Tackling the Bridesmaids' Dresses...

Vanessa630

My BMs are kind of scattered all over the place:

1 NYC

1 Long Island

1 LA

1 FL

1 London

1 CT

I have no clue how to go about this.  Should I get as many people as possible to go with me or can I go to David's Bridal (for example) and pick out the dress? I'm hoping they pick out their own silhouette, in whatever style they're comfortable in.  I'm just looking for the dresses to be black, tea length, and the same fabric.  

melabes9846

I had out of state bridesmaids. The ones that couldn't come up to get fitted called in their measurements to the bridal shop and the shop ordered their dresses based on the sizing chart. It's just another option. My SIL had BM's all over and she went the David's Bridal route and it worked fine for her! GL!

KellyJayD

I have less people than you but same dilema.

1 CT
1 Bronx
1 Boston

I was able to get two together at a time and went back a few times with each. I basically did same type of thing color, fabric and length a must match otherwise they could choose which dress. They of course ran dresses by me first tho. It its kinda aggravating tho they kept changing their minds etc. At least my sis MOH got her dress  ordered and in hand already so the other girls just have to pick something different.
Good luck

klw304

I'm in a similar situation....

1 Boston

1 NYC

1 Philly

1 DC

I'm actually going the nonconventional route, each girl is going to be in a floor length gown, her choice of the style, and also her choice of the color as long as it is in the range of reds/pinks.  I'm hoping to have the four girls in burgundy, red, fuschia, and pink.  Sort of like Sex&the City 1 where Carrie's girls were each in a totally different gown, but rather than totally different colors, all shades of pink/red.

So I'm going to go shopping with the girls individually, and hopefully will get to shop with MOH first so she can call dibs on her color.

christikao

All my girls are wearing the same designer, color and fabric but they get to pick their own styles. I have BMs from size 0-16 so it wouldn't be fair for them to all wear the same dress. Most of my girls are in CT but one is in Vegas so she just went to a local bridal shop to order hers. 

banana468

I'd ask the girls for their budgets first and see if they have any absolutes.

I went shopping with two BMs because my MOH was out of state.  One BM was tall and could look good in a sack.  The other one is shorter and had more of an hourglass figure so we determined that things like tea length were out.

Once we found a dress in budget that flattered both, MOH was on board too.

When I was a BM six months ago, I was just told, "This is the dress." and I called the shop to order it.  It was simple and fine so there were no complaints.

akulaji

I did something similar.  I ended up choosing Dessy for the designer because they have several design lines (Dessy, After Six, Leila Rose, etc).  They can color match across the dress lines, which gave my girls literally hundreds of dresses to choose from.  I also went tea length and let them choose their own dress because they each had a different body type.  EVen though I only had 3BMs, we weren't able to all get together because we're all in different states.  One of them shopped on their own and sent me pictures of the dress she liked because she wanted my 'final approval' on the one she chose.  The other two I was able to go shopping with and was with them when they chose their styles.  The great thing is that they were also able to look at the floor length dresses because many could be hemmed to tea and look wonderful.  I think this will probably be the most easeful way for you to do it... especially since they're choosing different dresses, they don't really all need to be there at the same time.  I totally trusted my girls' sense of style, so I was fine with it if they just gave me their choice.  If you're not sure about that, it's probably a good idea that they give you 2 or 3 dresses that they would be happy with and you decide together which they will get.

I understand your desire to pick out the fabric, but know that it's not essential.  My girls all had different fabrics.  Yes, under certain lighting the fabrics reflected the light a little differently, but the colors were all exactly the same, and it really didn't matter.  I honestly didn't notice a difference at all until a girl on the Attire & Accessories board asked about this issue and I went and closely inspected the non pro pics from my wedding.... this was after looking at them already about 50 times and not noticing it.  So, I would just advise you to not totally rule out dresses if they start by looking at different fabrics.  (If you want to see the pics, PM me and I'll send you a link)

starshollow

I did the pick a designer, color and fabric and then let my girls choose from there.  The dresses were Bari Jay, and there are shops all over the country that carry them.  So I gave my girls the option of going to try on and pick out a dress at a shop by them and ordering, or calling into the shop I was using to order.

A lot of people kept telling me that ordering them seperately could result in the colors being slightly different.  I really didn't care, and the girls looked awesome in their dresses!

akulaji

In Response to <a href="http://forums.theknot.com/Sites/theknot/Pages/Main.aspx/local-wedding-boards_connecticut_tackling-bridesmaids-dresses?plckFindPostKey=Cat:Local Wedding BoardsForum:65Discussion:fc6e0d01-0ace-431e-ad9d-7824de7e0d7ePost:10d26121-3f67-4578-8335-864d28ca8de7">Re: Tackling the Bridesmaids' Dresses...</a>:
[QUOTE]I did the pick a designer, color and fabric and then let my girls choose from there.  The dresses were Bari Jay, and there are shops all over the country that carry them.  So I gave my girls the option of going to try on and pick out a dress at a shop by them and ordering, or calling into the shop I was using to order. A lot of people kept telling me that ordering them seperately could result in the colors being slightly different.  I really didn't care, and the girls looked awesome in their dresses!
Posted by foozzle[/QUOTE]

Foozzle makes a good point... I forgot to mention that part.  I ended up ordering all their dresses together because I was told the same thing.  They can't guarantee the color match if the dresses are ordered separately... with black I would hope it wouldn't matter though, but I guess it could.  If you order from dessy all together supposedly everything is made from the same dye lot.

wrdgirl

I have two bridesmaids - one in Taiwan and one in Chicago lol   I just told them the color (as close to it as possible) and pick whatever they want.  Since my wedding is more casual I don't really care what they get, as long as they are comfortable with it and like what they find.  But I do ask them to show me a picture of what they have in mind so that I won't be completely surprised lol

Karebear852k3

I'm eventually going to do the same thing.  Pick a designer/pick a fabric (either Satin or Chiffon in my opinion), I'll tell you the color (some form of Lilac), you pick the style and order away...that way everyone looks good and feels good about their choice and pays what they want...I luckily don't have the dilemma of everyone being scattered all over the world...

MOH - CT (Middlefield)
BM - CT (Clinton/West Haven)
BM - CT (Hamden/New Haven/Deep River)
BM - CT (Westbrook)
Junior BM (Killingworth)

The hard part is getting all of them together with the varying schedules and locations

nyquinn134

I had
3 NYC
2 CT
1 FL

I took the friend who was the most difficult to fit (she's busty) and made sure the dress looked good on her.  Everyone else had a similar body type to me so I tried it on too.