Bridesmaid Dresses: To Match or Not to Match, That is Every Bride's Question

Bridesmaid Dresses: To Match or Not to Match, That is Every Bride's Question

One of the many wedding cliches that everyone likes at and every bride's potential bridesmaid fears is the ugly bridesmaid dress. There have been years of wedding and generation of bridesmaids that have endured ballooned sleeves, satin, velvet, lace worthy of a doily, and prints that can be found in your grandmother's left over quilting scraps. It is like a train of "What was she thinking" and five minute trends.Now, we realize that some of what we call ugly today, may have truly been the style ten years ago, but the thing we are hoping to help you avoid is being in that list of ugly dresses ten years from now five years from now, next years and the day those horridly wonderful curtains walk down the aisle. 

What your bridesmaids wear is going to be a direct reflection of your (the bride's) taste and since having ugly dresses is such a cliches, it is going to be something everyone will look for. So, what are the danger zone and how can you avoid fitting the cliche? Let's take a look at the options. 1) You pick everything head to toe and everyone wears the same dress. Let's go on a little journey. Think about the families you see at Disneyland or tourist attractions that are all matching. If the kids are all under five it might be cute, but any older and it could tip on the tacky side. Depends on how it is done? Okay. Now remember your family photos. Is anyone a little too matchy? Is it over bearing? A little? Still sometimes cute? Okay, now think about your bridesmaids. Do they all have the same hair color, skin tone and body type? No. Then they are not going to look good in the exact same thing. (ie. don't put a red head in bright orange, hot pink, or red and don't put someone with really pale skin in pale peach. It just won't translate very well. We don't say this to bash on matching bridesmaid dresses, as you can see the very first picture in this post has bridesmaid in matching dresses and it looks great, but we just want you to be careful because this is the highest danger zone for falling into the cliche. If you really want to have all your girls matching, then take them with you shopping. This doesn't mean you need their opinion per se, but so you can see how everyone looks in the dress options. Or, take a look at option two.  2) Pick one element, they pick the rest (perhaps with some guidelines).

This really is the best  middle ground option. It works best if you pick out a skirt for all the girls to wear and then have them find and pick out their tops, accessories, or shoes. Other things you could do is pick out a cardigan, statement necklace, or matching shoes. Once you have sent out the piece you are require them to wear, they can then fill in the rest. It is, of course, usually best to give them a color palette to work from so that everyone coordinates with each other and your overall wedding look, but, other than that, let them decide. This gives you flexibility, but also allows you some more control.  3)Pick a color and they pick the rest. This option is for the bride that doesn't have her heart set one everyone matching or would like one less thing they need to fully decide on. The idea here is that each bridesmaid would be told what color scheme you want and then would be given the freedom on deciding what to wear. By doing this, you allow your bridesmaids to find things that they will feel beautiful in and will want to wear again. If you are worried, you can have everyone send you pictures if you want to keep tabs on how everyone will coordinate, or if everyone is local, you can have a girl's day shopping trip so that everyone can work off of each other and find what they want.