Choosing Bridesmaid's Dresses
December 2nd, 2008

Besides her own dress the dresses of the bridesmaids may be one of the most important pieces of attire in the bride's opinion. The bride may be more concerned about the appearance of the bridesmaids than she is about the appearance of the groom or her parents. This is because the bridesmaids are a direct reflection on the bride. If the groom chooses an unflattering or inappropriate tuxedo the guests will simply chuckle at his lack of taste and assume that he picked out his attire by himself but if the bridesmaids look inappropriate, everyone will wonder why the bride chose such unappealing dresses. The pressure of choosing dresses for the bridesmaids is made more difficult by the fact that the bridesmaids are likely to have a variety of skin tones and body types making it difficult to find one dress that suits all of them.

In choosing dresses for your bridesmaids, you may want to consider involving your bridesmaids in the process from the beginning and working with them to choose the dresses. The first thing to consider in choosing the dresses is color. You may have your favorite color in mind but it is important to remember this color may not be flattering to your bridesmaids. Each of your bridesmaids may have a different color that flatters their skin tone and it may not be possible to find one particular color that is flattering to all of the bridesmaids. In this case you will need to compromise and find a color that all of the bridesmaids can agree on and that is not too harsh on any one particular bridesmaid.

Once you have decided on a color it is time to choose a style. This too can be made difficult if the bridesmaids do not have similar body types. Again, compromise may be necessary to find a style that will work for all of the bridesmaids. It may be a style that is not perfect for any particular bridesmaid but that is also not completely unfavorable for any bridesmaid either.

The price of the dress is also important in choosing a bridesmaid dress. It is very likely that your bridesmaid may never again wear the bridesmaid's dress that you choose so it is important to take this into consideration when choosing a dress. It is unfair to expect your bridesmaids to pay a large sum for a dress that they have not chosen and may never wear again. Keeping the price of the dress affordable will ensure that your bridesmaids do not harbor any resentment towards you.

While as the bride you have the right to make the final decision regarding the choice of dress for the bridesmaids, you may allow either the maid of honor to make the decision or include the entire wedding party in the decision making process. One way to do this is to choose two or three dresses that you would be happy with and allow the maid of honor to choose one dress from these options or allow the wedding party to vote on the options. This ensures that you will like the dress because you are only giving them the option of choosing a dress that you approve of but it also prevents the bridesmaids from feeling helpless by giving them some say in the decision.

Another option to consider in choosing bridesmaid's dresses is to simply pick a color and allow them freedom to choose any style that they desire as long as it is in the color that you specify. Many dress manufacturers have a limited number of colors and offer most styles of dresses in these few colors. This is a great idea because it gives each bridesmaid the opportunity to choose a style that shows their figure to its best advantage. If you are going to be bothered by having your bridesmaids not match completely in the wedding photos than this option may not be a good one for you as it is very unlikely that all of the bridesmaids will choose the same style of dress and are likely to not match completely.

Choosing the dresses for your bridesmaids can be difficult because it is hard to find a color and style that will complement all of your bridesmaids. Offering the bridesmaids some role in the decision making process and considering their financial constraints can help to make choosing a bridesmaid's dress an easy task

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