Bridesmaid dresses - edumacate me?

teddygirl9 · February 2015

Why does one need to spend 2-500$ on a specially ordered dress? Why don't people just go to H&M and get their size and then get it altered?

amelisha · February 2015

Damned if I know, frankly. A wider range of sizes? More "formal" fabrics (if you call polyester satin and chiffon "formal", I guess)?

I think most bridesmaid-specific dresses are either boring or ugly, personally, so if I'd had bridesmaids I definitely would have preferred a dress from the cocktail section of a normal store, or even ModCloth or something. But maybe I'm missing something too.

MyNameIsNot · February 2015

Because if something says "wedding" on it, it automatically has to cost at least five times what it otherwise would have cost. This is one of the basic rules of wedding planning. Things have to be absurdly overpriced for no reason.

Personally, I prefer department store dresses.

bethsmiles · February 2015

I don't get spending that much on a dress, that people usually only wear once either but I don't actually know anyone in real who has spent over $150 (which is still a lot) on a bridesmaids dress either.

It's just one of those things the wedding industry and the media have made people think is the norm so people don't think twice about it. It's craziness.

sarahufl · February 2015

My bridesmaids were given a color (grey) and told to go nuts.

SIL got her dress final sale at Ann Taylor for 30 bucks.

kvruns · February 2015

I don't get it either! The dress I wore for a wedding last year I probably could have worn again except I'm not a fan of the color and then the "awesome" bracelet we were made to wear snagged the hell out of it so even if I had liked the color it was pretty much SOL after that.

Then again I also don't get spending thousand and thousands on a wedding dress.....

teddygirl9 · February 2015

Okay good, I'm not some crazy cheapo haha.

princessleia22 · February 2015

Because it's "wedding" stuff, so therefore is expensive. Depending on what dress you choose, it can be easier to get color/style/sizes needed in BM dresses, than if shopping at retails stores.

There are some people who do choose BM dresses from standard retail stores, instead of wedding stores. I told my BM's to get any short navy blue dress. They didn't need to match style or exact color. They didn't need to be "bridesmaid dresses". They didn't need to be expensive. Just get something blue that you will preferably wear again. Two of my BM's chose to get matching dresses from David's Bridal. They spend more than they needed to (still only $100), but the dresses were cute and definitely could be worn again. For the 3rd BM, they didn't want to spend that much because she was a kid and would grow out of the dress quickly. We found a dress, that actually was very similar style to the other BM, on clearance for $14 at Target.

larrygaga · February 2015

We got ours at DB for 150 at the most. It was good for us because all my girls wanted to dress the same (lol?) but they are a range of sizes.

If it works for you, go department! Nobody wears those plain boring dresses again anyway. I have like 5 BM dresses just soaking up closet space.

climbingsingle · February 2015

My MOH bought her dress at Macy's for under $150.

lurkergirl · February 2015

My sister got hers for under $200 at a bridal shop, another is in another country getting hers made for her for about $25 (obviously we couldn't get that here in the states), another got hers at Target for $70, and the last ordered one online for like $60. It can be done for less!

hellosweetie1015 · February 2015

It's definitely the Wedding bit.

I told my girls to get a dress in a color similar to David's Bridal "Horizon" and a similar "formality" to my dress. Length? Don't care. Fabric? Don't care. Sleeves, no sleeves, anything else a person could care about? Don't care.

YogaSandy · February 2015

For my wedding, I didn't care about BM dresses. Told them to go find a black dress in which they were comfortable that wasnt trashy. That way each person could spend what they were comfortable spending, wear a style that they were comfortable with, didn't have to worry about accommodating the other bridesmaids. It was so much easier and looked amazing. I bought them all black scarves/shawls just to tie the look together (so they'd stand out as BMs at the reception, because a lot of ladies wear black dresses to weddings). My SIL spent a larger amount, because she couldn't find anything she really wanted, so she got hers custom made. One girl found a beautiful dress (I think she even wore it again) on sale for $30. My BMs all had different body types, and different comfort levels. One hated anything even close to revealing. One was my 13 year old (at the time), short, under developed sister. She never would have been able to fit a "grown up" dress like the other girls, with darts and tailoring. She was the reason I chose this route. And soon realized how much easier it would be for everyone.

A guest at my wedding ended up doing the same thing, but with yellow dresses. I thought it would be weird if all the dresses were different shades (which is why I picked black because then they'd be relatively the same color as opposed to me saying get a bright blue dress), but they were all different shades of yellow and it looked great.

alpacalunch · February 2015

larrygaga said:
We got ours at DB for 150 at the most. It was good for us because all my girls wanted to dress the same (lol?) but they are a range of sizes.

If it works for you, go department! Nobody wears those plain boring dresses again anyway. I have like 5 BM dresses just soaking up closet space.

Mine wanted the same dresses too! I told them that I truly did not care, and they decided amongst themselves. I went to DB with them, and had virtually no input other than 'that one isn't my favourite'. I spent most of the time playing dress-up, frankly.

Weddings are a moneypit.

Bridesmaid dresses - edumacate me?

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