Mismatched Bridesmaid Dresses

Knottie26651729

Hi! I'm considering letting my bridesmaids choose their own dresses and just giving them some guidelines like length and maybe material.  I would love to have various shades of plum/purple.  Has anyone done this (especially in my color palette)?  Any advice? Thank you!!

misskinababy

I'm actually doing that in the purple color palette. I found two pictures on Pinterest and sent it to my ladies and told them to use it as inspiration. 

Bubblegum5586

I haven't seen it in purple although I am sure that will be stunning!

My best friend had us in orange dresses. She picked out a few designers she liked and told us the shade, chiffon and short and we could pick what we wanted. A few girls decided to have their own made and their color ended up being a little darker. But with 7 girls it ended up ranging from bright orange, to burnt orange to almost a coralish orange. It looked very pretty!

I had my girls buy at DB (price was a big factor) I saw they had about 10 different satin short dresses and asked them each to pick on in the Horizon (royal blue) color. My sister/MOH found a tea length dress she loved and had it altered to a cocktail length. Each girl looked stunning and a few have worn their dresses since! (and I want to borrow one, but waiting for a wedding that most people wern't at my wedding! LOL)

artbyallie

I did shades of blue and they were lovely. Purple would be gorgeous too. Go for it!

PrettyGirlLost

I think it will look lovely in purple!

I would pick a palette of purples and give your BMs swatches to match- you can order swatches from Dessy.  Then I'd just let them get any dress of your desired length in one of those purple hues, regardless of fabric choice.  I don't think matching fabric types makes any difference in photos or makes them look somehow better. 

And some ppl don't like how they look in certain fabrics, so if you are doing the mismatched route to begin with I say allow them the freedom to choose the fabric they think is most flattering on them and they like the best.

holyguacamole79

Mine were mismatched in plum / dark purple.  That wasn't the original plan, but that's how it worked.  My sister (MOH) convinced me that the Chinese knock-off sites are actually okay for dresses.  Well, what I DIDN'T take into consideration is that my other two BMs are above a size 10 and aren't as well versed in taking measurements as my sister is.

So, the dresses arrive, and (shocker), the only one whose dress fit was my sister's.  I said screw it and told them to get purple dresses from somewhere.  I honestly didn't care at this point.

Here's how it turned out:


I had given them the light blue pashminas as part of their gift, but I didn't plan on them wearing it.  One of them said she's self-conscious of her arms, so she'd prefer to wear it for the wedding, and asked if I minded.  The others liked the idea and followed suit. 

lodele47

Yep! I did this with J. Crew. I picked the color and sent my girls 10 dress styles to choose from (I have 4 BMs). They all picked styles that worked best with their body types . They've all told me how much they love their dresses and are excited to wear them again. Warning...J. Crew dresses can be a little pricey. But keep an eye out for sales, my girls got their dresses during a 30% off event. You may want to ask your girls what their dress budget is first (unless you are paying for the dresses). Good luck! I'm sure the purple will look lovely.