Bridesmaid Blues

I am having the bridesmaid blues... literally & figuratively it seems.

On top of being really picky about bridesmaid dresses (nothing stands out to me), I can not find the right shade of blue on the right dress. Yes, this sounds ridiculous, but here’s my problem.

On the rare occasion a designer has the right blue, they do not have it available in a dress I like. Most designers go with the standard royal, navy, teal, and baby blue. Those aren't really my colors. I want deep blue and deep green. Navy can work, but I’m not ready to settle on navy yet. I have hope.


One Friday afternoon, on a glorious 1/2 day summer Friday, a few of my bridesmaids who were also free (aka the teachers, nurse, and student) met up at RK Bridal in the city. We looked through the racks and I picked a few dresses that I had already spotted online, and also let the girls pick out what they liked as long as it stuck with the overall look I was going for.

I had previously thought my solution was found with Wtoo's sapphire/emerald combo. I loved the colors together, and although it is simple, I thought it had a unique look to it. The first bridesmaid dress fail, however, was seeing my very favorite dress from the interwebs off the rack. Apparently I forgot how different online vs. real life can be.

Photo via Wtoo 

Although it looks flowy and simple the fabric is THICK. It looked awkward and, honestly, really cheaply made (and the dress isn’t even cheap!). Sorry, Wtoo, just not my thing. The setback was a huge bummer because the dress comes in the EXACT shades of blue/green I have envisioned for my wedding colors.

Next up was a simple Bill Levkoff dress that I loved the shape of. But, when I saw the color choices I was a little disappointed. 

Photos via Bill Levkoff

Since the dress can only come in one tone, and I want to incorporate both blue and green, I would have liked for my maid of honor to wear the green and the bridesmaids to wear the blue. The only colors close enough to what I wanted were navy and sage. Although I really like the way they look online, the shades look really different in person. The navy is extremely dark, almost black, in person. And, the sage looked a little dull. Once again I was reminded why you should not go off of an image on a website. It is so important to see the product in a store!

The next dress caught my eye as the girls were in and out of four different dressing rooms in a multitude of dresses.

Photo via Wtoo

I loved that this dress would let me incorporate just a hint of green. Ideally I want the main color to be blue with just a green accent. Watching far too many seasons of David Tutera has made me fear green. For those who don't know, David Tutera HATES green in weddings. He has some deep rooted problem with Kermit's hue. His facial expression alone when a bride brings up green makes me want to change my whole color scheme. Do not displease the Tutera, he is all knowing!

Photo via David Tutera

The dress was cute, but it wasn't a favorite among the bridesmaids. Everyone preferred the one tone Bill Levkoff. The Bill Levkoff did lay a little better, however the girls didn't try the dress on in the right size. The store only had one sample size that had probably been pulled on and off 900 times. I still felt it had great potential to look good fresh from the manufacturer. But, I'm really big on wanting my bridesmaids to look great. I'm not one of those brides who says, "suck it up and wear it." If a girl doesn't like how a dress looks on her it's definitely going to reflect in the pictures and in-person.

After an hour or two of try-on no one was ready to pull the "buy it trigger." Nothing WOWed me, and even though I'm not sure if you WOW at a bridesmaid dress, I don't want to end up with that nagging feeling of "ehhh, maybe we should have kept looking."

The search would have to continue.

Has bridesmaid dress shopping been smooth sailing or a battle for you?