Bridesmaid Dress Shopping

Hi everyone :)

I hope you all had a fantastic weekend and are off to a great start to the week!

Before we get into some more wedding stuff (getting tired of it yet??), I wanted to say that if you need a good little blast of strength training today, you should try Fitnessista's recent Booty Blast workout.

I did it this morning after my own 10 Minute Weaving Interval Set, and yes, the buns were a burnin'.

I will now be waddling all the live long day.

Now onto the goods...

We had some very special guests in town this weekend, our good friends Ashley & Tyler!

Unfortunately, that picture was not taken this weekend.

It has felt pretty darn cold in the Chicago area these past few days - not quite shorts and tshirt weather yet, friends.

Although, today they are saying a high of 61 degrees...holy heat wave!

Ashley is my maid of honor (yay!), and she was up to join me and 3 of my other beautiful bridesmaids to go bridesmaid dress shopping.

{From the left: Bridget, Ashley, Me!, Christina, and Megan}

After much thought, I ended up deciding to have my girls purchase their bridesmaid dresses through Reddington Bridal, where I found my wedding gown.

Reddington carries a large selection of bridesmaids dresses (it's amazing how they fit them all into the cute, little store!), and since I bought my gown through there, my bridesmaids were offered a pretty sweet discount on their dresses. 

Everyone knows standing up in a wedding can be very pricey, so every little penny off counts! ;) 

I took Justin's sisters, Dani & Tayler, to Reddington about a week ago to narrow things down to the "favorites" since there were just so many dresses to choose from. 

It was nice to have some special time with my future SIL's - so nice that I apparently forgot to take any pictures of that trip.  Bummer city. 

I wanted my bridesmaids to each have the opportunity to try on the dress contenders, because I want them to feel both beautiful (as they all are) and comfortable on the big day.  

There is nothing worse than feeling like you can't relax at a big, fun party because you have to suck in, pull up, and shift things around all night long. 

After toying around with the idea of mixing things up, I did end up deciding to have everyone wear the same dress.  That is totally a personal thing - but in the end, I liked the idea of keeping things cohesive for the pictures - as long as we could find a dress that everyone liked. 

After trying on almost every strapless, short Bill Levkoff dress in the store, here were the favorites...

Style 172

(source)

Style 586

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Style 587

(source)

We ended up choosing the last dress because it honestly looked SO GOOD on everyone.  

It wasn't too body conscious, but it still showed off everyone's figure, while a lot of the other dresses just looked like big tents. 

I can say that that picture does not do the dress one ounce of justice - it's not how it looked on the girls and the navy blue swatch was much darker than the way that color looks online. 

The winning dress was Justin's sisters' favorite, and even without telling the other girls that - they chose it  too! Win, win, winner. 

After having all the girls measured and discussing some logistics (the dresses will all ship here and then I will give them to each girl to have altered, if need be, at a place of her choosing), it was time for some food & a little afternoon cocktail hour. 

Mimosas for everyone - so delish. 

We headed to Brick House Tavern & Tap, a now go-to place for me & Justin, which apparently is a chain that used to be similar to Hooters (they've classed it up now), who knew?! 

We decided to order a bunch of appetizers to share - the stars of the show obviously included...

CHEESE :) 

{Meat + Cheese Board} 

{Macaroni + Cheese} 

Plus an unpictured flatbread pizza that was really, really good. 

Everyone thanked me for planning lunch after the dress shopping. 

Hey, this isn't my first rodeo. 

After the dresses, we all sadly said our good-byes, and I continued on to enjoy my weekend with Miss Ashley :) 

Something to talk about: What has been your best (or worst!) bridesmaid dress experience? Would you rather have the bride choose the dress, or let you have some say? 

xoxo

Jess