Bridesmaid Dress Hue Hunt ... the saga continues

Part 2 of the bridesmaid dress hunt began on a grey day in NYC, the day before Hurricane Irene was set to strike. I was feeling a case of the blahs.

I didn't have high hopes for the first stop: Here Comes the Bridesmaid. The shop is located in an office building, which I didn't realize when I made the appointment. Nothing wrong with that, but it's a weird feeling walking into an office to look at dresses. I took the elevator up and found the office suite. Although not what I imagined, the store has a great selection. The sales associate pulled every single one of the dresses I hoped to have the girls try on. When the girls came in we started the try-on.

We immediately had a case of the Little Red Riding hoods (this one's too big, this one's too little, this one's justttt right- or not).

Image via Dessy Group 

The first dress looked way too much like it should be worn to a job interview. The material was too starchy and stiff to fit in with the wedding. I love the Audrey Hepburn look of it online, but in person it's just not there.

Dessy Group

The second fit funny on top, and also looked too formal and stiff for the wedding look.

Image via Dessy Group

And the third never made it on the girls. I hated how the material looked and felt. Overall, on all the dresses, the fabric was not doing anything for anyone.

Of course, as it always seems to go with me, a dress I hadn't taken notice to online was everyone's favorite. I really liked it, but, of course, the color just wasn't what I had in mind. I liked a few of the blue hues though, and I contemplated having the bridesmaids wear the dress in a multitude of shades including this different "glacier" one.

Image via Bill Levkoff

We were onto David's Bridal next. Immediately after walking in everyone flocked to Vera Wang's WHITE line. In particular, everyone loved one dress that can be found in every single bridal magazine lately.

Image via David's Bridal

Everyone loved the dress after trying it on. No one wanted to take it off! And then, the downfall- the shade of blue it comes in looks very purple. Also, it comes with a black belt. Something about the purplish/blue and black combo didn't work, and it needs that belt. I felt very close to changing my whole color scheme just for the dress to work, but then realized that was stupid. There are plenty of bridesmaid dresses out there, and we still had one more to try on.

Image via David's Bridal

The last dress looked great on the girls, but after the Vera Wang it was hard to live up to. We added a belt and it really spruced up the whole look. I decided that with a belt the second dress could work fine. It comes in a great peacock hue (the exact color I was searching high and low for) and is a style the girls can wear again and again. Plus, even though the Vera Wang dress was loved by all, I have a nagging feeling that I will look back at pictures one day and wonder what hallucinogen we were on when we picked out the thing. Even though I love it now, I have a feeling it will have the same cringe effect in 10 years that bridesmaid dresses of the 80s give us now.

Image via Splendora

So now we're down to two. It's either the flowy strapless dress in various shades of blue or the David's Bridal peacock dress with a belt. I'm waiting for the epiphany lightbulb moment since we have some time. I'm sure that some time will turn into MAKE A DECISION time before I know it.

Was your bridesmaid dress decision a struggle to decide on, or was it a simple solution?

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?