A lot of people are surprised the I have gotten bridesmaid dresses already. Over the summer, I was eyeing a certain Jcrew dress as something I wanted for myself. I kept watching as the price dropped lower and lower, but could never justify buying it for myself when I get free cocktail dresses from work all the time. So I convinced myself to forget about it.
Then we got engaged and that dress popped back into my mind as a bridesmaid dress possibility (pictured below). At that point the price had dropped from $215 to $59.99. Since Joe and I are on a really tight budget, and since I loved the dress anyway, I didn’t hesitate and bought four of them immediately (there were very few sizes left so I had to act fast!).
I still love the dresses, but as Joe and I fleshed out our ideas for the groomsmen attire, I realized I would love them even more if they were not exactly alike – to go for this “purposefully mismatched” look. I think it would help create the casual, bohemian look that we are pursuing right now.
So rather than waste money on new dresses, because like I said I still love these dresses, I decided to embellish each dress in its own unique way. I bought a fifth dress in a size 16 for extra fabric and after consulting with all my ‘maids, I came up with these four designs (pictured below). I think it will be cute, and they are all easy (for me) embellishments to make. I really should be thinking about my own dress right now, but the BM modifications seem like a much less daunting task. So stay tuned, I’ll post another update later about all my DIY progress.
P.S. You might be asking why I didn’t just get BM dresses from work if I get free dresses all the time. Well, the dresses I get for free are a fairly limited selection and I can only only get one dress for my allowance (not multiples of 4). Even if I used my company discount to buy the exact dresses I wanted, it would still be significantly more expensive than these Jcrew dresses that I got.
Make sure to make an elastic waist for the old maid from MD. 😉
can’t wait to see the later progress photos~
looking at my sketches, i think i’m gonna do the bows a bit differently than i drew them here. anyway, you’ll see what it looks like when i’m done
how cute! what a great idea!
i was going to say what jean said!! this is exciting to see your craftiness at it’s best!!
what bride designs and makes her own bridesmaid dresses?!?? that’s awesome