Last Saturday I took my lovely bridesmaids shopping for their dresses. I have 6 bridesmaids, 4 adults and 2 junior bridesmaids so wanted to try a selection of options to see what looks worked best. I wanted just a casual ideas shop where I could freely get the ladies to try on various styles and lengths so that I could see what look suited them to help narrow down my search.
I chose to take a look on the high street rather than a bridal shop to give me the freedom to basically be a nightmare... try on take off.... try shoe's...try different dresses... swap this swap that...take measurement's... be noisy... so yes high street it was...
I had a good look on-line to see the product ranges that different stores had to offer and found that BHS had a dedicated bridal department and had by far the strongest range of styles so that is where we began our search.
In my head I already knew the style of dress that I wanted so I started with that. I wanted a strapless full length chiffon dress that went to the floor. When they tried it on, it looked lovely but it didn't quite work for the look that I wanted to go for so I picked up a different style that I liked which was a deep V neck chiffon dress which was more of an empire cut.
As soon as they put on the dresses I knew that that was the dress that I wanted them to have and they all really liked it. They all looked really elegant and the shape complimented every one of them (although the dresses needed an extra few inches in the length).
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| Bridesmaid dresses £95 available in various colours |
As I looked through the racks of shoes a strappy pair of gold sandals jumped out at me.... I had been searching for a pair of gold strappy sandals to suit all of the bridesmaids needs for months and had been struggling to find ANYTHING!! so when I saw them I grabbed each of the bridesmaids sizes and quickly got them to try them on. They Fitted and they had every size that I needed in stock. I thought that the sandals were meant to be and swiftly purchased them.
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| Shoes BHS £23 |
While I had all of the girls in one place I took all of their measurements so that If I saw any dresses on-line or in any shops then I had all of their measurements to hand to see how each size works out in relation to each companies size guide as a size 10 can vary greatly from one shop to the next.
So the adult bridesmaids were nice and easy...
now for my junior bridesmaids..
My junior bridesmaids are age 10 and age 12 which is a difficult age to find bridesmaid dresses for. Looking around the shops, bridesmaid dresses either catered for very young or adult age groups.. nothing really in the middle.
The young dresses looked too young and princess like where as the older ones where obviously too big...
The older junior bridesmaid looked very pretty and elegant in the adult dress but they are just not made for a young girls frame. I also wanted them to either match the adults or match each other.
We all had a lovely time and it was very interesting to have a try on and see what styles work. It was funny to see that the dress I had in my mind was not what I wanted and what style would suit the younger girls best.
I now feel that I know exactly what I am looking for. Don't be put off if a shop doesn't have the colour that you would like as finding the style is more important. The bridesmaids tried on a variety of colours none of which were the colour that I was looking for.
I would strongly recommend BHS for their product / price range. The dresses are beautiful and if they had the colour in stock that I wanted and at the length that I needed I would have purchased them there and then.
For the younger ladies I think that a bridal shop would have been the best bet as the cater for the 'junior' age bracket.
We also had a look in;
Monsoon
TK Maxx
House of Fraser
Debenhams
BHS have a 20% off event for card holders at the moment so take a look at their bridal section before it ends :)
http://www.bhs.co.uk/en/bhuk/category/wedding
How was your Bridesmaid shopping experience? Where did you go? and where would you recommend?
Share your story below..
The Wedding Assistant
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