Ugly BM Dresses

I was just takling to my BM today about this. I would NEVER pick an ugly dress or anything that would make my girls look bad. After all, they are a part of MY wedding and what they wear reflects me as well. I don't know why a bride would do that to her BMs. I love my girls and i want everyone to look beautiful on my wedding day.

Oh sweet Jesus! That yellow is really horrible. I just posted my bridesmaid dress, funny. I wouldn't want my girls to look ugly although I have heard the stories. That's so wrong. I want my video and pictures to look good so I would never consider being that kind of bride.

I like to hope it's really just a difference in taste. I've never seen a wedding where I felt like the bride must really have tried to make the BMs look bad. But a friend of mine LOVED the dress she put us in, and even wanted one herself. She brought up the line "you can wear it again and again" pretty often, but I never would wear it again. Totally not my style.

WOW! I hope noone does that intentionally. I wouldn't do that either.

Last time I was a BM the dress was beyond awful. But it matched her decor wonderfully. I'm not sure if I prefer to believe it was intentional or she just has bad taste. But I'm really having a hard time believing somebody would think you could wear that atrocity again. Except for Halloween, obviously.

I actually threw away a BM dress once that looked terrible on me when I got home from that wedding. The bride loved them - she had them all made from a pattern & they had this sheer silver jacket thing. Ugh. I didn't think anyone looked nice but she did.

I'm going to try & dig up pics from my cousin's wedding & post her pics when I get home. It was the early 90's & her BMs wore a shiny hot pink dress w/ poofy sleeves & a giant butt bow. She thought they were so pretty, but we still make fun of her for tha t - 18 yrs later.

I definitely think that some girls either just don't have taste, or simply want their BMs to play second fiddle and think that dressing them awfully will accomplish that. Another part of it may be what was trendy or popular at the time in which the wedding took place. Typically what is trendy at one point, looks cheesy in another.That's why it's important to go for classic, more natural looks so your girls won't want to barf every time they look in their closets or see your wedding pictures. It's important to find the BMs dresses that look timeless and are something that they wouldn't mind wearing again.

The one wedding so far that I was a BM in, the bride was really good about the dresses. She took us shopping and had a dress already picked out, but when we tried them on, most of us didn't really like them that much. Her sister asked her if we could look for a different dress in that color and see what she thought. She agreed and so we ended up finding a dress that we all agreed on and the bride actually ended up liking them better as well. For my wedding, I'm trying to be the same way. I told my BM's that I am definitely set on my color, but as for the style, it's totally up to them. Since my wedding is in June, I just automatically went to short dresses. My sister told me the other night that when she tried on one of the short dresses she got in a bad mood because she felt it made her look bad and wondered if we could switch to long dresses. I told her absolutely, I had no problem with that! I would hope other brides don't purposely try to make their BM's look bad!

I can't believe there are actually some brides that ARE that vain! That's a terrible thing to do to your loved ones.

I was completely nonchalant about the BM dresses. I picked out a few styles I liked, and then when we went to look, we picked something totally different. I was thinking short, they liked the long. The style is one that I think is really pretty, but wouldn't have thought they would like it much. But it turns out, the dress looks much better on than it does on the hanger.
So basically, I picked the color and that was all. They picked the dresses, and they are gorgeous!!!

I think it really is just a case of the bride being challenged with regard to style/color. As much money as we spend on photography, we want all the pictures to look great. I have only stood up in two weddings and in the first the bride picked tea length floral dress that was just gorgeous and I was able to wear it whenever I went out to a fancy dinner or some other semi-formal occasion. The second wedding was my sisters's (very informal) and she let me pick my dress just asking me to stick with the color she wanted.

First hand I haven't experienced any bride purposefully picking an ugly dress but it's extremely rare that I have seen a dress that doesn't look like a typical BM dress which aren't that nice looking for the most part. DB seems to be very common and IMO none of those dresses are rewearable - cheap fabric, poor construction, and dated design.

I'm having a MOH only and while she still wants to pick out her dress with me, I told her that she can pick whatever style that she wants (just in my color scheme). It doesn't even have to be a "bridesmaid" dress from a bridal store. I want her to both look nice at my wedding and also be comfortable.

I don't know anyone who has done that on purpose. I let mine pick out their dress. I kind of disagree with you Carrie W. My girls got their dresses at DB, and I don't think it looks cheap or dated. They can definately wear it again. It depends on what you're used to I guess. If it's custom designed couture than maybe. If you just usually go to dress barn or deb's than no. My BM dress.

I think some of DBs can be rewearable as well. Heck, I went with my future sister-in-law to look at bridesmaid dresses for her wedding. It was still way too early to pick one for the wedding but I did end up buying a "bridesmaid" dress just to wear out to a nice dinner. When we went to dinner, the hostess even told me how much she loved my dress.

I think the thing that makes bridesmaid dresses not able to be worn again are the colors sometimes. There are some colors that although they may look great for a wedding, they just aren't the type of colors that you would normally wear out to other places.

That yellow is just awful!!!

@ Pan X...that's my bridesmaid's dress too in the same color! It's so cute!

May I present to you.... my bridesmaid dress from two years ago. One of my best friends, bless her heart, decided she wanted a Renaissance wedding. The dress was shapeless. And velvet. In the mid-west in August, it was so hot and humid. I'm the blonde on the far right. Thick or thin, nobody looked good in that dress. Beautiful wedding otherwise, though.

@ Liz...that's hideous and I bet you were burning up!!!

My MOH has been has been a BM many times. Most of the dresses were okay. But she did have one bride that intentionally put the girls in something awful. She was quite insecure. It was awful, shiny, non-complimentary in every way.

I have only been to a handful of weddings and have never first hand experienced anything terrible, but I know I want my girls to look good at my wedding

I would never put my girls in something gross just so I could look better. I was very relaxed about choosing my bridesmaid dresses. I had one style in mind and two of my girls went with me when I got my dress and tried the style on that I had chosen. Neither of them liked it! So, I told them to pick a dress that they would like. They both picked another dress that I had thought about too, so it worked. In the end, I want them to be happy because they have to buy the dress and wear it. If they are happy, I am happy.