Outfitting the Bridesmaids

We're well into planning our wedding these days. The date has been chosen, as well as our venue, photographer, and officiant. I found my dress over the weekend (SO EXCITED), and we're 99% sure we've got the DJ and venue for the rehearsal dinner! Yup, I'm crossing things off the list rather quickly, and I'm happy to say one of the easiest things was finding the dresses for my lovely bridesmaids (you can see how I asked them to be a part of my big day in this post). 

I'll start off by saying I never had a concrete idea of how I wanted the girls to look on my big day. I was pretty laid back and thought if they each wanted to pick a different style of dress in a similar colour that would be fine, but if they all liked the same dress, I'd be happy with that as well. 

{via OneWed}

So, once all of my girls had accepted my invitation to be a part of our wedding, I began searching online for some pretty and affordable dresses. Each time that I found a dress that I loved, I would pin it to my private wedding board on Pinterest (that each of the girls have access to) and had them tell me which one's they liked. 

{via brides.com}

This seemed to work really well since the girls still had a lot of choice from the dresses that I had found. I was also thrilled to be able to virtually do the dress hunt with my girls, who are in three different cities than I am. The biggest bonus was being able to find a large selection of dresses all for under $100! This made me happy since I know each of my girls have other financial obligations. Plus, if we're planning the wedding on a budget ourselves - why should I make my ladies shell out a ton of cash for a dress they will wear once.

In the end, we picked a beautiful dress from Ruche, that wasn't even part of their bridesmaid collection. Since I'm back in my hometown working on wedding planning for the next week and a half, I was finally able to see the dress in person! The fabric is soft and beautiful, and the colour is perfect. We saw a similar style to it at the bridal store yesterday and it was double the price of what my girl's paid. If you're wondering - they only paid $65 for the dress. 

I'm thrilled at how everything is falling into place... especially since it's not always easy to plan a wedding from across the country.

Next on my list is the hotels, Save-the-dates and flowers. I plan on getting ahead of my to-do list this week if I can help it.

Now I need to know - how did you save money when you were planning your big day? What did you find useful to save on and what did you really splurge on? I'd love to hear all of your tips and idea's for planning and affordable, and beautiful wedding!