Hooray for Bridesmaids!

 Six beautiful bridesmaids, six beautiful colors! Originally, I wanted my girls to each be in a different colored dress that was made from a pattern that I chose early on.  But, like all things, this idea evolved over time. After incorporating copper, I decided to have them all in the same dress with different colored sashes instead.  I found a dress at David's Bridal that I really liked, and it worked well on girls of different shapes and sizes.  My girls ranged from tall to short and two of them had just had babies 7-8 months before the wedding. I needed a dress that would make them all look good...and I found one rather than having one made. It was largely out of convenience for everyone, but in the end, I think it really was better than my original plan.  I was able to get the dresses in a copper color that DB referred to as "cognac"...which made finding matching vests for the guys super easy.  With the original plan,
we would have had to make the vests in addition to the dresses.

For the sashes, I found a fabric known as "polymesh" at Hancock's Fabrics that was perfect in terms of how it laid, and its overall look.  Unfortunately, it was only available in two of the right colors: teal and lime green. There was a pink, but it was a baby pink, not a fushia, and there was a white. We found out we could dye the white ones using Rit...so we bough 1/4 yd of the teal and the green, then four of the white and some dyes. I haven't had a chance to dye these yet...but I'm hoping that they work out well! The best part about this material is that the way it lays and ties, there is no need to hem the sashes, and they can be reused later as something else...a scarf, belt, again as a sash, or even as scrap fabric for a project! :)

I also wanted for them to wear low-top Converse All-Stars rather than dress shoes. I went back and forth on colors and had a hard time finding the right shades, so I decided to go with all of them being black. I'm in the process of looking for some brightly colored socks and shoelaces! :)

I wanted each girl to carry a single flower that was their particular one of the six wedding colors.  Each flower was flanked by matching ostrich feathers and had a small floral monarch hot glued near the center.  The feathers were secured by floral wire and the entire stem was then wrapped in shimmery copper ribbon.  The end was hot-glued so that it looked nice on the bottom.  As a final touch, I added a matching bow with tails tied just under the flower’s head.  They looked great! I was glad that they turned out so well!