Our resident bride-to-be Nova has been bridesmaid shopping, here she tells us all about it…
Bonjour BNB readers! ;o)
Shopping with my bridesmaids for their dresses has been an absolute delight! I only have two bridesmaids, so I am pretty sure that makes it a little easier, but still. A true delight.
Having casually looked at what was on offer for bridesmaids at a few bridal stores whilst searching for my own dress, I instantly concluded that I wanted something different from the traditional for my ladies. Something modern, something a little bit unique and just as important;- something they both felt comfortable in and could wear again.
It was quite amusing having to co-ordinate our diaries months in advance like a mini covert military operation. With one date set, we descended into London on a Saturday to hit the sales (brave yes i know!). Really to get more of an idea of what I wanted and what they liked. Starting in Selfridges – I basically told them to float around the store and pick out what they liked, ignoring the budget at first, so we could get more of an idea of dress styles and shapes that suited them both.
I think it helped that I was fairly open-minded on style – so long as it wasn’t floor length and that the colour matched the wedding colours. It also helped that my ladies are nice and easy-going.
A few decent contenders ….we then hopped to Debenhams and pretty much hopped straight back out again after encountering a very rude sales assistant and seeing a load of dresses tangled on rails and trodden into the floor….not my kind of shopping experience. We then ventured into Karen Millen – always a favourite of mine for special occasion dresses and I was pretty confident we would find something in there and lo and behold we did. Very cute, short, elegant and sexy numbers. ;o) I wanted one for myself! Lucky for me my ladies are both trained professional dancers, so they were happy to have their legs out, and let me tell you they were rocking the short number!
None of us expected to be sold on one dress after just a few hours, but it was perfect for them both and perfect for the feel of the wedding. Thrilled! Happy bridesmaids, happy bride-to-be!
The one thing about hitting the high streets at the moment is that so many of them have early sales on to entice customers into the shops and off of the internet – especially with all this rain we are having – apparently sales in store have plummeted! As a result we got the bridesmaids dresses 50% off, plus a special in-store additional 20% off promotion! Ecstatic is not the word – finally something UNDER budget! Shoes were also just as easy – again picking something they both liked and will wear again – high heels to show off those legs again from Office! 50% in the sale!
My advice – don’t forget about the high street – there are some gorgeous options out there for bridesmaids (thanks for the tip Nicola!) – if you have the time to be patient – then wait for the sales – you will not be sorry!
