Bridesmaid dresses, money, and alterations

I had $200 in alterations on one dress and about $50 on another.

You have plenty of time before you have to select BM dresses. You might wait to check out sales around the holidays to get a nice dress for under $100. Don't limit yourself to the usual bridal stores/sites. Check stores such as Macy's, Dillard's, etc. The alterations I've needed have been bust and hem.

There isn't as much selection, but David's Bridal and Azazie both have "under $100" sections on their websites. After taxes and shipping it still probably goes over $100 though

My bridesmaids dresses are from The Dessy Group, and the store we purchased them through (Bella Bridesmaids) did have an option for someone else to contribute to the cost, but I couldn't pick and choose for individual people - I just contributed a chunk that took a flat rate off everyone's cost!

In terms of alterations, they shouldn't be too crazy for a bridesmaid dress! One I wore from J Crew I got like $40 in alterations (totally optional, just wanted a tweak on the bodice), another dress (ordered from nordstroms) I spent $30 getting the straps taken in!

If your budget allows it, I would pay anything over $100 for that bridesmaid. The others are up to you, it's not required of you. I tried to keep the dresses around $150 for my girls, but that was very difficult. I ended up at $188 with tax.

I know a few girls on here had some luck on Etsy. You could also try searching for dresses that aren't labeled "bridesmaid." That tends to hike up the price. There are nice dresses at Macy's, Boscov's, JcPenney, etc. The only issue is, it is difficult to find the right sizes and colors for everyone. If you are willing to mix and match your dresses, this may be a good option for you.

Good luck!

Honestly, step away from the usual bridal salon options. You're just asking for a bigger price tag.

We went with floor length infinity dresses for my BM and the ladies look stunning! Best part, $50 for the dress and $15 to get them hemmed to length. I paid for the dress and the are paying for their own alterations.

Remember that you can still have your "vision" while being kind to others budgets and since your date is next May you could even wait until Feb or March and hit up the prom selections at retail stores.

Have you thought about ordering dresses online? I ordered mine from forherandforhim.com, they give a group discount so my girls ended up paying $105 each and it also included custom sizing. We haven't received the dresses yet, but they had good reviews.

We also considered renting dresses from vow to be chic or rent the runway, maybe that's an option for you as well?

I've been lucky that any alterations I needed for BM dresses my mom was able to do. (Wedding dress will be done professionally). From what I've seen the short dresses tend to be under $100 at David's and Alfred Angelo. I don't know if that is an option or not for you. Where did you buy your dress? Where I got mine they offer $20 off BM dresses since I got my dress there. You could totally pay half.

My BM dresses are black and I just searched for little black dresses on google. Found one I liked at Dress barn for like $50, we bought them when they were having a sale. So we saved a ton of money.

I have a bridesmaid in the same predicament. I told them that the dress would be higher than that but I'll cover the difference. We are using Azazie as she is also heavier and they go up to a size 30 I think so I'm having a seamstress friend measure us to make sure we won't need alterations and if we do it would just be the length

We found our BM dresses on Amazon for $48 each. I think everyone needed alterations but they all went to the same seamstress and I think the most expensive alteration was $20

My Bridesmaid dresses were about $150 but $60 just to be hemmed. Smh! From Davids. My stepdaughter got a shorter version of the longer dresses an it was only $99 & no hemming required. That may be an option.

I looked at one of the rental places but to rent the designer brands it was as much as buying a new dress somewhere else and that seems like a serious waste - there's at least a small chance they could use a purchased dress for date night or something. I don't like the really short dresses, anything above the knee because I don't think it's formal enough, which is part of my worry with finding something nice. Initially I thought I could just sort of go with the "whatever blue" approach but turns out FH is really conservative and wants the guys in formal black suits (not tuxes but still), and he specifically said he wants a three piece not two piece suit so I need the ladies to look appropriately dressy to match.

I didn't realize places did holiday sales, I will definitely keep an eye out for that! It's hard to tell how much of the checklist stuff for doing things months in advance is actually necessary or not.

As I'm going to be a dictator about BM dresses, I'm going to privately chat with my BMs about how much they can afford. If the dress I (and them-not gonna make them wear something they are uncomfortable in but everyone wears the same thing) is out of one or twos budget, I'll just pay the rest for them. I won't announce it to the whole party, just chat with each of them privately about it.

All of my bridesmaids mostly need just hemming done so that shouldn't be too much $$. I think chipping in isnt bad but I would keep shopping around to see if you can find something in their budget

I'll talk to her about privately helping, too.

I got my dress at a salon that offers 20% off their bridesmaid dresses, but they don't have a ton of selection and those are all $250ish so even with a discount it's still more than she can afford, and probably more than the others want to afford.

Also try weddington way..they have their own line of dresses that are affordable and cute and they always have a sale

I think it's cheaper to find the dress that fit her than alteration. $100 is very reasonable budget and if you like $200 dress, I would pay for other $100.

It's your wedding and you now already know she can only effort $100.

Azazie has a clearance section where dresses are $35. I'm not sure if you're wanting everyone to have the same style dress or color, but that may be an option.

Alfred Angelo has dresses starting at $99. They are all in the "Maid Simple" line. The $99 dresses are all short. Maid Simple does have long dresses, which start at $129.

I would definitely wait until the holidays and check all the department store websites. We saw a bunch of long fancier dresses at reasonable prices online (they didn't carry all of the fancy dresses in the stores). You could also offer to pay for any alterations if you can find a dress at one of the $99 BM dress sales.