When to start shopping for bridesmaids dresses?

This is a good question. My wedding is only a few months before yours but still in 2014. From what I understand it is a lot quicker to get bridesmaids dresses than a wedding dress. Maybe a few months. Since my wedding is close to spring I thought it would be smart to shop in the spring for next year. I called the salon I want to go to and they said that was fine. But...and this is just a thought...if you go during a trunk show you can get a discount. So, I happened to find on later this month for a designer I really like so my mom, FMIL, my mom, and my MOH are going.

Since you have so much time, maybe start looking for some trunk shows in your area of designers you like! Aren't you also in MD area?

I also let the girls each pick a style they liked given the limitations of color and material. I started looking around well in advance of taking the girls shopping, probably 9 months before the wedding. I wanted to find a line that had the correct color/material and wasn't too expensive. Then 3 1/2 months before the wedding, the girls and I went shopping and they only looked at dresses in the line (Alfred Angelo) and material I chose. It was easy. We are cutting things extremely close ordering the dresses 3 1/2 months in advance. I would suggest 5 months in advance.

I agree with Lynzey. I was really open about the dresses my girls picked. They tried on a few and picked one right away. I absolutely love the dresses they picked, but I wish we would have looked around a little more. Do your research!!!

We went in November... the dresses had to be paid for and ordered by December/January i think... and i'm glad we went when we did bc our dresses won't be in until next month so any later would've SCREWED us lol

Rachel, yep I'm in Maryland as well. Thanks for the tips! Maybe we'll start looking as a group in September or so. Or I could just grab the local BMs and the three of us could go together, narrow it down to a handful of choices, and go from there. In my dream world, we could find a variety of non-DB dresses in the same color for less than $150. I know, it's kind of a tall order.

I would wait a few months longer... Weight can change a lot in a year, and you probably don't want your girls to have to pay for tons of alterations. My wedding is end of August, and we just ordered the dresses toward the end of March with no problems.

I am going to Betsy Robinson in baltimore. They have a HUGE selection of great dresses. This is the dress I am hoping to get in a deep purple....The designer is having a trunk show with a 10% discount. I hope it works out. Last time I checked the price it was under $200.

Some bm dresses take about 5 months to come in. You can always go shopping in advance of that and then not have them get measured until around the 5 1/2 month mark if that is the case.

Depends on where you plan to go. Some places take a long time to get dresses in. If you plan on DB, or an off the rack dress, or dresses from Macy's or Kohl's or a similar place you could wait a while. I gained 8 lbs since I bought my BM dress for my friend's wedding, luckily it's mostly in my hips and boobs and it's an a-line and there was extra room in the bust so it actually saves me money on alterations. I'd personally wait until after the 1 year mark at the earliest, just because weight fluctuations and even unexpected babies can happen.

I'm getting married in 3/30/14 and I'm shopping in july since all my 3 oot bm's will be up here right around the same time. I figure they should be in by oct/nov. Everyone pays them off by dec/ jan. Gives them enough time to have fittings done by feb and dress picked up and waiting for the day beginning to mid march :-)

To clarify, I wouldn't want the girls to buy anything until January at the earliest. I'm just wondering when to even start looking, since we're all so scattered from each other.

We looked at dresses when I was trying picking out my dress last June - October. My daughter even tried a few one to get an idea of styles and such. In December when I went to get measured and officially order my dress, she tried on more. That was when we found the one. My two usherettes were also at there so they tried the dress on as well. It looked fabulous on all of them. We basically picked it out right then and there. My MOH lives in Nevada but came for Spring Break to try it on and to get measured.

We ordered them all last week. Good thing to as the dress can take 5 months to come in. They will be getting altered as they will all have different hem lengths.

So in my experience I would say 7-9 months in advance as to leave at least a month for alterations. I would also make sure you have picked out your dress first. I chose a chiffon overlay so I wanted the same for my girls.

My girls dresses are all different styles but the same color, length, and fabric. I also have BM all over the country so I can relate to your concerns! I looked everywhere and ended up going with J.Crew. It has worked out great, and the dresses all came in 1 week from when they were ordered! A few of the girls had to send them back to get a different size, and that was super fast too. They are typically $200-$250, but if you use their 30% off coupons they run from time to time, you can get the price down to your target!

Check out the wedding portion of their website! There are so many great options!

My MOH and I started shopping almost a year before my wedding. I knew that most of my bridesmaids would not want to try on multiple dresses and spend the time to go to multiple stores so my MOH and I went every 6 weeks or so to try on different dresses until we found a couple styles and colors that we liked and thought would look good on all the girls. Once I narrowed it down to two dresses I had them all meet-up over the Thanksgiving break and then they ordered them in late Feb.

Thanks for all of the advice and suggestions! I didn't mean to sound like we need to go shopping tomorrow, it's just that there's SO MANY options when it comes to BM dresses. I would hate to wait until we're in a time crunch to figure out what I/the BMs want.

@Melissa B, thanks for the tip on the J Crew sales! I'll have to keep my eye out for one

I went early (I guess about 10-11 months before my wedding) for the same reason you said, it was hard to get everyone together and I didn't want to be rushed and stressing out about it later when I was also juggling more wedding tasks.

I think it worked out fine, we got everything picked out and then my bridesmaids had several months before they actually had to order anything.

I am 100% a "do it ahead of time" bride, and I think you should start looking maybe November/December? Maybe if you are all home for the holidays you can go together?

Almost over 4 months before the wedding. My sister ordered her bridesmaid dresses 5 months before her wedding!