Dressing the Party: Round 1

Several months ago Party Person K and I headed out David's Bridal to look at some potential dress options for the members of the wedding party (plus we threw in an infinity dress at my house, just for good measure). My goal for that day: if nothing else, get clarification on my preferred dress color and length. Who would've thought that was too much to ask of myself?! I partially blame K for this. I pretty much made her try on every dress in the store, and she looked damn good in nearly all of them!

I came home WAY more confused than when I left. Previously convinced we'd go with knee-length gray dresses, I couldn't believed how much I loved the elegance of the floor-length ones. And although I did still really gravitate towards shades of gray, those versatile black dresses were starting to call my name. 

That night I sat down to discuss the options with Mr. FW and I was so frustrated that I was teary-eyed. I felt confused and I was worrying about things I'd never questioned before. My main issue seemed to be a concern that a shorter dress wouldn't look formal enough for a downtown evening wedding. The longer ones looked so much more elegant and I thought maybe that was a better fit. 

Then Mr. FW said something that was oh-so-true. His exact words were, "We haven't made a single other 'elegant' decision when it comes to this entire wedding. Why are we going for 'elegant' now?" It was an Aha! moment for me. I had been mesmerized by the beauty of those long dresses, but it's true that we're not really trying to have a super-elegant wedding. Chic, yes. Elegant, no. Laid-back, yes. Formal, no.  In that moment I knew that knee-length dresses would obviously work better with our overall aesthetic.  It really helped to be reminded by Mr. FW to plan OUR wedding, not someone else's style of wedding. 

I also found out during this conversation that Mr. FW planned to wear a dark gray suit and he wanted everyone in the wedding party to wear something at least a little bit lighter. That means we'd need to go with lighter gray dresses.  So oddly enough, I'd accomplished my goal of determining the color and length of the dresses by the end of that day, even if it didn't happen quite as I'd imagined it would. We were squarely on the hunt, then, for knee-length dresses in a medium gray color. David's Bridal was out because they didn't have a good range of dresses in the right color, but the infinity dress was still potentially an option.  On to Round 2!

How many rounds did it take you to find dresses for your wedding party?  Did you second-guess any of your decisions about the dress color or length?