Bridesmaid Dresses

This past Monday, my mom, sister, and I went out shopping for Bridesmaid dresses. We'd looked a bunch online, but it seems like it's really hard to tell what the fit will actually be like and how the color will actually look until you actually see them in person and try them on.

The main criteria I had going in were that I would like a floor-length gown, because I think they're really pretty and flattering and a bit more formal, and I also wanted a bright yellow (not a pastel yellow), because that's the main color of the wedding - it should be bright and fun and spring-y.

Our first appointment was at Flutter Boutique in Minneapolis. Flutter Boutique was really great. They have a really good selection of dresses - lots of designers and lots of styles. I think we were the first appointment of the day, so we were the only customers in the store for the first hour we were there. It's really nice to have the store to yourself to chat and pick things out. They also had a little table with coffee, which was nice. The person who helped us seemed very knowledgeable, too. They have a large room where you can try everything on - my sister tried on everything, and then I re-tried our top seven dresses. (You can tell that we really tried on a lot of dresses, since even after narrowing it down a lot, we still had seven!) Even though we ran a bit over our one-hour appointment time, the person helping us didn't make us feel rushed at all, and even encouraged us to take our time. Once we had our top seven, she hung them all up in a row, and then she wrote out a card for us that had the dress style, fabric, price, and order timeline for each dress, and she made a card with fabric swatches in yellow for each dress. It was a great place to shop.

These were our top seven dresses:

Priscilla of Boston 1612 in Canary Satin Yoryu

Priscilla Classics CL106S-L in Canary Satin

Simple Silhouettes Sweet Pea in Dandelian Silk Shantung

Priscilla Classics CL110S-L in Canary Satin

Priscilla Classics CL110S-L in Canary Satin

Simple Silhouettes Gardenia in Dandelian Silk Shantung (but full length)

After Six 6589 in Irredescent Taffeta (but full length)

Our next stop was at Priscilla of Boston in Edina. We hadn't made an appointment, so we didn't have one specific person assigned to help us, but they let us grab dresses and try them on, which was all we really needed. We found a couple we liked (there were others we liked more, but they didn't come in yellow.) They were:

Priscilla of Boston 1520 in Canary Satin Yoryu

Priscilla of Boston PB445 in Canary Crinkle Chiffon

Before we left, they wrote these down on a card along with pricing information. We also discovered that Priscilla of Boston was having a sale so that all bridesmaids dresses were 15% off through December 30th, which is a pretty good discount.

That meant I really needed to decide quickly. The morning after we went shopping, my mom, sister, and I put all the pictures up on the TV and try to narrow down the options. We looked at what would be flattering, what would have the best color, and what we just liked, in general. I am hoping that the yellow satin is bright enough in real life - I really want it to look like a bright yellow, rather than a pastel yellow. On the other hand, I don't want it to be overpowering. I'm hoping these colors are a good medium. These are the top three we decided on - both on me, and on the model from the Priscilla of Boston website.

Priscilla of Boston 1612 in Canary Satin Yoryu (but without the straps)

 

Priscilla Classics CL106S-L in Canary Satin

 

Priscilla of Boston 1520 in Canary Satin Yoryu

It's basically a coincidence that the top choices were all Priscilla of Boston (though it didn't hurt that they were definitely the most reasonably priced - some of the dresses we tried on were $350 or more - yikes!)

Then on December 29th, I made a final decision to go with Priscilla of Boston 1612 in Canary Satin Yoryu - so that's going to be the dress! All seven bridesmaids will have this same dress, and the two female ushers will have the same style dress, but in onyx instead of canary. This is definitely a huge part of the wedding (at least visually), and it's really crazy to have it all set!

  

All of the girls (except Janet who's out of the country) called in and put down a deposit on December 30th to secure the discount, and now they'll call back soon with measurements, and the order will be put in. So exciting!