If you’re a perennial bridesmaid, there could be a bright side to your frequent aisle duty. The old curse “Three times a bridesmaid, never a bride,” is said to be broken if you are a seven times bridesmaid. Just pray this doesn’t mean purchasing seven different bridesmaid dresses.
March 2006 Archives
A band of brides gone wild were detained by police in Ireland after attempting to storm and barrage a Cork bridal store. This premiere Irish bridal store, which was holding their pre-paid wedding dresses, had abruptly gone out of business, leaving many an astonished bride and 183 unclaimed wedding gowns in its wake. These damsels were left to ogle the locked doors and pound the windows through which their unavailable wedding gowns gleamed at them. Said wedding dresses were estimated to cost between $2,000-$4,000 each. A bummer for brides, but we notice there weren’t any bereft bridesmaids in this story, hee hee.
Many articles offer instructions to brides on how to maintain positive relations with their spouse-to-be during the stressful wedding planning. But we think this advice could also be applied to maintaining positive relations with your bridesmaids. Hence, a few bridesmaid commandments: Thou shalt have scheduled “girl time” where you and your bridesmaids hang out like old times and no wedding talk is allowed!
Thou shalt be open and honest with bridesmaids, rather than bottling up feelings into a bridezilla freakout.
Thou shalt let bridesmaids choose their own bridesmaid dresses, or at least be open to suggestions about bridesmaid dresses.
If you think your bridesmaid bouts have been bad, listen to these truly horrifying bridesmaid war stories. In this freaky recount, bridesmaids speak of blazing chartreuse bridesmaid gowns, with dyed shoes that turned their feet green for weeks. They tell of not being allowed to go out in the sun at a destination wedding, lest sunburned bridesmaids ruin the wedding pictures. And one bridesmaid concocts divine revenge: inviting everyone she was ever a bridesmaid for to her wedding shower, then requesting they wear the bridesmaid dress they made her wear in their weddings, hee hee.
According to UK paper The Guardian, annoying family members may be all it takes to convince the bride in your life to have a destination wedding. The paper reports that 27% of couples who opted for a destination wedding did so to escape irritating relatives. Want to trade that bridesmaid dress in for a sarong? Skip the brochure-planting and talk about what an honor it will be to bridesmaid alongside the bride’s tourettes’ syndrome cousin. Or tell her to check out these hot destination wedding dresses we found on Dessy.com. You bridesmaids will be booking plane tickets in no time!
Leave it to celebrity do-gooder Angelina Jolie to kick off a new wedding fad known as “the kindness trend.” Noble Jolie claims she plans to get her wedding dress at Goodwill, so that the proceeds will got to people in need. The same trend encourages brides to donate their wedding flowers to hospitals and donate to charities in lieu of wedding favors. For bridesmaids currently facing major expenses for bridesmaid dresses, try and plead the kindness trend to the bride in your life. You could save big with Goodwill bridesmaid dresses, and help people in need! Remember, unlike dresses, kindness never goes out of style!
If, like some bridesmaids, you find the whole bouquet toss notion a little belittling, take heed of this retro tradition: the bridesmaid ribbon pull. Here’s how it works: Instead of a bouquet toss, the couple provides a bridesmaid cake. Baked inside are charms, attached to ribbons that bridesmaids can pull of out the cake. Each charm tells the bridesmaid a special fortune. This tradition is a great way to add a little sentimental sparkle to your bridesmaid dress, while saving money on your monthly psychic consultation.
Second only to having to wear a bridesmaid dress, the next worst thing about being a bridesmaid used to be planning the wedding shower. Spending hours playing bridal shower games and watching the bride open lingerie you wanted for yourself can get downright depressing. But luckily the winds of wedding showers are a changin’. Forward thinking bridesmaids may consider new shower trends like wine tastings and co-ed showers. As a wise bridesmaid once said: “When in doubt, just add wine and boys!” We can’t help you on the bridesmaid dress, however.
As destination weddings have couples thinking out of the box about wedding locales, one quirky couple decided to get married at McDonalds. Beneath the golden arches, they said their vows before a crowd of fries-loving customers. The reason for this unorthodox ceremony site? Awww…it’s where the couple met. No word on the bridesmaid dresses, as the bridesmaids were nowhere to be found. We suspect said bridesmaids may have been in hiding due to their Mcdonald themed black- and- white striped bridesmaid gowns. Then again, maybe it’s because the couple gave out Big Macs as bridesmaid gifts.
Because simple destination weddings are no longer deemed exotic enough in their own right, couples who choose destination weddings are now taking new extreme lengths to distinguish their nuptials from the white wedding norm. For example, dive-happy brides may be trading in destination wedding gowns for wet suits as they engage in underwater vows.
Another group of brides who won't be bothering with destination wedding dresses? The new "veil only" bridal parties who are marrying nude in places like Montego, Jamaica. That's one way to get out of wearing a bridesmaid dress.
