Designing bridesmaid dresses!

Designing bridesmaid dresses!

• 2.27.2011

So I've now talked to all five of my lovely bridesmaids (for my August 6th wedding) and they've picked their dresses for the wedding.  I'm going to be making them, of course! =), and wanted my friends and future sisters-in-law to chose something they like within a general sort of vibe.

I'm actually having a bit of a conflict, since originally I was all about a J.Crew-ey look, mmmmmm wonderful stuff in their bridal/formalwear.  But now I'm thinking I may go more vintage-ey, and am decorating with milk glass vases and vintage quilts.  I look at photos of weddings where the bridesmaids wear vintage pastel, full-skirted dresses, and they're so pretty!  But I don't think I want to go quite that far.

Here's where we started, though: I pulled out pages from J.Crew's wedding stuff, and collected fabric swatches (I THINK I want them in pale grey, although purple was my preference at one point...).  I collected some of my patterns that are similar styles to the J.Crew dresses.  I was imagining doing a pleated, tapered skirt like a paper bag skirt on all the dresses, with different tops.

But now I'm thinking I may want them to have full skirts, give it a little more retro feel.  It's like the difference in shape between this Banana Republic dress:

(The tapered shape I was talking about... like the skirt on this casual Anthro dress):

And the full skirt on this J.Crew dress:

Or, I could go even more retro, and give it a longer full skirt, just a classic.  Like this cute summery Anthro dress.

So the look I'm going for is 5 girls, 5 different bodice styles, all the same skirt.  And maybe matching cardigans and bright shoes--inspiration from this cute wedding on Green Wedding Shoes:

So maybe some bright satin shoes on everyone, like these from Nina:

Anyway.  Still lots to decide, but I have time.  The main thing is deciding on the theme/feel I'm going for, and I like too many types.  Modern, funky, retro, romantic, outdoorsey... I like them all.  Working on developing my own hybrid, I guess!