Canary or sunbeam, long or short, lace or satin. How does a bride decide on bridesmaid attire?
She doesn’t. Most of the time, I forget I’m supposed to be planning a wedding that I’m supposed to attend after I graduate.
I know it’s crazy. It’s completely insane. I have yet to find a photographer, book a caterer, call the DJ, and oh yeah, write my senior thesis.
One thing I checked off the list this weekend — and it’s a long list — were the dresses.
I had my final fitting with my wedding dress Saturday, which was thankfully painless. My mom helped me find a local tailor, Michelle Strain, via Facebook who was willing to re-do her dress from the ‘80s in August.
Strain was working with my mom’s satin and lace gown, complete with the leg-of-mutton sleeves and a huge bow at the back end. I told her the bow and the sleeves had to go, and she cut off the bow the first day we met with her.
After a few months of alterations and adjustments, my mom’s dress had everything I wanted to keep about it, including its daisy lace and sentimental value, and nothing I didn’t want.
We decided to hem it to one length so my graceful walking wouldn’t suffer in June. I’m such a klutz I think I have a trophy for it somewhere, if I didn’t break that too.
On Sunday, my mom and I brought my sister to Erie so we could look at bridesmaids dresses. After my experience as maid-of-honor for my sister Carly’s wedding, I wasn’t excited about making another trip to David’s Bridal.
The store offers a lot of options for brides and their bridal parties, but sometimes that means overwhelming. It’s also a business focused on commission and profit. Maybe that doesn’t sound like a real complaint, but when you’re dealing with the stress of planning a wedding, the last thing you want to worry about are surprise charges.
David’s stocks different items and accessories, which is great, but when you’re paying $5 for fabric swatches on top of a designer dress down payment at $500 and sashes or pins at $80 each, that stuff really adds up.
With this in mind, I let my roommate pick a dress that fit her budget and her style, and we badgered the cashier about discounts. We didn’t get any discounts, but we ordered the dresses for two of the four women in my bridal party, so I’d say it was still a victory.
Julie and Holly ended up picking different dresses when the associate working with us said the dress we picked did not come in the “Canary” color I wanted. Canary is a pale yellow color I found on the David’s website.
After joining the 21st century bride club and making a Pinterest account, I had a wedding theme within a few days. Jason and I will decorate for summer using daisies, yellow gingham and navy accents to match his dress blues. Which means yellow for the bridesmaids. I’m sure they’ll forgive me by the time June 17 rolls around.
If not, I know they’ll smile in the pictures at least. Besides, we got out of the David’s bridal fly trap without breaking the bank.