Choosing a Bridesmaid Dress - Part 2: Color

After a couple of intensely busy days because of work and social functions, I'm back and am going to talk about the color aspect of the bridesmaid gowns.

Remember the pewter Bill Levkoff dress that I was hoping would be a slate blue color?


It was definitely not blue. In fact, below the cut I've posted the most true-to-color picture of the color card that I could get photoshop to produce (since there was yellow light in the shop).

Choosing a Bridesmaid Dress - Part 1: Fit

Boy am I ever glad we went to check out bridesmaid dresses. The shop we went to, Amanda's Bridal, was kind of a zoo, considering they didn't require appointments, but they did allow photos. Armed with pictures of the two dresses I wanted to see, I walked in hoping they'd have one of them.

Alfred Sung & Bill Levkoff, respectively.



Happily, they had both. We snagged them and then hauled butt into the dressing room to try them on.

Now. Let me tell you. My bridal party consists of five women - 2 MOHs and 3 bridesmaids. Three of these women are around 5'3", two of them are about 5'6" (which is an inch taller than me). Naturally, this means that different items of clothing look VASTLY different on all the girls. Let me show you photos to compare.

I decided to cut everyone's head off because I love them so much!

Bridesmaid Dresses! Computer Monitors! OH NO!

Tomorrow I'm going to stop by a shop called Amanda's Bridal to check out my top two favorite Bridesmaid dresses. If they don't have the dresses, at least I can see the fabric colors.

I mention this because at first I was sold on a bridesmaid dress that I had not seen. I e-mailed my girls to get their opinions (good news: everyone seemed to like it!), but one of my Maids of Honor asked me yesterday if I'd seen the dress in person.

Well...no.

Part of the trouble of shopping online is the fact that monitors display colors differently than they actually appear. And you can't actually see how the dress hangs on a non-model body.

One of the dresses I'm admiring, the Bill Levkoff 569, comes in a pretty color called Pewter, that I'm secretly hoping is not grey that looks blue on my computer screen. I'd like it to be a bluish slate in real life, so if I pick this dress, the girls can wear purple AND blue!


I wish the model didn't look so bored.
My other choice of dresses is the Alfred Sung D416, which was the one I was first hoping my girls could wear. Although I hate sashes on me, I apparently find them fricking adorable for my girls to wear. I like that this dress is a bit longer than the other one. Since it'll be October, it wouldn't be bad for everyone to have something longer than a short cut dress!

I wish this dress had a good blue that matched our palette, but the purple was the best choice.



What do you think? Do those colors look like a deep concord purple and a slate blue to you? I'll post some pics of the adventure when I get back, but for now, here are the top contenders!

Have you ever ordered something online for your wedding and have something of a completely different color show up because of the monitor/real life difference?

All images from the Bill Levikoff & Dessy sites.