Bride Blogger Amanda

Bridesmaids Dresses: Making Lemonade out of Lemons

I had a vague idea in mind for bridesmaids’ dresses while shopping for my own dress: plum-colored and preferably separates of some sort or different styles to accommodate the various shapes and sizes of my bridesmaids. Not everyone looks good in the same dress, and I wanted my girls to feel good in what they were wearing -- even if they couldn’t wear it again.

I had brought a picture from a magazine with me to gauge the color, and luckily, I happened to find a sample dress from Mackenzie Michaels the exact color of the picture. I tried on the dress to see how it fit, and it was a very flattering strapless top, long skirt with several little pick-ups in it and a black sash. Formal, elegant and gorgeous!

Thankfully, we were also able to change out the top for my sister, who is more comfortable with straps. Unfortunately, when my sister’s came in, the top had a lace-up back and it was supposed to have a zipper. This was indicated in the special instructions, but when the dress was ordered, somehow this did not get communicated properly. I didn’t mind the lace-up back much, but it wouldn’t have looked right with a sash. Even more, you could see skin through the laces, which would be completely unacceptable at a wedding. To make matters worse, the shop was not the most customer-service friendly during this situation, and that just made the whole thing that much more frustrating.

In the end, we decided to keep the lace-up back and forgo putting a zipper in. My sister found a seamstress who will be able to fix the see-through nature of the laces, and we’ll use the black sash to lace up the back. So as the matron of honor, she will just have a different spin on the other dresses, and it will actually be pretty cool, I think. All the girls have their dresses, and I’m super excited to see them all dolled up!

So far this is the only real snag I’ve encountered, and it wound up working out just fine, so I count myself lucky! There’s always going to be something that doesn’t turn out as planned, so all you can do is take a deep breath and be creative. Sometimes the solution turns out better than what you had planned originally anyway!
-Amanda