dresses were and none of them shopped together or communicated about them. No one at the wedding noticed that the dresses were not identical in style.</p>
<p>Part of the problem is that often the bride asks people to be in her party well in advance of any dress shopping. As her sister it would make me look like a real beast if I agreed to be her MOH, and then months from now when we go dress shopping back out because I decided I didn’t want to pay for the $500 dress she picked out (for example) after the fact. When I said yes, I assumed (perhaps unreasonably) that my sister would pick something within the realm of reason pricewise, but she might not! I’ll have to pay it at this point either way. </p>
<p>I don’t think her bridesmaid has any idea what she’s gotten herself into, she is my sister’s age and is only 19 and a college student. I am guessing our dresses are likely to be $200-$300, we are supposed to order them from this stupid shop and have them altered when they come in, we’ll need to buy shoes, she wants us to have our hair, make up, and nails all done professionally, we have to throw her a shower and she wants to have a get together at home for bachelorette so that is something we’ll have to host rather than everybody paying their way and pitching in for the bride’s share like if we’d gone out. If the dress is ugly it will really add insult to injury! And so far our bride really isn’t asking for anything unreasonable, and it’s still going to be ungodly expensive.</p>
<p>An upcoming family wedding involves bridesmaids ranging from 5’3" to 5’ 10", model slender to quite voluptuous, fair skinned to dark skinned. The bride said, ya’ll pick, here are my colors, wear different dresses in the same color, the same dresses in different colors, or some other creative option that goes together. It was still a nightmare to find a dress, they shopped on two continents, the bride and her sister did two malls and several bridal shops one weekend (sis tried on over 50 dresses), they ordered online, there was really nothing they were finding to get away from “bridesmaid” looking dresses, even though they tried. I did not believe them, then I checked some sites, too, and to find her main color was limiting. It was really annoying as everyone had a great attitude and not one girl found a dress she loved.</p>
<p>I hope that bride in #5 bought the Jimmy Choo’s for her girls. One of my DDs was in a wedding, as maid of honor, but she does not live near the bride any more, so the bride and her local girls chose the dress, it was heinous on my DD and cost her way more than it should have!</p>
<p>My wife loves this site. [Ugly</a> Dress](<a href=“http://www.uglydress.com%5DUgly”>http://www.uglydress.com)</p>
<p>Everyone in matching shoes?!?! Professional makeup and hair? Bachelorette party? I don’t think so! </p>
<p>I think S1’s “best man” is going to be a woman, and she has talked about a tux. S is wearing a kilt. I have been trolling the unconventional wedding sites – that is definitely where this one is going. If we can find a site where we don’t have to have a licensed caterer, DH and S2 plan to cook. </p>
<p>I made my bridesmaids outfits – Victorian blouses with dusty rose taffeta shirts (no poufiness). They all wore parts of it again. I didn’t care what shoes they wore. I borrowed white sandals from my sister (for a December wedding in PA), which shows you how little I cared about this stuff. Also made my dress, silk flower arrangements and the tallis we used for the wedding canopy. </p>
<p>Yeah, I’m hopelessly DIY.</p>
<p>Why are some so ugly?</p>
<p>So that thirty years later we can post photos of them on Facebook and laugh at each other. ;)</p>
<p>Now you’ve done it, you’ve reawakened the trauma of a peach organza confection with two rows of ruffles that started at the waist in front, continued over each shoulder and down my back, then joined in an explosion precisely over my backside. 1974. At least it wasn’t strapless–I think the most heinous thong a bride can do is force a strapless dress on her bridesmaids, at least half of whom will look horrid in it and spend the whole wedding yanking up the front.</p>
<p>I appreciate David’s Bridal for bridesmaids dresses–inexpensive, and you can find many different styles in the exact same color and fabric, so if anyone looks bad, you know it’s because of their own poor taste.</p>
<p>Words cannot express how glad I was to be disinvited to be a bridesmaid the one time I was asked (a groomsman had dropped out and therefore the numbers were uneven, so I was dropped). I was out before dresses were selected or ordered, so I did not realize my good fortune until the wedding day.</p>
<p>The dresses were a garish red, low cut and strapless, with poofy skirts. I don’t show that much cleavage to my husband! Every woman, in every size in the party, was yanking up that dress all night. The concession to modesty, am 8" wide scrap of red scarf, only made things worse. It required and additional hand to manage.</p>
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<p>Funny dresses, funny slips.</p>
<p>I’ve had to buy three bridesmaid dresses and the one I got the most use out of was by far the ugliest: tea length dress made to look like skirt and blouse combo, baby blue taffeta skirt with big ruffle and bow (with a lace topped POCKET on the front) with white lacy flouncy top with 3/4 length puffed sleeves and a baby blue bow at the high necked collar.</p>
<p>Added a big hooked crook and it made a truly outstanding and recognizable Little Bo Peep costume! (Three times!)</p>
<p>Having thrown 2 wedding in 11 months (for my daughter and my son) I can say that brides do not have to make unreasonable demands. My DIL gave the brides a color and asked them to find a dress in that color. One of the girls had been a bridesmaid the previous year, so she actually got to reuse a bridesmaid dress! </p>
<p>For my daughter’s wedding, the maid of honor was the one to find the dress. It came from a local discount store (was under $50!!) and it flattered both girls. It is the kind of dress that they will be able to wear again as it came to just below the knee. In both weddings, the girls wore shoes that they selected (and already owned). Everyone was flattered by what they wore which meant the pictures looked great. </p>
<p>In neither case did the bride require professionally done hair/makeup as that would be a financial hardship for the bridesmaids. In both cases the bride treated their bridesmaids to a mani/pedi just before the wedding. The girls all chose the color they wanted.</p>
<p>These stories are great! Haven’t been to a wedding in a couple of years and mostly don’t remember what the bridesmaids wore. The only wedding where I remember the bridesmaids is the one where the bride was a college volleyball player. All the bridesmaids were at least 6’ tall. And none of the groomsmen were!</p>
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She did. In her line of work she gets “help” with that particular brand Can’t stand the niece, but I don’t think she financially crippled the bridesmaids.</p>
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The David’s Bridal shops here had a huge outbreak of lice a few years ago and I never got over that.</p>
<p>I am so hoping straps come back in style, for brides, and bridesmaids, before my sons and D get married. Almost no one, and especially the busty girls, looks good in those. There are better things to do during wedding festivities than spend the night with one hand glued to one’s dress, constantly jerking it up.</p>
<p>One thing that my firends and I did to an unreasonable bride was make her try on the dress at a fitting. Once she saw it on her she changed her mind. It was a nice way of saying if you look like heck, then we will too. The dress taht she chose instead was still a hideous color, but the shape didn’t make all of us look short and squat.</p>
<p>I am seeing strapless on the down trend - thank goodness. I think some recent celebrity brides with more traditional tastes helped. A very small percentage of women look good in strapless. There is either too much or too little up top or back spillage or bones too prominent. You have to be pretty much perfect to pull it off. Choosing strapless for bridesmaid dresses should be illegal. The chance of the dress being flattering on more than one of them is very slim.</p>
<p>J. Crew has a really nice selection of bridal wear now.</p>
<p>I think the hideous bridal dresses are just tradition. People have seen them so they continue with them. They come from a time when there may have been up to ten bridesmaids, and the tradition was matchy-matchy.</p>
<p>Those of you whose describe your tasteful family events, the simpler dresses you describe all sound lovely.</p>
<p>I wear a size five. I’m usually out of the matching shoe thing.</p>
<p>My cousin was married on the beach in May. She had her attendants choose little black dresses for the wedding and everyone was barefoot. My niece just got married outside last weekend and she chose green simple wrap dresses and silver flip flops. My D was in the wedding and will be able to wear the dress many times. Everyone looked good in the dress.</p>
<p>At our recent wedding, I did comment about what it must cost the attendants: clothes, hotel, meals, travel, gift…</p>