Hopefully, every bride picks her bridal party based on friendship, not appearance. Of course, what this can mean is that you end up with a group of bridesmaids who encompass every imaginable shape and size. When it comes time to pick out bridesmaid dresses, it can be a major challenge to find one style that is flattering to all of your attendants. These are some suggestions on how to dress bridesmaids with different figures to make sure that everyone looks and feels beautiful in the end.

The reality is that while every bride wants her wedding party to add to the beauty of her ceremony, bridesmaids are friends, not props. As real people, they have real flaws – some visible, some not (and wouldn’t you rather have a bridesmaid with a big behind than a bad attitude?!). It is important to let go of the notion that a very disparate group of women can be forced to look exactly the same. Once that old fashioned notion is abandoned, you can move on to finding an attractive and practical solution to the bridesmaid dress dilemma.

For the bride who strongly prefers a well coordinated bridal party, separates are going to be her best bet. The major bridal chains offer styles which come in a huge range of sizes, so all you have to do is pick a color and a skirt length, and let each woman choose the top and bottom which best suit her unique shape. While you will not have a perfectly matched set of bridesmaids, you will have a group of women in outfits in the same color, which will give them a very cohesive feeling as they walk down the aisle. Besides, if you force ladies to wear dresses which are unflattering in the name of getting an exact match, your guests are sure to notice how badly some of the bridesmaids’ dresses fit them.

Custom dresses can be a fantastic option if you want each bridesmaid to wear the same general style. Select a fabric and a pattern, and have each attendant work with a dressmaker to get a perfect fit. This can be the perfect solution when one of the bridesmaids is not able to find her dress size in the standard offerings. It also works well for pregnant bridesmaids, petite ones, tall ones; pretty much anyone, in other words. The beauty of this concept is that you don’t end up with the one hard-to-fit attendant feeling badly because she cannot wear the same dress as the rest of the girls. The drawback is that custom made dresses can get expensive. The bride may wish to ease the burden on her attendants by purchasing the fabric and gifting them their shoes and bridesmaid jewelry sets.

A less labor intensive way to work with a variety of bridesmaid shapes and sizes is to ask each woman to select her own dress. The bride will usually give them a few parameters (navy blue and knee length, for instance), and then trust each bridesmaid to pick out an appropriate selection. After all, even the ladies who are not standard sizes manage to dress themselves on a daily basis. No one will no better than them which brands and styles look best on them. You can tie the look of the bridal party together with coordinated sets of bridesmaid jewelry.

Last but not least, consider letting each bridesmaid simply choose her favorite dress to wear. In many weddings, the brides have abandoned the idea of trying to coordinate the bridesmaids’ attire, not because it is too hard to fit each woman into the same dress, but because they want their friends to remain individuals. This approach works especially well for informal weddings, but with a little thought, can also be great for more formal ceremonies. In the end, if your bridesmaids feel good in their dresses, they will look beautiful coming down the aisle, whatever shape or size they happen to be.

Author Bio: Bridget Mora writes for Silverland Jewelry about weddings, fashion, and etiquette. Thank your friends for being in your wedding with elegant bridesmaid jewelry sets from http://silverlandjewelry.com/. Order today and receive complimentary shipping on your jewelry order over $99.

Category: Marriage
Keywords: bridesmaid jewelry sets, bridesmaid dresses,