Bridesmaid dress budget question

If you have a place in mind you are going to shop, David's Bridal for instance I would give them the price range of different dresses you like, you could say the dresses range from $100-$250

Honestly, I think when saying yes to being a bridesmaid you should know there will be some costs, including the dress. Give your girls a heads up when going shopping so they can plan and save money. Depending where you go you can find some good deals.

What I've seen done in a couple weddings I've attended was the Bride would pick the color of the dress (material and length, too, if desired) and the girls would go pick out the dress that they were most comfortable in. Everyone has different body types, shapes and sizes what looks good on Jane may not look good on April.

Do what @Melanie said. I had no idea what bridesmaid dresses cost either.

If budget is a concern, I'd not even look at dresses over $200 if I were you. In my experience that's where it starts to get especially sticky for some people. There are a ton of places you can find quality, stylish dresses for around $150 (Social Bridesmaids/Dessy, Azazie, David's Bridal, Lulus is now sold through Nordstrom, etc.).

I've never heard of a bridesmaid complaining a dress was too inexpensive

Your message was fine. I'm a smart ass, so....

"I don't know how much dresses normally are"

- Well, just like anything else, there's going to be a range of prices. Do you want to spend $50 on a dress, or do you mind spending $300 on a dress?

"How much are they typically?"

- see response above

"I don't know how to answer this".

Uhhh, okay. Neither do I lol, that's why I'm asking you. I need to know what you are comfortable spending on a dress. Then refer back to response #1.

Sweet Jesus, how old are these women? Have they NEVER purchased anything before in their lives?

My bridesmaids answered the same way. I had just recently been in two weddings and had spent $250 on both dresses.

So I then went back to them individually and asked if they were comfortable with something around $200.

3 responded and said yes, they would even go up to $250, and the other commented and said, 'perfect exactly what I was thinking!' So I think sometimes they just need to know the ballpark.

I would just say "the dresses I'm considering would probably be about $100-200 depending on the style and fabric. This is typical for bridesmaid dresses at places like David's Bridal and the Wedding Shoppe. Are you okay with this price range? You can either pay in full when we go shopping (in March/April) or put a deposit down."

I gave my bridesmaids price ranges

0-150

151-200

200- and up

and told them to pick one. but to be honest it didnt matter because i knew i wanted everyone to match but it did help me figure out where their budget was.

Their answers irritate me. I thought the way you asked was very clear. All the have to do is state a number they would feel comfortable spending because there is such a huge range of bridesmaid dress prices.

Thanks for the suggestions everyone! I'll pivot from here

@gymrat - lol! I wish I could say those things. I am also very confused as 2 of them have been bridesmaids before!!

@stokedtobesaucier - I was also very irritated lol. After I threw out a range, one of them said "of course the cheaper the better".

This is going to be fun! lol! Luckily the options I like are on the affordable side, right around $100 so hopefully everyone is happy.

That's pretty clear. Maybe they're afraid of offending you by giving a low budget or (please don't get mad, I'm not saying this is the case, but that it could be) maybe they are bandwagon girls and want to know what the rest of he BP is spending.

Are they quite young?

Of course they should give you a straight answer, but I get it. I was in a friend's wedding at age 22, and I had absolutely zero idea what something like that "should" cost. At that point I don't think I had ever spent more than about $40 on an article of clothing. I don't remember exactly how things went, but I think the bride identified a potential dress and then asked us if we liked it and if it was affordable enough. It was about $160, and I was fine with that. But if she has asked at the outset I wouldn't have had a clue what to say. I probably would have told her something like $50 just because I didn't know better and that seemed like what a "special" dress might cost.

To sum up my long ramble: don't be too annoyed at their non-answers. Just go back and let them know that there are options that range from $X to $Y. I bet you will get better answers the second time around.

My BMs all agreed on $100. I've been on amazon and found some really nice/cute ones for under $100.

Say something like, the dresses I like cost around 100(or whatever number). Does that work for everyone?

My girls said the same thing because only one had ever been a BM. The rest had no idea. Nor would I have had any idea if I hadn't been a BM before.

You could say, "They can be all over the place. If we use an online retailer or a chain like David's Bridal, prices are between $100-$200. If we do designer dresses, the prices are typically $200-300. I don't have a strong preference for either yet and haven't done much shopping around, but I wouldn't want to ask more than you were comfortable spending."

That's what I said and the unanimous answer was that they wanted to be able to try on designer dresses.