Maternity bridesmaid dresses

[curleyshirley]

Does anyone know a good place for these? Either a specialist place, or a normal mat clothes shop that has posh frocks? I am bridesmaid for my best friend in August and have screwed up a bit by getting pregnant (unplanned, but breastfeeding DD1 so 'happy accident'), having already ordered the dress! Am due early dec, so will only be about 5 months but dc no.2 so dont think anny hope of fitting?! Am still wanted as bridesmaid (!) so need to locate a substitute dress. Not really bothered about style, more concerned about colour - which needs to be same or similar to existing dress, which is aubergine/grape sort of colour. Want also to keep it relatively cheap for obvious reasons ie dress no.2!

Thanks!

have you tried ebay? they have quite a lot of the nicer /posher frocks from crave etc on there so might be worth trying.

if you do want to spend a bit i think isabella oliver does a lovely purpley one.

Also debenhams -they dont just do maternity wear but some of their dressy stuff is quite well designed (Empire line etc) so may be ok if you're five months (wore something similar to races from them when I was five months).

Tiffany Rose has some nice stuff that might work. I wouldn't call it "cheap" but it depends what you mean by relatively cheap!

There are loads of patterns for maternity bridesmaid dresses, probably work out cheaper to buy material and find local dress maker

Thank you everyone - really appreciate your responses. Orangehead, hadnt even thought of doing that but that is an excellent option. And in fact my mum is quite a dab hand at that sort of thing so I could even ask her.

And thanks for the tiffanyrose link, havent come across that before (or at least had forgotten!) so thats great.

I will talk to my the person I have ordered the dress from. I had sort of ruled out them being able to expand it as it is chiffon-y dress and when I ordered, they stressed they could only take it in and not let it out. but maybe they would be able to do something?? Also, the only measurement they took was the bust. They said they ordered the dress size based on that and did all alterations, length, waist etc when it cmae in. At that stage I was still full-time breastfeeding so boobs way out of proportion for my size - so am still hanging on to the vague possibility that the dress may in fact be made to fit as should be very big on my non-preg body (ie I am size 12 - wearing size 12 jeans that very day - and because of bust size they ordered me a size TWENTY. To say I was horrified is an understatement!!!). Dress will be in to the shop in May, so exploring alternative options in the meantime!

here's one a friend of mine found

thanks for that hoxtonchick - that looks totally perfect! Especially with that range of colours (the concord looks just right!). I will look into it...

Monsoon has some great shoulderless frocks that flow, I dont know the style name (a-line? Empire line?), under the bust and flows down. Very elegent.

My friend has a larger bust and stomach area, she was bridesmaid at my wedding, and we got her dress in Monsoon in Sale, reduced from £150 to £40. The thing I like about them, is they are great for bustier women with bigger bellies, but also look great on small women, so if you need matching dresses you can get them the same.

notjustmom - I completely agree, and was relaly really surprised when I stripped down to my underwear, and all they did was measure boobs. I said I thought it was odd -they muttered something about it being an american dress and they just ordered in the size (hadnt thought of saying but what if I was a large lady with small boobs - wouldnt know what they would do then). Plus when I got my wedding dress they measured aboslutely everything going, and completely expected that.

The shop and the people were in any case horrible, and in fact the whole thing was a horrid experience (which I would never ever actually say to my best friend!)! My best friend lives up north (I am in London) and had chosen the dresses at her lovely bridal shop where she had got her frock, and I basically lcoated a stockist local to me and then went to them to order and make it for me (to save me going up north for fittings etc). So had no choice in the shop really, and found the whole thing really horrid (you know, when I tried to make a bit of a joke about my humungous breastfeeding boobs and was met by really odd look from evil woman, plus DD cried throughout it all and they acted impatient when I tried to calm her - ended up big bright red sweaty, stressy mess and wanted to just get out of there - but thats a whole other story!!!).

Perhaps they did just look at me and decide that was the case? (which it was!). But in any case they had a conversion chart thing and just ran their finger down it to look at what size dress my bust measurement corresponded to and said that needed to order that size. The dress itself is Mori Lee by Madeline Garder.

I think I will definitely ask them about that option. I suppose ultimately I could buy the dress from them (I have paid a 50% deposit - about £85) and then take it to a dressmaker to do the alterations/make it fit. I wodner if I could order extra material direct from the supplier if they make things difficult for me. (And I expect they will, customer service was not their strong point, as I've described!). I am really putting off speaking to them about it!

How about this from Creation Maternity - looks like the right colour and is quite reasonable for a dress that you can definitely wear afterwards: www.creationmaternity.com/product_info.php?cPath=34&products_id=137

just click on more photos to see it in the purplish colour.

I've got one in black and it is GORGEOUS ... wearing it to a wedding next month.

good luck

Thanks lapin - it looks lovely. I've got 2 other weddings while I'm pregnant so very interested in it for them anyway! Its very reasonable isnt it? Fab, thanks!

Hello-

Why don't you try Crave Maternity??? They have a shop in London and are online at www.cravematernity.co.uk_ They have gorgeous dresses that you can wear after the baby too! Their prices are very reasonable and they have a good selection ... I bought a beautiful aqua coloured chiffon dress for my sister's wedding and it fit perfectly. I felt like the belle of the ball! : )