Mystery Bridesmaid Dress...
I'm a bridesmaid in my friends wedding, which is the second weekend in September 2012. It's already mid-June and she STILL has not chosen a bridesmaid dress (we all live in different areas so she is picking a dress and we will all purchase it at a store near us, no group shopping opportunity). At this point, I'm nervous that the dress she does pick won't arrive in time, or that I'll have to pay extra to rush shipping and alterations. Is she way late on picking a bridesmaids dress considering her wedding is less than 3 months away?
I've non-chalantly asked about dresses but she always says she's still picking. I've never come right out and voiced my concerns about the price and that it's getting down to the wire - is this crossing the line, or am I within my boundaries to say something?
Re: Mystery Bridesmaid Dress...
I might just mention next time, "One of my friends said it took over 3 months for her Bm dresses to come in! Do you think we'll have enough time to get them altered?" Ultimately though, it's on her to decide which line to go with and since you can't order the dresses for her, there's not much else to do.
Have a tailor lined up for you to take the dress to the day you get it in your hands.
For the wedding I was in this spring: Ordered dresses Sept 2, 2011 and they arrived in Jan 11, 2012.
If I recall I cut it really close on the tailor because I'm an awful person. In less than two weeks she was able to shorten the straps, take out the zipper, take the dress in two sizes (long story), put the zipper back in and repleat the skirt.
EDIT: So another tip, when you finally get to order the dress, if the gal at the shop tells you to order a size that you think seems way, way, way too big, and it just happens to also suddenly make the dress $30 more expensive, suck in and ask her to measure again.
Websites/blogs where our wedding has been featured:
http://www.dapperq.com/2013/11/a-very-dapper-wedding/
http://www.onabicyclebuiltfortwo.com/2013/10/wedding-christina-g.html
http://4realequalityweddings.com/2014/05/16/g-christina/
Send her a text or email that's something like, "Hey Bride, I'm going to Nordstrom this week for shoes. Any idea on what kind of BM dresses you were thinking of? I could keep my eyes peeled and if I find anything you like, we could all order it from Nordstrom and have it in a week!"
If you can find any way of steering her more towards department store dresses or Flash Sale websites (Gilt, Rue La La, etc), you're going to have a better shot at having the dress in time to alter. The downside is you'll have to order the dress on blind faith that your size fits, but returning things to those places isn't too painful. Also it might be harder to get sizes outside the 2-14 realm, but honestly at 3 months out, it would be hard to get those sizes special ordered from anywhere in time.
I know for the last wedding I was in we ordered the dresses at the beginning of January for a mid-May wedding. The shop we ordered from said we were cutting it close because they suggest ordering bridesmaid dresses 6 months in advance, but we got our dress by the beginning of April without any rush fees. The alterations only took a couple of weeks, so we had the dresses in our hands about a couple of weeks in advance.
For my wedding I plan on getting bridesmaid dresses off the rack 2 months in advance, because I want my bridesmaids to get a great price on the dresses. We're going to do Lilly Pulitzer bridesmaid dresses and they have a warehouse sale every November and June by my hometown. We will likely look at the November sale, but it is usually all fall clothes. We probably won't purchase the dresses until the June sale when they have the summer sundresses and our wedding is in August. These dresses typically require minimal or no alterations, so two months with the dresses should be plenty of time for any alterations my bridesmaids may want.
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