Not Quite a Girl, Not Quite a Woman… So What Should She Wear?

Junior bridesmaids… even with all the weddings I have attended in my lifetime, I have yet to see this creature in the wild. It is most likely, of course, a semantics issue. The junior bridesmaid may simply not be labeled as such, as many older girls are more than willing to stand up as flower girls, while no tween or younger teen wants be labeled junior anything. But junior bridesmaids are out there, being all ages 9 to 14 and not quite fitting in with the flower girls or the lady bridesmaids. Their responsibility with regard to the wedding is usually to show up, complements of their parents, and stand with bouquet at the ready during the ceremony. Easy peasy, right? Indeed – it’s dressing them that can sometimes be problematic.

Now I’d venture to guess that a goodly number of bridesmaids dresses would be perfectly appropriate on the junior bridesmaid. There are certainly some that are a bit sophisticated for the average 12-year-old, but let’s assume you’re not having a hoochie wedding. No, more often than not, the problem is one of sizing. It may be that your chosen bridesmaids dresses simply don’t come small enough for your beanpole of a junior bridesmaids (don’t tell her I said that, mmmkay?). Or maybe the frocks simply have ample space for bosoms your youngest ‘maid hasn’t got yet (let’s not mention that to her, either). Your three solutions to the fit issue are as follows:

1. Find a company that makes grownup bridesmaid and junior bridesmaid versions of the same dress, even if that means adding straps to and flattening the bustular area of the former. It’s not an inelegant solution, after all, and it preserves uniformity if that’s important to you. The only problem is that sometimes these triple sets of dresses (which accommodate the bridesmaid, the junior bridesmaid, and the flower girl) can be pretty damned boring.

2. Err on the side of immaturity and find little girl dress that can be had in big girl sizes. Often, these are so pretty and fun that it won’t matter. Remember how much we all wanted one of these in our sizes? This is an especially good option if your junior bridesmaids has not yet sprouted any curvature to speak of.

3. Choose an entirely different dress for your junior bridesmaid – one that is neither exactly like the bridesmaids’ dresses, nor what the flower girl is wearing. You might even consider having one of the many dressmakers who work online make something entirely unique using fabric that closely matches that which will be worn by the grownup bridesmaids. This is also a fine way to proceed if your bridesmaids are wearing something a bit too risque for the junior bridesmaid to pull off without everyone at your wedding getting put on some kind of list.

(Photos via: 1, 2, 3)