One of the problems that brides often run into in the lead up to the wedding, is whether or not to buy all of the bridesmaid dresses, or give the bridesmaids some leeway to buy their own. There are pros and cons to both, so let’s have a look at them now.
Buying Them Yourself
One of the obvious advantages of buying them yourself is the ability to control the outcome a bit more. You get to control both the exact design and colour (and can choose cocktail dresses or formal dresses), so that your photos look perfect. The problems you’ll face for this privilege include cost (unless you make them pay for the dresses), and the extra running around, trying to get the bridesmaids in to the store to get fitted. You can also then match them when shopping for mother of the bride dresses as well. Please don’t underestimate how difficult this will be, and how much additional stress this will not only put on the wedding, but also the friendships involved!
Make The Bridesmaids Buy Them
The advantages to this are numerous. First of all, the bridesmaids can go shopping at a time and place that suits them, which prevents you from having to run around after them. It also means that they don’t get so stressed about having to pay for the dress, because they get to choose it themselves, so they’ll be able to wear it on many other formal occasions afterwards. The drawbacks are that you might end up with bridesmaids that wear the slightly wrong colour, or wear designs that aren’t entirely appropriate. These risks can be well managed though, particularly if you lay down fairly strict guidelines. If you want them to wear blue bridesmaid dresses, then give them a photo or swatch of exactly what shade of blue you are looking for. Also, don’t forget to specify whether they should be wearing full length or knee length bridesmaid dresses, otherwise the photos will look “patchy”. Also specify no party dresses or “little black dresses”.
So there are positives and negatives to both, you just need to weigh up what is most important to you.
