I Finally Said Yes to the Bridesmaid Dress

I finally said YES to the bridesmaid dress. If you’ve been following along here on the blog + on instagram, you know that I’m a bridesmaid in my BFF’s wedding this summer. While I’m so freaking excited for my friend, finding the perfect dress has been a bit of a struggle (which you can read more about here)

A quick recap: All the bridesmaids are choosing their own dress. The only criteria:

• black
• long [it’s a black tie wedding]
• not strapless
• plain [no lace, minimal embellishments]

My own criteria for the dress? I wanted something I would feel comfortable and confident in. And I really didn’t want to have to wear a strapless bra 😂

After failing miserably to find a black dress at Macy’s, Bloomingdales, Nordstrom and David’s Bridal, I turned to YOU on instagram for some dress shopping advice. I gotta say, y’all came THROUGH with the recommendations and I ended up ordering a bunch of dress from Lulus in multiple sizes. After trying on ~14 dresses from Lulus, we found a winner! See below is what I tried on.

Each dress comes in multiple colors if you’re shopping for a specific bridesmaid dress color too! Oh and each is under $100 too 🙂 Win.

Also… don’t be discouraged if a dress you love has a waitlist. Sign up for the waitlist! You’ll probably receive an email that the dress is in stock again within a week. That happened to me for a few of these dresses!

 

What I Ordered From Lulus:

Air of Romance Maxi Dress: $74

I definitely thought this dress was going to be the winner — how CUTE is that neckline?

The fit ended up being meh on my body. I tried on both the small and extra small. The small was huge and the extra small wasn’t flattering on top. I’d definitely recommend trying it on still if this one catches your eye. I saw the dress on a bridesmaid in my cousin’s wedding last month and she looked absolutely stunning.

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Infinite Glory Maxi Dress: $84

A number of you recommended this tight fitting maxi dress. It’s super simple and pretty chic — especially considering the affordable price tag.

For me the fit wasn’t super flattering as I tend to gravitate towards dresses that really accentuate my waist. Gotta know what looks good on your body!

This dress also didn’t look great bra-less for me. Just telling it like it is 😂

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Make Me Move Maxi Dress: $90

I was *super* close to keeping this dress as the winner but ended up changing my mind. The fit was arguably better than any of the other dresses I tried on BUT it wasn’t super flattering for my figure.

The open neck felt like A LOT for me. It just felt like a whole lot of collar bone but not in a super flattering way.

I personally do like to show off my arms and found the sleeve not a cute look for my body. The waist also wasn’t tapered enough for my body so the long flowy dress kind of swallowed up my short body.

I think in a color other than black it would have looked much better as you’d be able to see the cute pattern on the bust a bit better.

 

 

 

 

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Music of the Heart Lax Maxi Dress: $96 (I think it’s currently on sale for $58 though!)

I love this dress but I didn’t realize my friend wanted a solid dress when I ordered it. So this lacy dress is not a winner for this wedding. I ended up keeping this dress and will hopefully have a future occasion to wear it to.

For me and my figure the sliver of skin below the bust is really flattering. I also like that I can wear a regular black bra underneath the dress and it doesn’t look weird with the lace.

I tried the dress on again today for the first time in a few weeks while I was at the tailor getting it hemmed. Gah, I forgot how much I loved it! Someone please invite me to a black tie event PRONTO so I can wear it 😜

 

 

 

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Mythical Kind of Love Maxi Dress: $66

How cute is this open back dress?

The fit wasn’t great for me and it didn’t feel quite as dressy as I wanted for a black-tie wedding, but I could see it being a great slightly more casual dress in another color.

I love that the straps are adjustable, potentially saving you some $$ on having to get the dress taken in.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Power of Wow Backless Maxi Dress: $100

I wanted to LOVE this dress — the back is stunning and the photos make the dress look real hot. The fit wasn’t great on my body (as was true for many of the dresses, clearly).

For a dress like this you need the top to fit like a glove so your chest stays in place 😂. That was not the case for me so alas, it was not a win.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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✨And the winner?✨

the Strappy To Be Here Maxi Dress: $58

Funny story about this dress: My cousin, Erin, wore this dress in blue as a bridesmaid in my other cousin, Ally’s, wedding. All the bridesmaid dresses at this wedding were from Lulus. My mom, aunt and I spent much of the evening checking the dresses out and discussing which ones I should order in black. This was early May. At this point I had already ordered maybe 5 styles already from Lulus. I was starting to lose hope that I’d ever find a freaking dress.

We agreed that we all loved Erin’s dress and I kept my fingers crossed that it would fit better than most of the other dresses. Sure enough it fit like a freaking glove — I just need to get the length hemmed which is to be expected when you’re 5’2″.

The back is a bit (okay, very) complicated to get into and out of, but once it’s all laced up it’s a stunner.

Holy moly am I relieved to finally have found a dress. YAY!!!!

I’ll leave you with this:

A super crappy, mirror selfie of me trying on the dress at the tailor today 😂. I was literally dripping with sweat because they didn’t have the AC on. My phone was still plugged into my headphones because I was obvi listening to a podcast on my walk over. And the back of the dress is too complicated to fully lace up for the fitting. But… I’m obsessed!