Bridesmaid Dress Ideas

kelnoelle · November 2010

After being a bridesmaid myself, its really important for me to find a dress that my bridesmaids can wear again. I've looked at Macy's & Nordstrom, but the colors of all the dresses are so limited and I am looking for possibly light yellow or sage green. Does anyone have any ideas of places to look that carry a bunch of colors, but the dresses are more "cocktail party" than "bridesmaid" looking?

opalsky007 · November 2010

J. Crew and Ann Taylor have great options.

A lot of the traditionally "bridal" designers are going for more cocktail-party inspired dresses these days, so don't knock them right off the bat--they do have more color offerings than a lot of other brands. Mori Lee has a lot of my favorites, but there are tons of other designers.

aerinpegadrak · November 2010

If you really want them to wear it again, you should let them choose their own, and probably choose a more rewearable color like black or brown. But something like 98% of bridesmaid dresses do not get reworn, so I wouldn't get too hung up on that.

marissa_claire · November 2010

What Macy's did you go to? I went to two different ones (looking for a RD dress) over the weekend and thought they had tons of color options.

To be frank with you, if you're looking in a color like that - odds are it's going to look "bridesmaid-y." Unless it's a little black dress, or maybe red or a deep purple, the brighter colors tend to be good for one occasion only. The only exception might be if you found a cotton sundress, in which case they could probably rewear it but that depends on the formality of your situation.

Do you have any pictures yet of what you had in mind? Or even a color swatch might help.

naomikb · November 2010

I'm in Canada so maybe not all these stores will apply to you but I've been scouring Fairweather, Le Chateau, RW&Co, and Mexx and finding lots of pretty stuff. Sometimes they don't come in a lot of different colours, but I'm finding things that are coloured (pink, purple, blue) and not just black.

I'm looking for darker colours though so I'm having luck with the holiday party dresses that are in stores now. You might have better luck in March - April - May when the spring stuff is out if you're looking for pale yellow/green though.

Summer2011Bride · November 2010

I agree with everything said by PP's about the re-wearability factor. My BM dresses are just going to be black cocktail dresses. I am adding color through their bouquets, and I'm thinking of having them wear colored heels too; not sure on that one. So if your colors are yellow and gray (just as an example) what about taking the gray or more neutral color for the dress and adding yellow accents (detachable sash, shoes, or bouquets?) The colors you speak of aren't very re-wearable.