Bridesmaid dress

jleigh1902

Hi gals!

We're still a little while away from this but I just wanted some opinions. One of my girls that I've asked to be a BM is currently preggo. She won't be at the wedding (she's due in October though I wouldn't have cared if she was preggo in my wedding) but probably about the time we would try on/order BM dresses she's going to be super preggo. So would you have her wait until after baby is born to try on/order a dress--so that would be Nov./Dec. and the wedding is beginning of April or have her order what her usual street size is a bit sooner? We will probably go with David's for the BM dresses and in my experience they run pretty close to street size. And I ordered my BM dresses for the 2 weddings I was in and I cannot remember for the life of me how far out we ordered them. Thanks ladies!

elkay

IGNORE "Street Size"!!!!! Wedding apparel, even at David's, has little to do with street size. Go by the maker's measurement chart and pick the size closest to her non-preggo measurements.

mybestfriendsfuturemrs

I would personally wait until after she has had the baby.  Not to sound rude (and I hope that I don't) if this is her first child, she may not be able to lose the baby weight and wouldn't be to her "normal" size.

ladysunkissed

One of my BMs just gave birth and she ordered her dress in her pre-pregnancy measurements. However, she is a nutritionist and lost the weight from her first baby in less than two months, so she knows that can and will fit into that dress. If your BM doesn't think she can or will get back down to her size (with your wedding being only four or five months after she gives birth, that is a tight deadline for her), she can always order it a size or two larger and have it altered down.

The other issue that you might run into is that if you have your other BMs order their dresses and you wait for the other one, styles and colors often change and get discountinued...you don't want to risk that. Hope this helps!

klreese0213

i just ordered a bm dress for my sister's wedding. the dress came in (from DB) within 4 weeks, of course it won't always be that quickly. I think waiting to order may be a good idea. as PP said, dresses may change, so maybe you could order everyone's dress in november, hopefully they'd be in by end of Decemeber, which still gives a few months for alternations, if they need any.

leeshab1982

With your timeline, it seems like you'd have enough time to wait until after she has the baby for her to get measured and order.  I would double-check with David's first and see what timeline they can actually guarantee you.  In any case, she should probably order a size or two larger than what her pre-baby size would be.  Even if she loses a lot of the weight, hips expand and boobs grow after a baby!  

I have two pregnant BM's.  One will give birth this month (anytime now, Yay!) and one will be 7 months pregnant at my wedding.  Both had to get measured and order dresses while pregnant.  For the girl that is giving birth this month, they took her measurements while pregnant and her normal size into account.  She measured a size 14 now and normally wears a size 6, so they ordered a size 12 just to be safe.  I'm sure the dress will need some altering, but the nice thing is that the alterations are included in the price!

It's much easier and less expensive to take a dress in than to let it out.  The dress shop could probably give you some insight, too. 

boogerbearoriginal

Wait until after she has the baby to order dresses. If you're going the David's bridal route you will still have tons of time.

Two of my BMs ordered from David's and got their dresses in about 3 weeks. Not that you should cut it THAT close, but even if you don't order until January, it will still be plenty early for the dresses to come in and get alterations done if needed.

Her size may change after the baby. I know in my sister's case her hips stayed wider set and no amount of diet/exercise will move bones. She may find pregnancy permanently changes her size/shape. Of course my other sister has 2 kids and still wears a size 2 so its impossible to know

Unless there's a dress they are selling now that you absolutely love and are concerned it will get discountinued just wait. FWIW they still are selling the dress I wore as a BM in my friend's wedding 2 years ago.

Julz629

Agree w/PPs....wait until after your friend has her baby.  Unless the dress is forgiving (think: empire waist), her body may not be back to "normal" after baby.  In my experience, David's Bridal tells you 12 weeks for dresses, but whenever I have ordered from them, it was closer to 4 or 6.

Sue-n-Kevin

I agree with the prior posters. It can be horribly hard to lose the weight after a baby. The post-maternity body finds lots of places to not get into the prior shape LOL. I'd wait.

If worse comes to worse, and for some reason there is no way she can get the dress in time from DB, she can probably find something complimentary to the other dresses in time. Just make sure she doesn't go into weight-loss-rush mode, especially if she is breast feeding.

Good luck.

ejay

We got our BM dresses from David's Bridal and I also had a pregnant bridesmaid.  I kept asking them how long I could wait for her to order (we had no idea what size she would be) and they kept giving me the standard, "order them immediately because we can't guarantee they won't get discontinued." We ended up waiting a few weeks later and then ordered her a size 14 (she's normally a size 0).  The manager at DB that I spoke with promised me that if the 14 dress didn't work, either too large or small, she would still be able to order an alternative size and even style, if the style I selected wouldn't work for her baby bump.   All of my bridesmaid's dresses took a month or less to come in, with an average of 2 weeks.  

Of course the 14 came in and it was way too large.  They let her wait a few weeks and then are remeasuring her to order a smaller size. 

thecatsfancy

My MOH was very preggo when we went to try on dresses.  She ended up ordering the size that fit her on top...and it was her STREET SIZE (I don't know why that's such a taboo phrase...David's Bridal ran true the size you normally wear in every experience I've had with them).

P.S. The dress fit perfectly at the wedding (she's the dark blonde standing to the immediate left of me in the picutres).

boogerbearoriginal

OP - honestly at this point I wouldn't even worry about it. (I'm not intending this to be bitchey so I apologize if I come off that way) But you're a year out - focus on things like the reception hall and chuch/ceremony venue and day dream about honeymoon spots.

You have tons of time to pick out dresses/worry about sizes.

jleigh1902

Thanks for your tips ladies!

Booger--yeah I realize I'm still a ways out...it was just something that was on my mind so I thought I'd ask it! And I already have so much done I'm itching for the next thing! Haha! And I could never think any of you are bitchy!