Wedding Wednesday, 122 days to go: Choosing Bridesmaids' Dresses!

I think a large part of my indecisiveness comes from wanting to make everyone happy. I overthink almost every decision because I want to make sure that it is the right decision, not just for me, but for anyone else it might effect. So, you can imagine how difficult it was for me to choose the dresses for my bridesmaids. I know everyone says, "It's your wedding, you get to pick." But here's the thing, I'm not the one actually wearing the darn things!

I was also faced with the dilemma that only two of my seven bridesmaids live in the same city as I do, and the other five are literally in four other states, so trying to have everyone involved seemed like it was going to be impossible. And then I came across Weddington Way. I honestly cannot remember how I found out about this place, after a while all of the bridal/engagement stuff starts to blend together. Maybe it was in a magazine, maybe it was one of the millions of (weirdly accurate and specific) Facebook ads, who knows. Either way, I'm glad I found it.

You're probably wondering what exactly is Weddington Way? Well, in short, it is an online only shop (except for San Francisco where they're based) that has hundreds of dresses. I mean y'all, I had yet to discover this many dresses in one place, but it was great. So you sign up for an account and then they match you up with a stylist and you can create a virtual showroom. You then invite all of your bridesmaids so that they can view, vote, add to, and comment on the dresses in your show room.
I personally waited until I'd had some time to play around with the shop and make sure I liked it before I made all of them sign up and create accounts.

As with most shopping websites now, there is a great filter system so that helped a lot. I also had a pretty clear idea of what I wanted before I started looking, long, navy, and not ridiculously expensive. I also knew that I wanted them to all wear the exact same dress because I just really like things to match and especially with an odd number of girls, there was no way to even do half and half. That being said, the website does a great job of pairing dresses of similar style that go together, so that if you are going for that look its easy to coordinate.

When all was said and done, my showroom ended up with about five dresses that I'd chosen and a couple of others that some bridesmaids added. Luckily most of the bridesmaids like the same styles of dresses, there were a few I liked that they didn't, but that was fine with me - that's why there were so many for them to choose from!

Another great thing about Weddington Way is that they have free shipping and free returns, so while they do a great job of getting you the right size, it is no cost to exchange for a different size, or gives you the chance to just order two from the get go with out worrying about a difficult return policy to send the other one back. This was one of the things that really caught my attention because for starters, I really hate to pay shipping, and second, I wanted to do my best to make it cost effective and easy for them - win win.

As of now, all of the girls have ordered their dresses and they have all given great reviews and I am so  relieved. I realize online shopping is not a new concept (duh), but there is still a lot of risk when ordering from a new company, so it was great to know that this was such a success!

These are some of the questions I was frequently asked about the process from the girls, my mom, and his mom:

How do you know which dresses they like?

Since very girl has her own account, she can favorite a dress and/or comment on it if she wants to give her opinion. I encouraged them to vote so that I knew which ones they liked since that was kind of the point, although none of them actually commented, which was fine with me.

What if they don't all like the same dress?

Well, that's life. But, at least I can see (and so could they) how many people liked which dress, and in my case the dress with the most votes won because I also really liked it. If you're not set on having them all wear the same dress, this might be a situation where you let them choose which style they'd rather wear, assuming that the different ones they like still go well together.

How long will it take the dresses to arrive?

The dress that we ultimately selected wasn't a made to order dress, so from the time it was ordered to when it was received was about a week.

Do all of the girls have to order before the dresses ship?

This is an option, but since these dresses aren't made to order anyways, I wasn't worried about the cloth not matching, so I told them all it was fine to just request their dress when they ordered it, rather than waiting on everyone else.

How will you know they ordered it?

Well, in a super (kind of) stalkerish way, it emails you every time a dress is ordered, and then you can log into your account and check on the shipping/tracking status. There is also an option to "Remind to Order," but luckily all of my bridesmaids ordered their dresses plenty early so I didn't have to do any nudging.

My only real complaint is that they send so many emails. There might be some setting that I could have changed to avoid that, but I just felt bad because I was afraid that the bridesmaids were also being bombarded with emails. Otherwise, I had great success and I think if you are in a situation with a lot of bridesmaids in a lot of places, it is a great resource! If y'all have any questions about the process I would be happy to answer them!

Have a great day, y'all! 

xoxo

linking up with:
Wedding Wednesday | The Wednesday Showcase | Monday Mingle | Turn It Up Tuesday