How much is too much for a bridesmaid's dress?

I picked the color and fabric and the my bm's picked their dress. That way it was within their budget.

You need to get a price point from your girls. It's the easiest way to avoid trouble. My girls all asked I keep it below the $200 mark so I didn't even look beyond that. If I had I would have paid the difference out of respect for their budgets.

I picked 5 different dresses from DB and they chose from those. All were $149 or $99. I think $250 is WAY too much. I wouldn't have asked them to spend anything over $150.

Honestly, if I were asked to be a BM, I would appreciate it being under $150 with any alterations and something that could be worn again, or shortened to wear later. I also prefer the idea of being able to choose my own STYLE (dress, shoes, jewelry, etc) from a color family...with the bride having final approval. =)

I asked my bridesmaids to let me know a budget and they all said to pick whatever I wanted. I ended up choosing a dress at David's Bridal for $119 and my MOH was overjoyed because she budgeted twice that amount.

I chose a dress that cost $159 at DB. It was reasonable and I wanted to keep costs low for my gals. They loved the dress and alterations will be minimal or none depending on the girl.

I would look at how much they will be paying to just attend your wedding. If they are all local, I wouldn't mind a $250 dress. However, if you are having a destination wedding, and your ladies are dropping $1,500 to just attend. Maybe go for a more affordable dress. My ladies all have to travel for my wedding since we all live in different states. So I found dresses on Eshaki.com that I really like, and they were only $70.

I would ask them what their budget is and go from there. Do NOT start picking out dresses without asking them their budget. That's putting the cart before the horse.

We all lucked out. Their dresses were $30 on clearance from DB. I paid for their dresses but they are paying for alterations, which should be around $50 from DB.