The Hunt for Dresses for my Girls

I have to say, picking out bridesmaids dresses has been my LEAST favorite part of the wedding planning process. Not because we couldn't find anything or because my girls were difficult (in fact, they were QUITE the opposite) but because I just do NOT like the idea of picking out something for someone else to wear and then making them spend more on it than I'd ever spend for an outfit for ONE DAY! I just can't NOT feel guilty about it! lol My girls have continuously reassured me over the last few months that I shouldn't feel bad about it and that it's expected... and, while that helped a bit, I still didn't like actually doing it!

That said, here's the story of our dress shopping day. =)

December 21st was the ONLY day before the wedding week that I would have all of my bridesmaids in the same state at the same time, so, since this past July we have had a date predetermined to shop for dresses. Originally it was going to include finding my dress as well... but... I couldn't wait! So, much to the displeasure of my MOH, I bought my dress early (Sorry again Josie!). So December 21st was completed dedicated to my girls.

Our plan was to meet for lunch so the girls could get to know each other (none of them had met either of the other two), and then go to Davids and shop around. If we weren't able to find something there, we had another dress shop that we could go to, but it was about an hour away.

The plan was cursed from the very beginning. The restaurant we were going to meet and eat at was CLOSED. It's a pizza place on campus and apparently they decided to only hold dinner hours during the university's winter break. Bah! So then we had to think of another place. We decided on the Olive Garden... which had a 20 minute wait... when our appointment was in an hour! I called Davids and thankfully they were able to postpone our appointment a half hour. Thank goodness! 'Cause I REALLY wasn't feelin' like treating my girls to Carl's Jr. for lunch! lol

Once we finally got to David's I set my girls loose. I told them that I was looking for something short and available in blue (we ended up ordering dresses in "Horizon") and to just start trying stuff on... which they did!

Here's Holly overcome by all the pretty dresses! =) (The dress pictured)

This was the first dress I really liked (and on sale for about HALF the price of the others in the store), but, obviously, Josie just wasn't feelin' it! lol

Had to do the sock shot! It was a cold day in Oregon... have to keep the tootsies warm! =)

Maybe a long dress?

They really loved this one... but it would need to be shortened... just not quite appropriate for a beach wedding as is.

But even the short dresses would need to be shortened... especially difficult to find short dresses with the variety of heights we were working with.

Finally! A short dress that's the perfect length on all of them (a little "sisterhood of the bridesmaid dress" action going on here?), has the flowy chiffon that they liked, was beachy appropriate, and wasn't the most expensive dress in the store (though, it was barely able to make this claim).

Somewhere along the way all three girls fell in love with another dress and we were sooo excited that we'd found something (for some reason I didn't get a photo of this one). Only to find out that it didn't come in either of the two blue shades that I was considering. After the girls jokingly told me I needed to change my wedding colors we continued the search. I came home later that day and looked on David's website, and found out that if we ordered the dress ONLINE (or, at least one VERY similar to it... if not the same one) that we could have gotten it in the color we wanted! (shhh... don't tell my bridesmaids!) So, I guess the lesson for all out there is that if you find a dress you love but the store doesn't say they have it in that color, check the web.

It's over. I don't have to stress about this any more. The rest of it (shoes, hair, makeup, accessories) is all on them to do as they please. Phew!

At least they'll all look beautiful! =)