You’ve seen what I wore, you’ve seen what Ben and the groomsmen wore, and now it’s time for the lovely ladies that really were the stars of the show: my beautiful bridesmaids!
I knew right from the beginning who I would have as my bridesmaids – my sister, of course, and my now sister-in-law (both Beths!), plus my 3 best friends, Rosie, Fran and Charley. I’m really lucky that I have a very close group of friends and I knew I couldn’t choose between these ones, so even though people made fun of me for having 5 bridesmaids, plus my two cousins Mollie and Eva as flower girls, I knew I wanted them all! As a quick introduction to them all, I’ve known Rosie since we were 8 and were at school together – we’ve been through all sorts since then and have so many fun childhood memories between us; Fran I met at school when I was 13, and we went through teenage years and came out the other side; then Charley joined in Sixth Form, started going out with my ex-boyfriend (we were 15 so I don’t think it counts all that much!), and is now my blogging partner at Big Cup Little Cup. This little group of us have managed to all end up back in Yorkshire, close enough that we try to meet up once a month if we can and have “book club” – we read books together for about a year, okay?!
If you’re interested in seeing more posts from our wedding day, check out the posts below:
The only problem with this group of bridesmaids? They’re a varied bunch! We’ve got all sorts of personalities, styles and sizes, from just over 5 foot to nearly 6 foot tall; from pale skin and short red hair to dark and long hair. It meant finding a dress to suit all of them was tricky. Luckily not a single of one of them made a fuss and they would have happily accepted anything I chose for them – except my sister who insisted she would not have a pink, pouffy dress – fair enough, I suppose!
We went through several options, including almost choosing different dresses for all of them (I seriously considered this, but wanted a single or only two different dresses to mark them as bridesmaids) and even nearly bought all white dresses to dye individual colours! In the end, I spotted these dresses on a real bride’s wedding on Love My Dress (highly recommend this site for wedding inspiration!) and realised the pale sage green shade would suit all their skin tones and hair colours – phew! I also loved the lace neckline and floaty skirt, plus I’d liked the idea of knee length skirts with my tea length dress. The only problem? They were last season’s Ted Baker dresses…and no longer sold.
But don’t worry, like everything in my life – I have a story! Ben and I went to the Designer Outlet at York to have a look at groom and groomsmen clothing, and I thought I’d just pop into Ted Baker to have a look what was in while Ben waited outside. Well, Ben was terrified when I came running out the shop a minute later and dragging him back inside – it turned out they had the exact dresses I wanted, hanging on the sale rail (reduced 3 or 4 times from just under £200 to £50 each), exactly 5 dresses left in near enough the right sizes for all my bridesmaids, aaahhh! We scooped them all up and rushed to the till – we’d spotted some signs around the shop that said they had an additional discount event that day, but weren’t sure it applied to those dresses. Well, it did! And on top of that, they scanned through even cheaper – it was crazy! I find Ted Baker a little pricey at full price, but in addition to their outlet stores, they do have some excellent sales too – take a look here.
Shoes were an easier pick though – I actually bought these before the dresses from Lulu Hun at Collectif. I decided pretty early on pastel pink shoes as I knew whatever dresses we did go for would need to match the pink on my shoes too, so that made it a bit more simple. They unfortunately weren’t the most comfortable for the full day, so I told them all to bring extra shoes for the evening if they wanted to – we were all in different shoes (or no shoes, in my case!) by the night!
In terms of jewellery, I let them all pick their own earrings if they wanted to wear them, but we decided no necklaces since the neckline of their dress stood for itself. I did, however, buy them each a dainty circle bracelet from the same place as my necklace, Fehmina Handmade on Etsy. They also each wore these Festival Meadow hair grips from English Flower Farmer on Etsy, same as me, in their hair, and all had some sort of plait – I let them choose how exactly each one wanted the plait and flowers so they could suit their own style.
And finally, my flower girls! Again, I had a lucky find with their dresses. I’d been keeping an eye on a few sites like Monsoon, Next and M&S, and ultimately Monsoon won when their Amerie dress appeared in the sale. I was a bit wary about giving these two white to wear, but they were too cute to resist. The pink ribbon was perfect to match the bridesmaids shoes, and their sparkly pink shoes matched the ice cream on my heels perfectly too! The shoes were from M&S and were so cute too – although I’d tried to find ones without the strap as Mollie wanted “grown up” ones, but unfortunately they had them attached – sorry, Mollie!
If you want to see the rest of my wedding posts, check them out here.
Your bridesmaids and flower girls look amazing (as do you). The dresses look really nice together.