Wedding Wednesday: Gowns & Suits

What could be more fun than picking out dresses and suits for the bridal party with your family and best friends? Last Saturday, Pete and I packed up our bags and headed to Southwest Virginia to do just that. Our mission was to scout out the dresses and suits our attendants would be wearing. Early that morning and with a large crowd in tow, we took over Bride's House in Roanoke. Lucky for us, there was a bridal suite in the back, which gave us the privacy and space we needed. My job was to orchestrate the dress-trying-on affair. For those of you with upcoming weddings, I have some tips to successfully choosing the right dresses for not only your concept, but for your bridesmaids too.

Know what fabric and length you want. This will automatically narrow down the selection of dresses.
Have your wedding color palette in mind when looking at the fabric swatches, and eliminate the designeres that don't offer what you are looking for.
Keep your bridesmaids in mind and allow them to wear what they most feel comfortable in. It's important to remember that everyone has a different body type and everyone feels comfortable in certain cuts. Let them know what ideas you have and ask them to stick to those.
Go in with an open mind! You never know what is available and what options there are for color and dress mixing.

Do you want all one dress style, a combination of dresses and colors, etc.

I must say, my experience was phenomenal and it couldn't have turned out better! Going in with the above mindset made the day run that much more smoothly. Giving the bridesmaids your guidelines for dresses, allows them to pick out something they are interested in and fits their body type well. I asked them to each pick out their top two dress choices after trying on an array of options. Using those decisions I found what combinations matched and thus was able to determine what worked. Because the dresses are by different designers, it was key to remember that the color in one set of dresses would be a different shade than the other dresses. Picking which dress would be in what color was easy once I discovered that one of the designers didn't offer one of the possible color choices. My bridemaids will be in two dress styles, one group in one color and the other group in another color.

After knowing what the ladies would be wearing, Pete and I finished up with picking the color of the vests and ties for the men. With black suits, we knew we wanted a color that would match both dress colors. And we settled on a charcoal for the groomsmen and ivory for the groom. Yep, that' right, Pete is wearing ivory. So what color do you think I'm wearing...

By the end of that day, I was feeling very content in the outcome and happy knowing that one more 'to-do' was checked off the list. Pete and I will have ten of our closest family and friends standing by our side the day of our wedding. Truly, we couldn't be happier or more blessed!