Picking a Bridesmaid Dress...

... is impossible.

I actually thought picking out my dress would be impossible, but one trip to Cincinnati and I was proven wrong pretty quickly. My dress screamed at me from the hanger and it was true love before the lady even finished lacing me into it.

But this isn't about me.

It's about finding the perfect bridesmaid dress.

I have been in a few weddings in my day, five to be exact, and for two of those weddings I was incredibly uncomfortable the entire day. However, I knew it wasn't about me and it was an honor to be asked to be a part of someones big day in such a way, so I sucked it up and never said a peep.

But now it's my turn and I am going to make certain they each know how special they are by putting them in a special dress.

I have eight bridesmaids. My Mom thinks that's too many, but I figure if having too many bridesmaids is my biggest problem then we're doing a-okay. Anyways, they all range in height and weight so my job isn't easy.

At first I wanted something chiffon, one-strap, with a sash. Something like the gray dresses pictured to the right. When I found this picture on Pinterest it solidified my desire to put the girls in gray dresses and also gave me the idea of having my Matron of Honor wear a sparkly belt to set her apart from the other girls. I like the way the fabric drapes near the bottom of the dresses and the ruching at the top is a really nice touch. I have always wanted the girls to have some sort of straps on their dresses. I feel like strapless has been done and then done again and again and I want something a little different.

After finding my dress at Bridal & Formal in Cincinnati, we looked through the bridesmaid dresses they had available. If you buy your bridesmaid dresses at the same place you get your wedding gown you get a 20% discount on the dresses. Since the girls dresses are not included in my budget I want to make it as affordable as possible for everyone to buy a dress.

We found the dress pictured below and it met all of my requirements: chiffon, one strap, has a belt that can be changed out, and pretty cute! Our assistant wrote down the style number so when the time came for the girls to call and order the dress, all they would have to do is provide their measurements and a form of payment.

Ashley modeling the bridesmaid dress selection.

I left Cincinnati feeling pretty confident that I had marked two more items off my checklist, my dress and the girls dresses.

Back at work the next day I was showing off the bridesmaid dresses to some co-workers and decided that they couldn't really get the feel of the dress since it's black in the picture so I looked it up on Google to find a better picture. That's when I found the picture to the left, and I hated it.

I kept reminding myself that we planned to remove the belt with the flowers and replace it with a solid, thicker sash. But I just couldn't get over the bottom half of the dress. It's just so plain. And it makes the models hips look weird, and she's a model. I hate it. I also imagine being able to see everyone's belly buttons and I just can't have that.

So I did what all normal brides are doing this day in age and I turned to Pinterest to help me find something better. I found this beautiful flowy, one shoulder gown that I really like. I sent it to a few of my bridesmaids and they agreed that it was WAY better than the dress we had found in Cincinnati. I looked up the dress and found out that it was actually from a knock-off website and the dresses are made in China. I read reviews and some had a GREAT experience and others were left with crappy dresses and not enough time to replace them before the big day. I decided to forget about those dresses and move on to find something similar.

Enter: My Mom & Diane.

My Mom's friend had mentioned to her that her niece is an excellent seamstress who made her own daughters wedding dresses and many others. My Mom and I met with Diane last Sunday and she gave me some excellent advice. She said she wouldn't be able to make a dress in chiffon because chiffon is tricky to work with, and if I was stuck on chiffon I might as well as just go to a store and find one that I like. I told her that I hadn't really even considered other fabrics and she encouraged me to spend a little bit of time looking around online, and also to spend some time in a fabric store looking at patterns and fabric.

Well, I've looked around online and found a couple patterns that would work, but nothing that I LOVE.

And then it happened...

While sifting through Pinterest, I came across this picture:

...and I knew it was LOVE.

I e-mailed Diane to see if it was something she could do, since it's not chiffon. One of my favorite parts about this dress is that we could let the girls choose what type of straps they want - one strap as pictured, two spaghetti straps, halter, and the list goes on. I can put my Matron of Honor in a sparkly belt on top of the black sash and that matched with the gray dresses will be absolutely stunning.

I haven't heard back from Diane yet, but you can bet that I have been checking my e-mail pretty much non-stop since I hit send.

Until I hear back from her, this is where the great bridesmaid dress saga stands...