Mother of the Bride Dress - AGGH! Why such a pain?

I'm not getting married for over a year (like 14 months from now), but without fail my mom emails me weekly to say how hard it is to find a MOB dress. I thought she was just being a diva because I can't even begin to care about that yet, but maybe she was right

Following for any suggestions!

Ugh!!! I feel your pain! My mom is driving me nuts with this dress search! She has already bought and returned 4 dresses! Then last night she tried another one, says she really liked it and I said did you buy it? And she says no, she wasn't sure but now she thinks she's going to order it online. We've had more trouble finding her a dress than me! I'm trying to be helpful and patient but it's wearing thin....

My mother told me she saw a dress she liked a lot in a TV commercial for some sort of liquor haha. She tried emailing the company to ask where the dress came from and is now disappointed that the dress is no longer sold. She is crazy lol.

I'm glad I'm not the only one. At this point, my mother has tried on 3 times as many dresses as I did. At first it was fun shopping with her, but now I'm over it. I'm like "you need to just pick one" I never knew how self-conscious my mother was until this either!!! She says how "fat" she is every time she puts one on...she wears like a size 8! I got so mad I finally said, well if you think YOU are fat, then you must think I'm morbidly obese because my dress is twice the size yours is. It's really gotten annoying since she's otherwise been great and we've had so much fun planning together.

.......you're already married?

Most definitely! This is what I've heard from a few moms

-- Too matronly

-- Doesn't fit her Short & petite frame

-- not the right color

-- too modern / too tight

Do you know what's the main problem is?

We're doing an Edwardian/1920's them. I'm not so much art deco but more the Downton Addey day wear...more authentic than "costume flapper". Which is hard to find. I had the BM's dresses made to fit the day wear fashion of the time. So my mother wanted me to go with her to pick out her outfit because she's walking me down the aisle and needs to match the theme. I was so stressed thinking about it, wished like hell she could just figure it out herself (FMIL is) I looked online trying to narrow a store down. We finally picked a day and started at Macy's. I walked around the store and found only one skirt and two blouses that looked like the time...very dowager Edwardian. She looked nice in the skirt with both blouses and picked out the one she loved best! Ended up being the easiest thing I've done!

Yes, I'm already married 4/24 =) our 4th month anniversary yesterday!

....then what's the point of this post? I'm not trying to be rude, I'm just trying to figure out why you're posting this 4 months after your wedding.

Hi@thenakay

I'm thinking of making this process easier, and need your help!

I'm hoping to hear if anyone had the same issues that I had, and see if there is a solution out there that would help other brides.

Hahaha, my mom's on either her third or fourth dress. I'm pretty sure that the latest one is navy blue - which is the same color the bridesmaids are wearing. But at this point I couldn't care less! I just want her to pick a dress, and to make sure that she's comfortable/confident about it. I asked her to walk me down the aisle, and I think that may be part of why she keeps changing- she knows everyone will see/notice her dress.

Now the FMIL, that's another story. She may show up in something from the 70s that she finds in her closet. Or jeans and an oversized plaid shirt. Who knows? Last night my mom offered to call and talk to her (they've met one time), so we'll see how that goes! Maybe she'll get farther than FH and I have

My mom cannot stand the ugly matronly selection most places offer the mother of the bride. we ended up bringing her to a regular dress shop (one that sold prom, pageant etc dresses) and found one she finally liked. seriously, why do they want moms to look so frumpy and old? my mom is a young biker chickie, she doesnt need to look horrible in a dress.

I haven't discussed what my mother will wear, and undoubtedly she will make something herself to wear. I wouldn't care if she wore what she made to wear at my little sister's wedding. Otherwise... idk, she can be on her own.

How would you make this process easier? She goes to a store, tries dresses on, buys one if she likes it. Or browses online, orders one, tries it on, keeps it if she likes it. It's really not a complicated process. If you don't want your mom wearing the same color as the BM's express that to her and she will have a whole selection of a thousand other colors to choose from.

Ok that makes sense then.

Moni, if you come up with a solution, let me know right away.... I have 8 months left to find my MOG dress and I'm starting to really dread it.

My mom ended up just looking at the long dresses at Nordstrom.com and had 2 shipped to her. She tried them on and that settled thats. This was, however, after she had been looking online indecisively for a bit. We went back and forth on color. My colors are burgundy, gold and peach. She decided to go with purple, as it's close to the bridesmaids' burgundy but not exact. But she did NOT look at the sections for "Mother of the Bride."

Who are you trying to make this process easier for? Are you trying to start some kind of online business thing? I'm sorry, I'm with AthenaKay... I don't quite understand the point of this post. It seems that MOB dress is difficult for everyone and always has been.

Briana - so first you had color scheme right - that she then kinda went with. For mine I definiitely didn't want bright colors, so although I didn't have a scheme in mind, I definitely know what I didn't want.

Will do @Midwest May

@Courtney /@FutureMrs.C- yeah maybe something online where the choices are larger, instead of looking through individual stores, I don't really know yet! truly when I helped my mom, we had no idea what stores to even look at and the web was overwhelming.

Your input has helped a lot, at least I know we weren't the only ones - its crazy but even my dress was easier than hers!

Yeah this is coming off as a sales pitch.