dressing my ladies - bella bridesmaid

This is going to be a long one...

Our first stop Saturday morning was at Bella Bridesmaid, a quaint little shop in the Buckhead area of Atlanta.


After trying on a few different styles, the maids were gravitating towards these two from Coren Moore - one boatneck and one sweetheart, both with lovely detailing.






We were excited that the dress picking was so easy, but little did we know that the fabric color palette that the consultant had laid out on the table (with at least 10 different shades of blue, that I loved) was not the one for Coren Moore. Instead we had only 4 shades of blue to choose from and they didn't flow together as nicely.

(source)

So we discussed a combination of their tiffany blue and lime.


Sometime during this discussion, the consultant came over and showed us some photographs of a wedding where half the bridesmaid dresses were tiffany with light green sashes and the other half were light green with tiffany sashes. To give you some reference, this is the photo I showed her as inspiration at the beginning of the appointment:

(from the newest edition of Southern Weddings Magazine)

Needless to say, the photo she showed me was pretty much the exact opposite of the above mismatched look I was going for. At that point, another consultant came in and took over our appointment. It was just at the right time, too, because I think my bridesmaids were picking up on the fact that I was disappointed and a bit overwhelmed/frustrated with the other consultant's lack of understanding. So they spoke up and we started over. This time, we focused on the dresses that coincided with the color palette I was initially drooling over. The following dresses are LulaKate or - as our (new) consultant put it - the build-a-bear of bridesmaid dresses. There are 14 different bodice choices and about 7 different skirt choices. My bridesmaids picked out the following styles:

MOH Sam chose Angela, a straight across strapless shown with box-pleat skirt. She liked this style as is.

BM Emily chose Pam, a cross-over/sweetheart with straps. It is shown with the box-pleat, but Emily likes it better with the straight skirt.

BM Katie chose Gina, a scoop neck front and back. She prefers the straight skirt as well, rather than the party skirt shown here.

BM Becca picked the sweetheart neckline, Pearl, with the box-pleat instead of the straight skirt shown.

All of the dresses would include the band as seen in the Angela and Pam photos or potentially a sash instead, similar to the Coren Moore dresses we liked in the beginning. And below are all of the shades of blueish green. I'm waiting on Bella Bridesmaid to send me some swatch samples since the colors look drastically different in person. Right now I'm leaning towards a combination of Pond, Tiffany Blue, Surf, Mist and either Waterfall or Paradise. As BM Becca explained to the consultant - I want my bridesmaids to look like 5 girls showed up to the wedding wearing dresses that just happened to go together.

Here we are, at the end of the appointment, happy with the decisions made and with plenty of options to discuss over lunch. All of the girls' measurements were taken and their preferred style combinations were written down. Now I'm just waiting for an email from our consultant and some fabric swatches. The designer for LulaKate will be at Bella on the 27th, so I might be able to go back and get sketches made and price quotes for all of the dresses we are considering.

Next up: our appointment at Bridals by Lori throws a wrench into the mix.