Bridesmaid and Mother Dresses

On Friday, I went to RK Bridal, Macy's, and Adrienne's to look for dresses with my mom and bridesmaids (Wee--Lisa--and Spam--Samantha).

RK was kind of a bust since there was only one lady working in the Mothers' Dresses section. It was very confusing and slow going. My mom found a dress, but she wanted to keep her options open. Choosing a color for her was the bigger issue it seemed.

We still had a lot of time before the appointment at Adrienne's so we went to Macy's to see what was available there.

Macy's was a success! On the 8th floor is their bridal salon (in the registry dept.). If you want to try on Demetrios dresses, this is the place to do so. They also had Bill Levkoff bridesmaid dresses, which my mom tried on and liked. (See the taupe colored dress with the front and back below.) The dress fit her petite frame nicely, and we both liked the back. My grandma though thinks it looks like a knotted up bedsheet--and I guess it kind of does, but in a very elegant way. I like it a lot. She wanted to get a light pink color, but in the end she got a color called watermelon. (See the color board on the bottom.) Her dress should come in April.

The great thing about Macy's was that the saleswoman helping us was very helpful in guiding my mom to make a decision. She was by no means pushy, but she wanted us to have conversations about what we thought about each dress and color out loud. It was very effective in narrowing things down.

We hopped on the F train, but it was broken (when is it ever working properly?), and we got to Adrienne's. Connie and Anthony were pretty helpful and not pushy at all. I'm so happy that the Gina person that all the shitty reviews were about was not working there. The store was empty except for us. Pretty sweet!

Spam tried on a bunch of Jim Hjelm dresses based on color and style for us to choose from--we also pulled a Badgley Mischka dress that was the prettiest color ever! In person, it looked like the color purple of an orchid. Unfortunately, it seems that the style was the only color it came in, and the style was kind of dumb. (I have a thing against asymmetrical waists.)




Jim Hjelm - by solaz on Polyvore.com

Spam tried on the dresses above. (Starting from top left.) I thought the blue (ink is what's it's officially called) would look really nice on her, but we tried on a blue dress and the color was extremely dark. No one liked it. We also tried on the style of the blue/brown (truffle, officially) dress because I thought that it would look really nice on her (she looks a bit like the model in the blue dress). It looked like a garbage bag.

Then we tried on the pink (hibiscus, officially) dress, and though I liked the color on her, she really hated it. The dress itself is pretty plain in the front, and the back though kind of pretty in photos is more like excess material. Wee's boyfriend Chris described it as drape-y, which he also used to describe the color, which is really odd for drapes I think. (Pink drapes?)

When Spam tried on the darker pink color (blackberry, officially), both the color and dress were contenders. The thing was that the dress style was not similar to the dress I wanted Wee to wear. Spam really liked the color though, so we held that thought.

Spam tried on the dress I wanted Wee to wear, and it fit very nicely on her. My mom kept saying that the blackberry dress was fancier though. The deep V of the dress though was something I didn't think would look that great on Wee.

Wee finally came in (she and Chris were stuck on the F too), and she took turns with Spam with different combinations and colors. Wee tried on the red dress (the one I wanted her to try on), and then the blackberry and then the hibiscus.

When Spam tucked in the straps of the red dress, it looked so much more elegant. (Plus the red dress had pockets, while the blackberry dress didn't.) So we decided that we'd get the red dress and remove the straps. Spam would wear blackberry, and Wee would wear hibiscus.


Colors and Styles - by solaz on Polyvore.com

This board has the whole shabang including colors and styles of what the ladies will be wearing. (Though note, at this point, Jon's mom Gean hasn't officially found her dress yet, though she was leaning a lot towards the platinum colored dress featured here.)

I really like how all the styles feature something around the waist. It sort of all goes together. And they have interesting folds and gathers and are really pretty colors that works in a June wedding and that they like.

Plus they can totally wear it again if they shorten it!


Styles - by solaz on Polyvore.com

Here's a board with the styles. Wee and Spam will be wearing the same styles, but they will be strapless. Gean will be wearing the platinum dress (I think), and my mom will be wearing the style on the right.


Colors and Flowers - by solaz on Polyvore.com

Here's a board with all the colors and some flower options. Here you'll see the platinum and watermelon together (mom dresses) and hibiscus and blackberry dresses. Flowers featured are roses, ranunculus, orchids, lilies, calla lilies, chrysanthemums, and some other ones that I forget. The flower site I'm thinking of using is http://www.freshroses.com/june.html or http://www.fiftyflowers.com (where I got the centerpieces for the engagement party). I've decided against peonies. They're nice, but way too feathery. I want very structured heavily petaled flowers.

Now that the dresses are on their way (should be in April for the bridesmaid too), I am stressing out about a videographer. Why is it so much money for someone to just shoot a wedding? And why can't they just shoot a wedding and give you the raw footage versus editing it? I don't want an edited wedding. Have any ideas?