I’m kind of what you call a freak of nature. at least in girl-world. i have NEVER been a bridesmaid. ever. I have walked down exactly two aisles other than my own, and they were for my sister and the husband’s sister. and that’s it. i don’t have a crazy bizarro colored dress story or any bridezilla stories. I’ve never had to make a bridal shower or hold up a friend’s wedding dress while she peed. i’ve got nothing to tell. and nothing to show.
but i know that you do!!
i know that i’m in the minority, and most of you are more like Katherine Heigl in her new movie 27 Dresses than like me. always a bridesmaid, never a bride. and i know you’ve got evidence, or at least an outrageous story.
We at urbanmoms.ca are looking to give away 2 passes to see the prescreening of 27 Dresses this Thursday night, January 10th in Toronto. In addition to being able to see the movie before it hits screens everywhere on Friday, we are also giving away a Palm® Treo™ 700wx smartphone from TELUS Mobility* with a retail value of $549.99!
so…we want your most awful, your most horrific, your very, very worst bridesmaid dress or story. Leave a comment, post your story or your photo. or, you can feel free to email me if you prefer at fabulous@urbanmoms.ca
the contest is open until wednesday at 12pm, when the urbanmoms staff will determine the winner. So, get moving…you only have a couple days to send us your very worst. Tell your friends!! anyone can enter! If you can’t make it to the show, you can still win the Palm Treo, a phone that both my sister and my brother have and i can only drool over.
**and as a bonus to all of you, my dear readers, you can enter for a chance to take three friends on a trip to Hollywood plus a free Treo 755p smartphone by sending that same photo of your most outrageous bridesmaid dress to www.palm.eprize.net/27dresses
*Palm, Centro and Treo are among the trademarks or registered trademarks owned by or licensed to Palm, Inc. All other brand and product names are or may be trademarks of, and are used to identify products or services of, their respective owners.
Funny bridesmaid story. A friend of mine called upon me to be her bridesmaid after her cousin couldn’t make it to the wedding, so in essence I was taking her place, since the dress was already bought and we couldn’t leave the poor usher to be by himself. Ha Ha. Well I needed to get my bangs cut for the wedding, and I couldn’t get in for an appointment anywhere. The brides sister told me to tape my wet bangs down my forehead and just cut across and it should look fine. Little did I know when my hair dried that I cut my bangs waaaay too short and now I looked like a squirrel. You could imagine her surprise when she saw me in the morning of the wedding, she thought I was getting her back for not calling me first as a bridesmaid. All in all we laughed till we peeeed ourselves and then took some really darn good pictures. The wedding was a blast.
HA! I don’t have any too crazy stories…For my little sister’s wedding, though I ended up feeling like I did EVERYTHING! I planned and hosted both the bridal shower and the bachlorette parties. I picked out our bridesmaid dresses, she want the color, but she wanted these GOD awful fluffy taffeta things…EW! I did all of our (hers, mine, my mom’s, and my older sister’s) hair, I put together all the flower arraignments. Check out these pictures…
She sat in this chair for the whole 1 hour before her wedding.
http://i83.photobucket.com/albums/j302/mariargower/Photos/Wedding003.jpg
This is (from L to R) Ellen (my older sister), Me, Anna (my little sister) and the rest of the bridal party.
http://i83.photobucket.com/albums/j302/mariargower/Photos/Wedding012-1.jpg
Well believe it or not I too have never been a bridesmaid the only aisles I have walked down was my own and my Aunts when I was 7 as a flower girl. But this year I get to be a bridesmaid twice once for my sister and once for my best friend.
The first bridesmaid dress I wore wasn’t mine. For a high school dance, my female cousins opened up their bridesmaid closets for me to shop from.(that scene from the movie trailer where she opens the closet stuffed full of frilly dresses? VERY familiar) I found something lovely that fit and wore it to the dance, end of story.
The second bridesmaid dress I wore was for my best friend’s wedding. It was navy and custom made to fit me, which means I’ll never be able to get into it again. It was fine, boring, but fine. What I most remember from that wedding was dodging the psycho mother of the bride. I hated that woman.
The third bridesmaid dress was for my boyfriend’s best friend’s wedding. One of the bridesmaids had backed out and they needed another one to keep the numbers even. My boyfriend paid for the dress, it was a lavender, strapless, floor length gown. I looked fine, but it was cut so low in the back that I had to buy a super low cut thong to keep from going commando. Did I mention that it was an outdoor wedding on labor day weekend? I sweated off all my makeup and probably three pounds. Never again.
This sucks! I was only a bridesmade once and it was for one of my best friends. My dress was gorgeous and the wedding went off without a hitch. What a boring life I lead. The worst part was that I asked my grandma to hem my dress and being 88 at the time, she only hemmed the top part, not the poofy scratchy stuff underneath. So I had to clip it up with hair clips. Does that count??
I was a bridesmaid for the wedding from hell, where the groom was gay, the bride kept falling asleep, and the parents were drunk. I had to toast the “happy couple” unexpectedly when the bride realized she forgot to tell me and they announced my name over the loud speaker.
Ah…wedding bliss.
I think I deserve a shot at those tickets!
I’ve only been a bridesmaid once before, at my sister’s wedding! It was a great experience, especially since my boyfriend (also the best man) was giving my “the eyes” up at the alter…so hopefully that means I’ll get to pick some bridesmaids soon 😉
When I was 14 my brother was getting married. Well, I didn’t like the bride to be. During all a bridal arrangements and showers I threw hissy fits and was mean to the bride to be. I thought she was taking my brother away so I retaliated by not agreeing with anything she wanted. I was basically a big brat. As a result I got kicked out of the wedding party. They’ve been married now for more than 15 years. I’ve since then matured and accepted her as a sister-in-law and am no longer jealous of her.
bridesmaid once.
While I have a few bridesmaid dress horror stories , my favourite has to do with a “Bridesmaid Revisited” theme party I went to back in university.
Basically everyone (men included) had to show up in their most “classic” bridesmaid dress. Being away from home, I didn’t have time to access my lavender satin doubled-breasted sailor jacket (with a lovely matching crepe skirt). My friend and I went to Eaton’s and picked out the ugliest matching dresses we could find–which as it turns out, really looked like someone had vomited a mixture of grape juice and cosmopolitans on us.
Despite their hidiousness, the dresses were $100. So for the whole night, we kept the tags on and stayed away from anyone drinking red wine or anyone who looked like they would puke(not that you would have really noticed as as I mentioned it looked pretty vomitous as it was). They were an absolute hit (especially with our french braid hairdos) and I think we may have even won a prize.
We returned them the next day, no questions asked–mission accomplished!!
My sister got married when I was 15 back in 1988. She chose SHINY emerald green dresses that were narrow to the waist and then ballooned out like a southern belle type dress. The worst part of the dress was that on either shoulder, the dress was sleeveless but attached to the straps were these huge puffy bow-like things that had to be continuously fluffed and puffed. If by chance you walked into something or someone, they would flatten against your body, which supposedly (although I still argue this) looked worse than when they were poofy. Of course the bride insisted that they were fluffed all day, so we spent the entire day poofing and fluffing each other’s shoulder bows. Whenever we noticed someone’s getting flat (there wre 10 of us!!) we would yell at that person, “PUFF” and then laugh hysterically as we adjusted the hideous bows. That along with the half dead rose bouquets we had to carry all day, and we were a bridesmaid’s worst nightmare.
I was a bridesmaid 8 times – most of the dresses were not bad. But one was SO bad, even looking at the pictures today make me slightly nauseous. It was made by the aunt of the bride, and it was a two piece suit. They were raw silk, emerald green and very ill fitting. All the bridesmaids were younger than 25, but we all looked about 40 in this outfit. The jackets were long and hung past our butts and the skirt stopped at mid calf. We had to wear matching dyed shoes and our earrings were made from the extra buttons that were left over. We literally had to wear buttons with clip-ons glued on the back. Of course the buttons were HIDEOUS. Within a half hour of wearing these hideous things, the bridesmaids all looked at each other and laughed until we cried – one girl (who was 19) cried almost the entire day. Today, even the bride is too embarassed to look at her wedding photos.
My first time being a bridesmaid had me wearing a pink southern belle dress with lots of tulle and with a wide brim Scarlet O’Hara type hat. I looked more like Little Bo Beep than a southern belle because my job before the wedding was to keep my eye on the flower girls. Just before the ceremony, one flower girl threw up on the other, so we had to trade dresses so the healthy one could go down the aisle in a clean dress. From there, I have a satin peach number, a green Carmen Miranda dress and gothic number. All have come in handy as Halloween costumes.
I was in a wedding less then 3 months after giving birth to my first baby (who is now 2). Not only were the dress fittings horrible because I was pregnant fat and then just fat because lets face it, I didn’t hold back on the eating when I was pregnant. Anyway I was wearing this purple number where to this day I have not seen one picture of me in it besides a group shot and my whole body was hidden, and I don’t want to see a pic either! I called myself Barney and I’m pretty sure everyone else did too. The worst part though came when my breasts started to leak breastmilk just before walking down the aisle. I guess the stress of walking in front of all those people set me off. I managed to cover one side up with my bouquet and just prayed that the other side wasn’t as noticable. After the big walk the milk dried and left a nice little stain…on both sides. Ugh. It was not pretty. Thank goodness I have a sense of humour or my hormones could have sent me over the edge!
A friend of mine from university asked me to be a bridesmaid in her wedding. Her mom was going to make the dresses herself to help save on the costs. Initially I thought “great, I won’t be spending $300 on some grotesque dress I’ll never wear again”. Since I lived closest to her mom I was the live mannequin who had her dress made first. I should never have agreed. I had had my son Ethan about 7 months previously when we started out with the process. The dress was a really nice pale blue colour and it was going to be a separate skirt and top. For whatever reason her mom did not think that the tops should be overly fitted. In the end my skirt fit fine, but the top could have had two of me in there. I am already flat chested enough without extra gaping fabric to make me look even worse. It looked like I was wearing a blue bag on my upper body. Everyone else’s dresses fit great. That’s what I get for being the guinea pig!!
I’ve been a bridesmaid twice…both times for my own mother. Not quite ready to tell THOSE stories yet.
For my own wedding, however, we had a bit of a disastrous experience with the bridesmaid dresses. Our wedding was in July and we ordered the dresses in February. My girls put down a hundred dollar deposit each for their dresses, which then NEVER ARRIVED. The shop just somehow didn’t manage to order them for us. My friends went to the shop several times to check on their arrival and the shop employee just kept telling them they were on the way. The week before the wedding one of the girls went to the shop’s head office with small claims court papers in hand, her twin four-year-old boys in tow, and demanded her money back, and the money back for the other two ladies, too.
Five days before the wedding we had to shop in the mall for dresses that would be appropriate for bridesmaids. When we did finally choose something, my mom was upset because the dresses were the same colour as HER dress. It couldn’t be helped! The colours and decor for everything else wedding-related had already been chosen and there were a limited number of dresses in the mall that would blend in appropriately. It was the worst part of planning the wedding, but it all worked out in the end, and one of the bridesmaids was able to wear her dress in her brother’s wedding later in the year. Phew!
my best ever Bridemaids story is …I was invited to be yet once again a bridemaid( 12 times and still counting) , this bridal party was me at the youngest (18) and the other sisters were 40,ish, lets just say that our style differernce finally caused me to back out of being a bridemaid as we were causing my friend the bride too much grief trying to please every generation. Had I worn this dress it would have easily topped my pile of the worst dress ever I have even tried on, It was hideuous, large bow on the backside, and ugly taffeta color of blue, and satin shoes, yuk…but here we are 20 years later and they are still happily married
I too have never been a bridesmaid. I have also never been a maid of honour or a bride! I truly must not have any social skills at all or friends for that matter. But I just know this Palm Trio would make me feel so much better!
I don’t know if this will count or not since I wasn’t the bridesmaid but the date of one…
During the first few months of our relationship, my wife was one of eight bridesmaids for a friend. They all had these two piece dresses, and the tank tops were closed in the back by approximately 1 million buttons (well, not really… more like 20 or 30). Unfortunately, the top was made of something slippery (satin? tafetta? did I mention I’m a guy?) and so every time the maids sat, all the buttons popped. And since there were so many, they were too small to do up yourself, so they got the woman beside them to do them up. However, since there were eight women side by side, all with the same top, the effect was like watching one of those nature shows on National Geographic where the primates are all “grooming” each other by picking bugs out of their back fur. Picture eight women, facing sideways, fiddling with the back of the person beside/in front of them. A few minutes later, imagine them turning the other way and repeating the process. Now put that in a loop for five hours.
I’ve been a bridesmaid 5 times and 4 of the dresses were great. The 4th was this a nice style but the color was a super bright yellow, and I mean SUPER BRIGHT sunny yellow! All of us bridesmaids were surprised to say the least.
Better not to be a bridesmaid – it’s really expensive, not just the dresses you’ll only wear once, but then there are the bridesmaids responsibilities like helping host and pay for bridal showers, bachlorette party, paying for flights and hotel, ect…
Unfortunately I’m neither a mom nor Canadian so I don’t think I can win. But I did live in BC for 4 months a few years ago. Would that count?
I couldn’t find any pics of my super uggers – ill fitting preg bridesmaid dress but I did find a good one of my gorg bridesmaid dress and posted it on my blog.
Sadly, I have no moth-eaten taffeta gowns collecting dust in the closet. I too have never been a bridesmaid! It’s a shame. I have many good friends but we all dot the Canadian map in varying provinces, so it’s hard to make the commitment to be a bridesmaid (not that I’ve ever been asked…). I am fairly certain that winning the prizes of the screening of 27 Dresses, along with the sweet Palm Treo would help to ease some of my pain. Really. Think of the healing. 🙂
I have a story but the characters are still alive and I don’t want to hurt anyone’s feelings.
Oooo, I’m so jealous!! I would love to get a sneak peek at 27 Dresses! My friend who was visiting from back East & I were lamenting that the movie was coming out too late for us to go see it together. Have fun, whoever gets to go!!
I too have never been a bridesmaid. So no scary dress stories here. Crap, I wonder what that says about my friendship skills!?!
I, too, have never been a bridesmaid. I guess I’m an awful friend 😉
Well, this one time, I was a bridesmaid and the bride just lost it. It all started when…
Well, why don’t you just watch the video here:
http://youtube.com/watch?v=_nFDnC8SSWQ
well i was a flower girl once when i was like 4…..does that count?never been a bridesmaid….and i’ve only been to 5 weddings…
I’ve never been a bridesmaid either. Most of my close friends who have gotten married had small weddings, many without any attendants at all. My sister had my wife and I witness their marriage certificate, but she and her husband were the only people up front for the actual ceremony.
I did have one friend who insisted that my wife and I join the other women for the bouquet toss, despite our protestations that we had been together for years at that point and that we couldn’t get legally married either (this was before Canada or anyplace in the States legalized same-sex marriages). She turned around, aimed it in our general direction… and nobody caught it. Not even any of the single women.
I don’t think I’m eligible, but I do have an awful bridesmaid story – I had to stand in my brother’s wedding two and a half months after having The Baby, who breastfed all the time… I spent most of the wedding in my underwear in a bathroom stall, nursing her. What a swell wedding.
my worst bridesmaid story? i was a bridesmaid for a very dear friend of mine july 28, 2007 – exactly one week after i should have been married to my ex-fiance… who was also a guest at the wedding. after one particularly difficult conversation in which he and i both cried (and not because we were happy for the bride and groom), i ended up in the bathroom surrounded by all the other bridesmaids trying to comfort me. the poor bride was left to tie up her own gown for her first dance because of my ladies room pity party. good times were had by all.
i think that’s probably way too depressing to win any contests, though.