10 Feb 2016

Wedding Wednesdays “It’s a Fritz Bernaise”

Let’s talk bridesmaid dresses. As we move further and further into the 21st century and we embark in 2016 there is one major trend in bridesmaid dresses and that is, wearing all the same dress is not as popular as it used to be. Of course there are still the more traditional weddings that follow the classic matching dress route, but for our wedding I decided to go rogue.

At first, I wasn’t sure just how different I wanted my bridesmaids to be and so I took one of my bridesmaids dress shopping. I first want to say how lucky I am to have six of the most obliging besties out there willing to wear just about anything I ask of them, but I really wanted to include them in the decision making process. For months I took note of each of their preferences of colors and styles, knowing that Katie hates strapless dresses as much as I do and that Amelia would prefer not to be in a dress made completely of tulle. Knowing what makes each of my girls feel their best made the shopping day 100x easier because that was my ultimate goal. While I’m dressed up in the prettiest of white dresses, I want the women next to me glowing, comfortable, and happy as well.

I narrowed it down to two stores, mostly in order to get an idea for what various styles and fabrics would feel and look like in person. And so, Sara and I set out to Weddington Way and the Nordstrom Wedding Suite. I have to say, neither experience was particularly special or deserves any spectacular accolades, but it was helpful to see the dresses in person. Weddington Way, for those of you who aren’t engrossed in the wedding world, is an online bridesmaid shopping bonanza where they have a zillion different colors, styles, and brands of dresses. Lucky for me, they have a pop up shop in their San Francisco office meaning we were able to show up and see a lot of their dresses in person. Nordstrom was similar in that they had some of their dresses, but do not stock all of the ones they advertise online, making it somewhat of a disappointment. For example, the brand Sara and I ultimately fell in love with were Donna Morgan dresses. We happened upon her catalog sitting at Weddington Way and then again at Nordstrom and Sara had tried on one of her strapless dresses in the Chantilly color, a champagne color of sorts, but with a fancier name. We were in love with the mismatched styles of dresses in this pale pink color and that was where our vision was born.

Now I hate to be cliche, but I wanted to choose a color that complimented the outdoors and didn’t outshine it by any means. We’re getting married in Yosemite National Park for pete’s sake, we don’t need to go crazy! I was drawn to the paler colors that would blend in nicely with green sequoia giants, natural grasses, and earth tones. After a quick search Sara and I realized that the three styles of dresses we liked the most unfortunately didn’t come in all the same color and so our grand plan evolved. We settled on this sort of crazy, sort of brilliant idea that we should have mismatched colors and mismatched styles and include a gorgeous floral print that would somehow tie it all together and become a gorgeous bridesmaid set. Once again, because I have the greatest bridesmaids in the world, everyone happened to agree with our crazy idea and went all in, purchasing their dresses during perfectly timed Black Friday sales.

Choosing your bridesmaid dresses should be fun and should actively include the women wearing the dresses. As set “wedding colors” and wedding trends go in and out of style, choosing bridesmaid dresses becomes easier and easier. It becomes about what makes the ladies you care about most feel comfortable, confident, and beautiful while finding dresses that compliment your own dress and style of wedding. If your dress is of a vintage inspiration, have your bridesmaids wear dresses that tend towards a similar era instead of something modern. And I mean really, at the end of the day it’s most important that you can twirl in it, you can spread your legs apart, and that it’s a Fritz Bernaise. You really can’t do much better than that.

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