Shopindream Blog

Always the bridesmaid, never the bride. So goes the refrain of single ladies whose fingers continue to be devoid of an engagement ring, much less a wedding ring, and who have collected a closet of bridesmaid dresses.

Don’t pity yourself, ladies! There is hope for you yet. Well, at least, where stopping your bridesmaid dresses from completely invading your closet is concerned!

Accessorize, Abridge and Add

Dresses of any kind only need a few well-placed accessories to make them look new. This is also true with bridesmaid dresses, which can be transformed into a cocktail dress with elegant jewelry like pearl necklaces. Or you can wear a blazer or bolero over them to transform them from day wear to night wear! It’s just a matter of creating new styles out of old clothes, really.

Also, you can always shorten the hem, trim down the shape and cut off some parts to transform these old dresses into something new. For example, a few inches off the hem will turn an ankle-length dress to a cocktail dress. Or a puffy skirt can be trimmed down so as to make a new skirt suitable for the office.

If you want to keep the overall look, you can always add little touches here and there to the dresses. You can make them trendier by adding the colors of the season, adding well-placed funky touches, and adding your personal mark. Again, it’s all a matter of styling yourself.

Slit, Shorten and Sew

On the other hand, if you are into arts and crafts, you can always slit the bridesmaid dresses into workable materials, shorten the fabric according to your design and sew them into various household items. Of course, this presupposes that you have more than 27 ways to recycle them!

Just to give you ideas on how to recycle your dresses through using the sewing machine, you can make table runners, tablecloths, place mats, curtains, quilts, handkerchiefs, shower curtains, ottoman slip cover, bed canopy, wall art, room divider, kitchen apron, lamp shade accents, coasters, chair slipcovers, and even as upholstery for your blah headboard. Just think of the fabric from your dresses as any other store-bought fabric and you should be able to come up with more ideas.

Re-Sell, Recycle and Return

If you don’t have the time to sew or you can’t think of more ways to add pizzazz to your bridesmaid dresses, reselling, recycling and returning them are good ideas. Besides, who wants to keep memories of one’s eternal bridesmaid role?

You can sell them on online auction sites, thrift stores and consignment shops that will allow for a small fraction of your expenses to be recouped. Now, if you don’t want to make a handsome profit out of a used dress, there are charitable organizations that will happily oblige disposing your dresses to less fortunate girls. Or if the store where you bought your bridesmaid dress accepts returns of dresses in good condition, run to the store now!

When you have employed all these tactics to fend off an attack of the bridesmaid dresses, you will discover that always being the bridesmaid but never the bride isn’t so bad after all. At least, you don’t have to worry about the cost of divorce!

The main challenge with choosing bridesmaid dresses is to find one that will make everybody happy. And by everybody, it means the bridesmaids, of course. After all, your bridesmaid will come in different shapes and sizes, lengths and likes!

It’s a good thing that you can choose to make your bridesmaids wear the same dress color albeit in varying styles to suit their body shapes. Here then are basic guidelines to match your bridesmaids’ body shape with their dresses.

Full Figured

You have to choose bridesmaid dresses that are as simple as them can in terms of fabric embellishments like ruffles and fluff to achieve a slimming effect. If you must choose puffy skirts, balance the volume with a small shawl or shrug.

As much as possible, you have to steer clear of two-tone bridesmaid dresses that will shorten the silhouette and hence make your full-figured bridesmaid look more, well, full-figured. Styles like halters, empire waists, A-lines, crossover necklines and bias cut skirts are ideal to accentuate full figures while hiding the flaws.

And if your bridesmaid is worried about a wide waist, then you can always let her use a darker-colored sash to slim it down. Who says that your bridesmaids must look like clones of each other?

Pear Shape

For the pear-shaped bridesmaids, you can design bridesmaid dresses that downplay their biggest flaw, no pun intended, which are their largish hips. First, opt for halters since these necklines broaden the shoulders and, hence, provide the illusion of smaller hips.

Second, necklines with pretty details can distract attention away from heavy hips. Just make sure that neckline complements the shape of the face.

Third, the skirts must either be A-line or subtly flared or pleated/gathered at the front/back. This way, the heavy bottom will not be emphasized. If possible, design the bridesmaid dress with a cinched waist to provide more definition.

Just make sure that you don’t incorporate all these suggestion in one dress lest your bridesmaid appear confused, style-wise. Just choose one that you can both agree on.

Tall

You can opt for bridesmaid dresses that break the long lines of a tall bridesmaid. Pretty details at the hips and waist like sashes and belts will do the trick of providing definition between the torso and the lower limbs.

Depending on the bridesmaid’s choice, she can either choose to wear a tea-length dress or a floor-length gown. Either one can highlight the desirable feature of a tall girl. Just make sure though that the other bridesmaids will look as tall as she is by allowing them to wear high heels. Well, except for a beach wedding.

Petite

In this instance, you have to design bridesmaid dresses that will elongate the body. This can be achieved through short skirts preferably knee-length, sheaths and fitted dresses that provide an illusion of length, dropped waist bodices for longer-looking torsos and higher necklines.

Just make sure that your petite bridesmaid does not come dressed in floor-length dresses as she will surely look like a small child playing pretend party. Keep the dress short and you will make her look tall. And high heels do help!

Again, your bridesmaids don’t have to wear identical clothes if they don’t have similar body shapes. Your friendship is more important than wrangling over the prettiest design for her!