The Bridesmaid Dress Search Begins!

Since I was having a destination wedding I knew I would be looking for short cocktail length bridesmaid dresses.  I thought it would be as easy as going to JCrew and picking out a dress and a color, but of course it couldn't be that easy.  I was looking for a bright green or bright purplish pink color.  Adam and I both love the color green and I have a sweatshirt that is a purplish pink color that I absolutely love the way it looks on and in pictures.  Many people suggested that I find a color I like to wear and go from there.  JCrew had colors that were cute, but just not exactly what I was looking for.  Also, their dresses were quite expensive and I didn't want to ask my bridesmaids to spend that much, so the search online began.  I ended up finding a clearance JCrew dress and ordered a few sizes to have my girls try on.  When they came in I absolutely loved the color but they weren't very flattering on all of the girls so that idea was out the door.  Back to google searching.  I ended up finding this picture as I shuffled through the millions of images related to 'bridesmaid dresses' and I really liked the color of the dresses, it was similar to the JCrew one I ordered.  A few nights later I found some pictures of this same wedding party in a magazine and again, it really stood out to me.  When I read the article in the magazine, I found out this was a destination wedding in Mexico and the bride got her bridesmaid dresses from JCrew.  I brought the picture into JCrew but of course it was an old style and old color.  I just loved how the color popped so I decided this picture would be my inspiration!  My search continued....

My color inspiration

I looked at the hundreds of pantone colors in The Dessy Group, then looked at David's Bridal, After Six, Alfred Angelo, etc. etc. etc. but just couldn't find what I was looking for.   I ended up going to a few places to look and ended up finding the perfect dress at House of Brides in Chicago.  It was a Watters and Watters dress.  They had the perfect colors and I loved the style...but the price was too high.  I found an Alfred Angelo dress that I liked as well that was more in my budget but of course I didn't love the color.  I went back and forth about it for a long time and ended up calling The Wedding Shoppe in St. Paul, MN (where I bought my gown).  Carolyn was able to help me out and get the price of the Watters and Watters dress down a bit and since it was MN, we didn't have to pay sales tax!  Thank you Carolyn!!  I decided to go with the jewel color (bright purplish pink) and they turned out to be the perfect dresses.  My goal was to have the colors POP and they sure did!  Bridesmaid dresses....check!

My bridesmaid dresses