Wedding Wednesday: Picking Bridesmaid Dresses at Bella Bridesmaids

 After back-to-back wedding weekends (Hunter’s sister’s wedding and my little from Furman’s wedding in Savannah) I’m so excited to be staying put in Birmingham this weekend. We have an engagement party for a couple Hunter knows from high school but aside from that we are keeping our calendar pretty open. 

I’m glad to finally have had time to work on another Wedding Wednesday post to share and the focus of today’s post is going to be bridesmaids’ dresses and my experience picking them for our wedding. All but one of the weddings I’ve been in have used Bella Bridesmaids to order their dresses so that felt like a no-brainer to me. I’d been to the Birmingham Showroom with Janie to try on options for her wedding and was fitted there for other weddings so I knew they would be helpful and have plenty of example dresses to show me since I didn’t have a clear idea of what I wanted. 

With an appointment booked and three bridesmaids able to join me, we went midweek about a month and a half ago to have them try on styles. I had attempted to do some research and scroll through Bella Bridesmaid’s website to save any styles that I thought would be worth trying on and once we arrived I handed those off to our stylist/consultant, Jordan, who was so wonderfully helpful! While she was pulling those we were able to look around to identify any other dresses that I wanted the girls to try on. I was pretty certain I wanted my bridesmaid dresses to be blue (shocker I’m sure), but was also open to the idea of a deep green since those will be our primary colors for decor. 

When browsing the selection in the store I spotted the perfect blue that I hadn’t seen on the website since it was a newer style from a brand and figured why not add it to the dresses that the girls were already trying on. Not all of the dresses are in the showroom in every color, but Jordan was great about showing me different swatch options as dresses were tried. We identified a few to keep in mind, but I felt like I needed to see all the ones we pulled before really narrowing them down. I tried to keep in mind how comfortable a dress would be while also envisioning how it may pair with my dress. As soon as Rebecca put on the blue dress I pulled while browsing in the store it immediately jumped to the top as a front runner.

I hadn’t heard of the brand before, but it’s by Lula Kate which is based in Charleston and made in New York. You’re able to combine any of their skirt styles with any of their top styles which felt like far too many decisions to make for me at the moment, but really allows brides to customize the dress however they’d like. We tried on a couple of styles from the brand but I ultimately loved their Classic Faille material in Hydrangea (a true light blue as opposed to the icier options I had seen from other brands) with the Grace Bodice and Trumpet Skirt. As Rebecca, Janie, and Macy tried it on they each said it was the most comfortable and their favorite of the bunch which was reassuring! 

While I love bows I feel like a bow on the back of a wedding dress may become the noticeable puff sleeve trend of our mother’s wedding dress era and wanted to avoid that on my own dress (a little hint of what that will look like for y’all). But when I saw the subtle bow across the top of the bridesmaid dress I loved the idea of incorporating it in that way. It even extends around the back to make a really pretty hidden seam which other people probably won’t care about but I noticed. I think the thicker straps and not form-fitting skirt will make it one that my bridesmaids don’t have to fight with when it comes to alterations and wearing it the day of too! 

Since my mom was in Fairhope at the time of the appointment I wanted to make sure to send her pictures and get her thoughts on how the style would pair with my own dress and she and my sister-in-law who was in Fairhope visiting agreed that it was a beautiful option. Jordan also showed me some of the adorable patterned fabrics that Lula Kate offers and could do for rehearsal dinner or party dresses. I was so tempted to order something in the blue material with the green embroidered Lily of the Valley but couldn’t come up with an occasion for it. Had I been getting married in the spring I think I would have highly considered the pattern for bridesmaid’s dresses! At my sorority little’s wedding this past weekend in Savannah as the bridesmaids were walking down the aisle I could immediately tell their dresses were by Lula Kate and the same color but a different top style than what I picked out! This was the first time I’ve seen them used at a wedding I’ve attended and seeing them in person was just further solidification that they were exactly what I didn’t know I was looking for. I’m biased but I think that the color couldn’t be more perfect! 

Since I don’t want to spoil the way my bridesmaids will look in the dresses I’ve included a few photos of me trying on the dress (I had to get in on the fun) as well as other styles made by Lula Kate that were available at Bella Bridesmaids. At the time of our appointment, Jordan mentioned that Bella Bridesmaids was working to get the various styles added to their site, but if you’re a bride I can’t recommend browsing in person at Bella Bridesmaids enough. They have shops in many locations around the US and will host your out of town bridesmaids to try on the style you’ve selected and order in person from the showroom you’ve set up online once determining the size they’d like. It makes such a difference to see and feel the different colors and materials and have friends try them on if possible! I had the best experience and can’t wait for my bridesmaids to get their dresses in so I can gush over them again.