Bridesmaid dress for a wedding dress

Has anyone done this? Looking around I've had a really hard time finding stark white dresses - hence my last post about the Jenny Yoo BM dress. Looking further, and at some suggestions from the other thread, I found a bunch of BM dresses I loved too which did come in white (even if their bridal dresses only came in ivory!), more than the traditional bridal lines. Has anyone ordered a BM dress instead of a traditional wedding dress? Where did you find yours? Did they still offer good service?

Hi Champ, She1 did, here's the link to her bio: http://www.projectwedding.com/biography/list/She1

She's the only one I remember that did a BM dress for her wedding dress - it looks really pretty too :)

I briefly considered it - there was a Badgley Mischka bridesmaid dress that I loved and it came in what I thought was ivory - but in person it turned out to be butter yellow, so that was the end of that. I also was a little depressed by the quality of the BM dresses in the salon I went to - I thought the construction was a bit shoddy. But, in fairness, these dresses had probably been handled a lot more than they were ever meant to be. Anyway, my advice is to definitely check out the possibilities, but don't get your heart set on one until you've seen it!

I think it's a great idea! I came across designer Val Stefani and she definitely has Bridesmaid gowns that would make lovely wedding dresses if ordered in white or ivory (or not! I love a bride in color!):







Knottie Mrs.Marin wore a gorgeous Watter and Watters Bridesmaid Gown:

Thanks for the source Lori - there are so many names, its boggling my mind now, its such a niche industry and not all of them carry dresses that come in white which makes it harder to filter :)

Its too bad that some the dresses you encountered, aching, were poorly made, I wonder if that tends to be universal?

Also if you prefer less "done-up" gowns, many bridal designers offer "informal" or "destinations" lines...like Maggie Sottero, Demetrios, Eden Bridals, Jasmine, etc.

Maggie Sottero - Destinations:

Wow - I'm loving Mrs. Marin's dress!!

I love Mrs. Marin's dress too! And, as is so often the case, I don't think it looks nice at all in the Watters' photo, but it looks so gorgeous on her.

Champ - I didn't mean to be discouraging about the BM dresses - I'm sure there are a lot of lovely, well-constructed ones out there. Like I said, I think a big part of the problem with the BM dresses I saw was simply that these dresses had been tried on a bazillion times and probably not treated very nicely in the process. And in the same visit, I tried on BM dresses and bridal dresses, and that's not a fair comparison - a $300 dress is just not going to be as high quality as a $1800 dress. I definitely think you should explore the BM dress option - but again, I think you should see the dress in person before you commit!

I think you should wear whatever you like. I do not plan on wearing a traditional wedding dresses and I have looked @ BM dresses as an option (I think I am going for something else completely). I am surprised to read that you found BM dresses in white, though. I would have thought that BMs "shouldn't " be wearing white

I think the BM dresses that are white are intended to be worn with a colored sash or something. Or it could be the designers I was looking at do such outrageously over the top wedding dresses they didn't want to cut out potential clients like me who prefer something a little more sleek. Who knows?! Isn't it so true that the photos these people take do not do the dresses justice?!

aching you're probably right, come to think of it how many people are BM's every year versus the number of brides, well if every bride in America has 2-8 ladies, that's a lot of people trying on dresses!

theDame, what kind of dress are you planning to wear? I think that is a great idea to wear a different dress, how novel is this?


Aching, you'll appreciate this one - When I worked in fashion, this woman with whom I worked wore this to her wedding, it was ravishing!