The Vintage Bridesmaid – Styling and Etiquette

While I was brows­ing for beau­ti­ful vin­tage brides­maid dresses and acces­sories (it’s a tough job, I know), I kept com­ing across sim­i­lar tes­ti­mo­ni­als from duti­ful but slightly unap­pre­ci­ated bridesmaids.

While some brides seem to ask a few small favours from their brides­maids, such as organ­is­ing a hen party that doesn’t include ‘L’ plates, some naughty brides seem to be guilty of being demand­ing, unyield­ing and forc­ing their near­est and dear­est friends into dresses they hate.

Yikes! So I’m show­ing a lit­tle TLC to the vin­tage brides­maid, it’s all about strik­ing that bal­ance between under­stand­ing it’s the bride’s big day (so she may get a lit­tle stressed) and appre­ci­at­ing your brides­maids also want to feel spe­cial at your wedding.

Choos­ing your vin­tage gown can be tricky, but luck­ily there’s so many beau­ti­ful dresses and bridal acces­sories to choose from it won’t take you long to find that dress of your dreams. Decid­ing on vin­tage style brides­maid dresses can be more of a chal­lenge how­ever, so I’ve com­piled my tops tips on choos­ing beau­ti­ful dresses and appre­ci­at­ing your bridesmaids.

Vin­tage brides­maid style

The era you’re going for will help you nar­row down styles for brides­maid gowns, mak­ing the choice a lit­tle less daunt­ing! If you’re set­ting your sights on a 1920’s or 1930’s style wed­ding, beau­ti­ful lace and flap­per styles can look stun­ning, but per­son­ally I would rec­om­mend opt­ing for a knee length cut so your brides­maids aren’t con­fused with the bride.

I love soft and fem­i­nine styles and this beau­ti­ful organza dress is per­fect for a sum­mer wedding.

A 1950’s style wed­ding will allow you to choose a fun and fresh prom style dress with a lay­ered A line skirt, tai­lored bodice and hal­ter­neck straps. Some brides really like the effect that mis­match­ing their brides­maids gives and the advan­tage of this is that your brides­maids will have more flex­i­bil­ity so can choose a dress they feel com­pletely com­fort­able in.

This dusky pink prom style dress is eye catch­ing yet subtle.

If your brides­maids vary from young chil­dren to adults older than you, it can be very tempt­ing to dress them sim­i­larly. A word of cau­tion though, this isn’t often appre­ci­ated by your adult brides­maids who would like to show a lit­tle of their individuality.

I’m per­son­ally a big fan of keep­ing the same color scheme for all your brides­maids but slightly alter­ing the cut of the dress. This atten­tion to detail can look beau­ti­ful and allows your brides­maids to tai­lor their dress to their own figure.

Eti­quette

So, who pays?  This is a dif­fi­cult topic, some seem to strongly believe the brides­maid should pay and think any other option is pre­pos­ter­ous… whereas some seem to believe the exact opposite.

In this instance I’d sug­gest a lit­tle dis­cre­tion: are your brides­maids finan­cially secure? Would they wear their dresses, shoes and acces­sories again? From their per­spec­tive if you really want them in a peach cap sleeved dress but real­is­ti­cally this wouldn’t be their usual choice, it may be the fairest option if the bride con­sid­ers cov­er­ing the costs.

Many brides and brides­maids believe that a thought­ful and per­sonal gift to the brides­maids is greatly appre­ci­ated, after all your team of brides­maids may have spent most week­ends for a good few months fol­low­ing you around chang­ing rooms! Many brides­maids also seem to agree that while they can’t wait to be a part of your prepa­ra­tions, remem­ber­ing they can’t always be at the bride’s beck and call will stand a bride in good stead!

I hope you and your brides­maids have a fan­tas­tic time choos­ing your gowns, remem­ber I have a beau­ti­ful range of vin­tage wed­ding acces­sories that are also per­fect as gifts!

Kate x