I’ve never hidden the fact that I’m fairly anti-matchymatchy when it comes to bridesmaid frocks. I also go gaga over mismatched dinnerware and cleverly messy outfits that look hastily thrown on but probably took hours to compile. There is just something about controlled chaos that I love.
Too bad the models look so catty (not to mention angry or disgusted or drugged) in these Charsa photo shoots. I imagine these gals at a real wedding somewhere thinking, “Oh my gawd, she’s in the bridal party, too? That will make us look ever so much prettier. If I looked like her, I wouldn’t ever leave the house.”
Oh no, here they go again. “And I can’t believe SHE even had the nerve to show up. I don’t care if she is the bride!”
Or maybe the catered lunch provided at the shoot was just really nasty?
I’m going to assume that YOUR maids don’t (or didn’t) make ugly mugs during the ceremony and reception. Reward them for their charm and gentility by letting them choose their own dress designs. Go with Charsa, and you can still play around with 43 silk dupioni colors, 28 charmeuse and chiffon colors, 9 faille colors and more than 30 satin ribbon colors while they choose bridesmaid garb that leaves ’em feeling confident and comfy.
I let mine pick their own style, but just had a color range. I think it worked out well.
I love the trend to less precisely matched bridesmaids.
For my wedding, I gave each bridesmaid the base fabric and the patterns (all but two were expert seamstresses, and the other two both had plenty of free access to expert seamstresses), and told them to do whatever the heck they wanted in trimming their outfits. Hair? Makeup? Didn’t care. Shoes? Pick a pair of flats. Any pair of flats.
On the big day, I had tartan arisaides for them and a variety of brooches to choose from if they didn’t have any of their own that would work. Result? Five lovely ladies looking comfortable and every inch themselves. Pink pearls, battenberg lace, blue ribbon rosettes…they all looked individual and wound up with something they really could wear again if they liked, and that hadn’t cost much if they didn’t wear them again.
If I was getting married now, I’d probably pick a random color and tell them all to find something in that color around tea length, just making sure there’s somewhere to attach the arisaide.
But every time I see a bridal ad shoot, I find myself wondering why they think all these constipated and/or seriously catty looks will sell the dream of the fairy tale wedding. What is it about that look that they think is so great? They just make me glad I opted out of most of the commercial aspects of getting married.
The red paper lantern on in the bottom picture (the one on the far left) looks like a hat, which would explain the pout the model is sporting.
LOL – your commentary really made me laugh! I’m likely going to go the matchy matchy route – but to each her own!
Right you are, HamiHarri 🙂 I’ve been to plenty a matchymatchy wedding, and all were lovely.
So I had dreams of a less-casual, pick-your-own dress bridal party and, in the end, my two bridesmaids teamed up against me and bought matching dresses. 🙂 They both looked lovely in it so it worked… but it was still funny. And, oddly enough, I got the vibe that the pick-your-own was harder on them than me just picking some odd dress. They wanted exact colors to go from (green or purple … no shades in particular), shapes, shoes, hairstyles… and I understand. It’s rather terrifying to think that you’ll be the odd one out with a row of cameras trained on you. In the end if I could do it again I’d probably pick the dress from the start or, if I’d had a larger bridal party, picked a color scheme and basic look (tea length, narrow silhouette, etc) from David’s and told them to have fun. I, like everyone, has been to weddings where the matchy-match worked, ones where it reeeally didn’t, and ones where the thrown-together look left one or two odd-ones-out. I guess it depends on how much you trust yourself and your friends to pick out dresses!
And yes, I totally feel like I’m being judged by those too-perfect models. Not happy feelings now associated with that ad…
Ha, that was so funny! Truth is, sadly, many girls are catty and bitchy. I love each and everyone of my bridemaids, but I don’t think they liked each other, bringing out the extreme cattiness in all of them.
Ha! This post is hilarious. What a breath of fresh air!
Having been in a couple of wedding parties with dictatorial brides, and ending up in dresses that were both unflattering AND expensive, we decided to just let our attendants wear whatever they wanted. I told the ladies to wear their favorite dress. Everyone looked lovely and was comfortable.