Bridesmaids - different ages dilemma

[WelshMoth]

Both my DD's are being bridesmaids for my friend next year. She also has another 1 adult bridesmaid. DD's are 11 (very tall and long limbed) and 8 (very short) and are very different in appearance. The bride has asked me how to tie all of them into being bridesmaids what with one being in her 20's, and eldest DD being a tall 11 year old that won't suit the traditional 'pretty' dress for a young girl. Of course she's too young for an adult style too.

Help oh wise ones! Pics too if you have the time because I have no sense of style nor imagination!

Could the dresses just share the same colour rather than all being the same style?

You could do shades of the same colour? My sil had all the the adult bridesmaids in light coloured floral dresses and the younger ones in dark floral ones and it worked well...

Both of you have great suggestions - thank - but I don't know how to style the 2 younger ones - even though there's only 3 years between them, DD(11) looks grown up and won't suit the same as DD(8).

Like this

My daughter was 7 here and the dress was from marks and Spencer's

I was a bridesmaid last year, all different ages, shapes. We all wore pastel dresses in the same fabric but different colours and styles. They looked so pretty together, our flowers had colours from all the dresses in them to tie it altogether.

These are quite nice

And you could run with slightly different styles? Maybe take the girls shopping with you?

Sil used the same fabric for 4 different styles of bridesmaids dress. It worked really well. Each bridesmaid got a style and shaoe that suited their age, size and shape.

Have a look at dessy.co.uk. They do 101 different styles, all of which can be made in 101 colours. There is also a Junior range.
So for me, the bride chose the fabric, and then we each chose the style that suited our shape best.
You need to be slightly careful that not all dresses come in all shades, but might be worth a look.

We had a variety of different aged bridesmaids (including an 8 year old, pre-teens, teenager and a pregnant 30 year old) and they all wore the same colour but different dresses. All of ours came from J Crew in the US and it worked really well as there was something for everyone.

Thanks everyone. I'll start googling now.

I've also found these - colours aren't what we're looking at but would you be happy with a 12 year old
In this style? I forgot she'll be a year older by the wedding. I like the style but I'm not sure about the exposed back.

burnished did someone make the dresses?

Oh, scrap those pics. Let me try again. I've attached 2 different styles!

Try again.

My daughters had heart shape exposed back and it was lovely. Can't see a problem on a 12 year old

Oh lovely. Thanks!

What do you think of the dress?

I like it. Dependant on time of year it might be a bit hot ( anything like my daughter and clothes are too hot!)

What's the name of the dark purple dress? I really like it

Depends on the 12 year old. With a developing / quite fully developed 12 year old, bras might be an issue with the cut-out back?

True. She's like a rake at the minute but much can happen in 11 months.

I think it's 'Grape'

Alfred Angelo is your friend here, although they're not cheap.

A number of styles have a junior version that are cut more appropriately for a younger bridesmaid. You can also order extra material which I found helpful as it meant I could have wider straps made for the younger ones.

I had a similar problem for my wedding.

I had two of my nieces as my bridesmaids, who were both under ten. We managed to find the same dress in their respective sizes in Monsoon - impressive because it was quite an age gap! It was a lovely dress and very age-appropriate.

There was no adult bridesmaid to tie in with though so I'm not sure how we would have solved that! Probably would have looked for something in the adult section of the shop for something in a similar style/colour. Depends how 'bridesmaidy' it needs to be?