Wedding Planning Update #32A - The bridesmaid dress fiasco…part explaination, part vent
I thought I had taken all the necessary steps to avoid a painful wedding nightmare. I made myself responsible for collecting and disseminating the needed information. Somehow a simple task I thought we’d taken care of weeks ago is now back at step one. I am so frustrated and upset, but I will start at the beginning.
I really wanted to be a “modern thinking” bride and incorporate some new ideas into our wedding, especially as far as my attendants are concerned. I’ve seen so many horrific bridesmaid dresses, bad color choices (raspberry is still hot pink in my mind), and I myself was party to the “everyone is not the same body type and therefore does not look good in the same dress style” phenomenon. I’m still somewhat traditional in the sense of still wanting some limits - everyone in the same color (though it still may not look wonderful on everyone), and I certainly wanted everyone in the same length dress - but tea-length, since floor-length would just be too hot in the high summer heat of August. Even with those limits there were still plenty of choices of gowns, especially because the company I chose to go with has three separate design groups. And I will note here that I went with that company, the Dessy Group, because the bridal shop I had purchased MY gown at offered me a “30% discount” (What does that even mean anyway? 30% off of what? They don’t publish a price anywhere, so how do you really know you’re getting a discount?), and the dresses would also not be taxed if they were shipped out of state - which is where they had to go anyway. I’m also going to say now that if I could turn back the clock I would have someone else in NJ place the order at a bridal shop there because any money we may have initially “saved” does not make up for the frustration this problem has caused me. And my mother. And my girls, too, I’m sure.
Moving on. Ok, so I picked out the color and the length. I brought my cousin to a bridal shop WAY back in October when I was out in NJ. We had a great time because the particular shop we went to had a really good variety of Dessy group dresses. We both tried on different styles to get an idea of what might look good on her and the other girls. Jerilyn pretty much picked the style she wanted right then and there. Laura was a little harder to get to the store, but we had some time during our respective trips home for Christmas. Luckily she found a dress she liked right away too, and I think it was the very first one she tried on! Also, luckily for Jerilyn, the maid of honor’s (Laura’s) dress pick just happened to be the same material. So we now had the only three limiting factors: color, length, and material, and only one girl left to pick a dress - from at least 10-15 other styles.
By early February, Valerie got back to me with her dress style choice and measurements. Since I had already obtained Jerilyn and Laura’s measurements, I made a trip to the bridal shop, IN PERSON, at my very earliest convenience, to place the order. I wanted to make absolutely sure that my order was taken and written down correctly, ensuring I had done my part to make absolutely sure my bridesmaid dresses would NOT be an issue. I had read in quite a few places to make sure the dresses were all ordered from the same shop, at the same time, so that the dresses could all be cut from the same dye lot of cloth. I even went the extra mile to pick styles made from the same material so that hopefully everything would be cut from the same BOLT of cloth. The woman at the bridal shop gave me her word that she would place the order for every dress at the same time, and estimated they would be in by April 27th - easy to remember as that’s Kris’s birthday. 
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