OMG! Hold the phone and shut the front door! All of Sarah’s bridesmaids (at this past weekend’s wedding) wore DIFFERENT dresses!?! They not only each wore a different dress, but a different color!?! Are you kidding??? That’s just plain ludicrous!

I’m guessing that’s the reaction many brides and their maids might have to such an idea. We all know that traditionally, bridesmaids wear the exact same dresses in the exact same color. And if you think about it, it’s kind of a contradicting fashion concept. What girl wants to be found wearing the exact same dress as another girl at some fancy occasion? What girl wants to be found wearing the exact same dress as six other girls?? For year and years, that taboo situation has been forgiven at weddings to suit tradition. But I say let’s forget that tradition and break some rules!

Four years ago at my wedding, my seven bridesmaids all wore the exact same dress. I loved that bridesmaid dress and I think most of them enjoyed it, too. But if I could do things all over again, I would let them choose their own dress and hope they were all different. There is a trend of bridesmaids wearing different dresses, but in the exact same color. I love that Sarah took that trend one step further and let her bridesmaids each choose their own dresses and it didn’t matter if the colors were the same or not. She did give them one guideline: the dress had to be tan or taupe in nature. And this is what the girls came up with:

I’ve seen this trend in magazines and on blogs, and I was just hoping that someday soon one of my brides would decide to do the same. And Sarah delivered! When I saw the bridesmaids coming in with different dresses, I was pumped! The collection of dresses absolutely set the tone for the day and captured a unique elegance that you don’t often see in bridesmaid style. The textures, details and variation in color are so interesting and make for some really awesome pictures. Not to mention, you know these girls will definitely wear their dresses again because they picked them out based on their own individual styles. Very cool!

My mom’s most recent wedding also broke the traditional bridesmaid dress rule, but did it a little differently than Sarah. Instead of giving the girls one or two colors as a guideline, she gave them a paint swatch card that included a spectrum of colors and told them they had to match the card…somewhere on the spectrum. Now that’s double cool!!! So next time you’re at Lowes or Home Depot, pick up a few paint swatch cards and let it be inspiration for your wedding colors and bridesmaid dresses!

 Happy color picking and bridesmaid dress shopping!