Dresses and Economics, part II

In the last post I told you about the color of the dresses my bridesmaids will wear: Black.

Some people think wearing black to a wedding is bad luck, but I think it is classic.

I first knew I wanted my ladies to wear knee length cocktail dresses since the wedding is in June and since shorter dresses are easier to wear again. My next task was to find dresses that would look good on all of my ladies and be in a price range I felt comfortable asking them to shell out. I was thinking of choosing a line of dresses that are all the same fabric and skirt style with different choices of tops. I knew some of the girls wouldn't feel comfortable in a strapless dress while others would prefer it. So I was hoping for some affordable options.

While leafing through wedding magazines, I came across one line of dresses (by After Six) that I fell in love with:

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One problem with these dresses was the price tag. Although not very expensive, $144, they were still more than I was willing to ask people who are on tight budgets to shell out. So I kept looking. And looking. And looking. I found nothing that compared to these beauties.

I then decided I didn't need to find dresses for them. They could find their own dress. All my ladies enjoy shopping and some of them may already have a dress in their closet that would do the job. I have seen pictures of bridesmaids in mismatched dresses and I love it.

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I called all my bridesmaids and they loved the idea (except my sister). My sister hasn't been looking at blogs and magazines and websites, etc. like I have. She hasn't seen images as beautiful as the one above. Her concern was that we wouldn't look uniform enough. I reassured her that it would look great and I thought that if they got to choose a dress themselves, they could spend as much as they want, maybe find one on sale, and they would wear it again.

So far 3 of my 5 ladies have their dress (all with the price between $0 and $50 so far). Two of the dresses are even designer. I am so excited since they each match their personalities perfectly. Once they all have their dresses I'll write another post telling you all about them. I promise!

What made you decide on how to dress your bridesmaids? Did you choose matching dresses or did you let their personalities shine?