Friday, January 13, 2012

Picture Post: Bridesmaid Attire





Mmm, delicious fall colors. We're overdue for a picture post, and the concept of bridesmaid attire fits nicely with the general budget them. I've had a lot of friends over the past couple of years who have accrued significant credit card debt from being a part of the wedding part: hair, makeup, manicure, pedicure, bridesmaid dress, bridesmaid shoes, bachelorette party, bachelorette party GIFT, wedding gift, travel costs, hotel costs ...


...I can't do that to my friends. I'm trying to make my peace with the fact that most of them live out of town and they can't avoid travel costs, and I'm trying to set them up to stay with in-town friends. But the shoes, the dress, the hair, the makeup, the endless cosmetic costs? I can't do that.


As much as I know, intellectually, that it will be fine if I don't do all of that stuff, there is still the idea that I'd rather have the whole thing look relatively cohesive, and two bridesmaids in black, one in lime green, and another in aqua would look just plain ODD. J, a close friend (and bridesmaid) helped me brainstorm last night.


I had been thinking of asking the bridesmaids to choose a knee-length dress in a fall color - warm browns, pumpkin, golds and yellows, bittersweet, that sort of thing. In my head, it was going to look something like this, only with delightfully, exquisitely mis-matched, indie-chic dresses.


J pointed out that this would be really, really hard to make work without people clashing, and that those colors aren't very commonly sold, anyway - so if I wanted things to be easiest on the bridesmaids, that might not do the trick. I'm still a bit sad to say goodbye to the fall assortment, but I don't want people to stress themselves silly over colors, either.



As much as I don't want to choose wedding colors (more on that later), we already have some by default - an off-white/cream (my dress), and dark blue (the dress blues). Half of the groomsmen will be in dress blues, and half in tuxes, so it's not like we'll have varied dresses on one side of the aisle and military snazziness on the other.


And these colors will be the key. We've tentatively decided to go with dark blue, which will stand out nicely against the fall decor at the reception AND go nicely with the groomsmen. So more of this sort of a vibe:




And that's just lovely! So, so lovely.


Thoughts? Objections? Advice? Leave a comment!

4 comments:

  1. I found you through your post on APW today and I'm reading through your posts here. I'll be reading from now on!

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  2. I LOVE the idea of not-completely-identical bridesmaids dresses (convincing my mother is a different story ...). I'd say either one could work--fall colors or shades of blue! Maybe your 'maids could double check their dress with you before they get it? Then you can verify they won't clash.

    I've pinned several examples of the none-identical bridesmaids, if you want to look me up (jenni_kissinger).

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    1. I think I am now following you on pinterest!

      Part of the problem with bridesmaids is that two of them are in my city and two are thousands of miles away. This makes coordination beforehand a difficult proposition. Unfortunately. *grumbles* I think we'll just go with shades of navy and dark blue, and draw it together with white bouquets, maybe of different types of flowers - that way everyone is variations-on-a-theme, but united across a color scheme.

      Oof.

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    2. Haha yes you are following me! At first I was confused about who you were, but then I remembered your initials. ;-P

      I think one of the key things I've noticed in all of these mismatched bridesmaids is 'elements' that tie them together, like the white bouquets you mentioned. As long as you have that, I think it will look smashing!

      Also, not to sound stalker-esque, but I clicked through your profile and noticed that you have a space-related blog. Are you involved with space stuff in some way? I ask because I'm studying space physics, and it's always nice to meet a fellow nerd! Feel free to email me (jenni dot kissinger at gmail dot com) if this is too personal a discussion for blog comments.

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