Letting My Bridesmaids Choose Their Own Dresses

After deciding that my bridesmaids would wear eggplant/deep purple, I was on the hunt for a dress that would compliment them all. I spent weeks emailing my bridesmaids (i.e. being bridezilla) about this dress or that dress. My sister (maid of honor) was the only one kind enough to really respond to most of the crazy emails and ideas. Everyone else just said, "Whatever you want! You're the bride!"

But that's not the response I wanted! I don't want to be the only one responsible for picking out a dress for 6 other people to wear! Of course I wanted them to save money as well.

Then I thought I'd decided on the dress that would flatter each figure. I was excited about the $135 price tag (if bought online) as well. It is Impression Bridesmaids style 1731, pictured here on the right:

BestBridalPrices.com

But then my wheels started turning...I just can't get them to stop sometimes. I thought about my two large-chested bridesmaids and how they would probably loathe wearing a strapless dress. I thought about how different my 4'10" bridesmaid would look next to my 5'9" bridesmaid. I thought about how I'm not even wearing a strapless dress, so why should I make my bridesmaids do the same?

So I settled on a new idea: My bridesmaids would all wear the same color and fabric and have dresses of the same floor-length, but I would let them choose their own dress. I chose Alfred Angelo's brand (because it is widely available for my bridesmaids to try on across the country) and I asked that they each pick out two of their favorites so that I could make the final decision once I see them all.

Four of my girls have picked their dresses so far -- only two more to go! Here's what my wedding party looks like so far (all photos courtesy of AlfredAngelo.com):



Will You Be My Bridesmaid? (Cards)

Last winter I got into card making, thanks to inspiration from Martha Stewart’s glitter crafting. I bought the complete package of glitters along with glues and handmade all of our Christmas cards and gift tags. After our engagement (more on that later), I immediately knew who most of my bridesmaids would be and wanted to something special for each of them. I decided to make each a personalized card.

I also did a little Google of bridesmaid cards and found this Maid of Honor card, which served as my inspiration.

Supplies I used:

6 different pieces of pretty cardstock designs that I felt complimented each girl’s personality
Black card stock
A-6 Envelopes
Glue Stick
White vellum paper with a pretty design that I could print on
Various colors of glitter to compliment the colors in the cardstock
Paper Cutter
Scissors
Fine-tip Glue Pen
Scrapbooking flowers in matching colors
1 piece of glittery black paper
Standard hole punch

What I did (which might be totally self-explanatory by looking at the photos, but I’ll go for overkill here):
1. I folded and cut the black cardstock into a card that would fit my envelopes for the 4 bridesmaids I would need to mail the cards for. The other two bridesmaids I made bigger cards (since they didn't need to fit in an envelope) and simply folded an 8.5x11 sheet of cardstock in half.

2. I measured and cut a rectangle to fit the front of the card out of the designed card stock, then glued it in place with a glue stick. I made sure I left a space about an inch from the top, so I’d have room to write the bridesmaid’s name in the black section later.

3. I did a few practice runs on a simple dress shape that I cut out of the black card stock. At the time I was thinking that a black, tea-length, strapless dress would be the final choice for the real bridesmaid dresses, so I went with that.

4. I glued the “dress” onto the card at an angle with the glue stick.

5. I placed two layers of flowers in the upper corner of the designed card stock, gluing them in place with a hot glue gun. There was a small hole in the middle that seemed to need filling, so I punched out a hole in the glittery black paper and used that for the center of the flower (was able to adhere right to the hot glue that was seeping out the center hole).

6. My next step was to use my glittering expertise and write the bridesmaid’s name on the top black portion in my glue pen, then sprinkling a colored glitter over that. I also used the glue pen to draw a “ribbon” around the dress’ waist, then glittered it with black (to match the glittery black paper punch in the middle of my flower).

After all of this was dry, I typed and printed a special message on the vellum paper asking each bridesmaid to be just that. I told her why she was so special to me, what qualities I love about our relationship, and how I couldn’t imagine not sharing my wedding day with her. I simply cut it square and signed the bottom before using the glue stick to adhere it to the inside of the card. Voila!

(The quality of the photos are terrible because I took them with someone else's phone then sent them to mine! Woops -- promise I will do better next time. I also only took photos of two of them...another newbie blogger mistake.)