Your Bridesmaid’s Oasis

Bridesmaid Dress Review: Oasis

Weddings are expensive. Yes, some more than others, and yes it depends how many of the ‘trimmings’ you have, but there’s no two ways about it – it’s going to cost you more than going out for Smashed Avo’ on Sourdough! So when it comes to bridesmaids, for every person you ask, you multiply your costs. If you’re going all in, you’re looking at footing the bill for hair, make-up, dresses, shoes, thank you gifts, jewellery, bags and maybe even cover-ups depending on the time of year. The bill will soon mount up! At the end of the day, if you style out 6 bin liners and get your ‘maids to stand next to each other, people will know they are your bridesmaids irrespective of what they’re wearing, but we’re working on the assumption we’re aiming slightly more glam than that.

Of course, not all of this is necessary and you can pick and choose what you feel is necessary for how you want your wedding to look and the experience you want to have with your friends. They can easily wear their own jewellery, do their own make up and probably already have some shoes that would work, but there is still a cost. In more recent years, I have heard more commonly of bridesmaids being asked to pay for their own outfits – a tricky topic to negotiate. If you’re weighing up asking your bridesmaids to pay for themselves and looking for advice on how to navigate this, first and foremost, you need to have an honest conversation with them from the start, before anyone feels committed and obliged. Explain to them what they mean to you and why you want them up there with you by your side, but that the financial side of that is difficult for you to achieve. Perhaps you are able to put a certain amount towards each bridesmaid even if it is not the full amount. But whatever you do, do not go in with the mentality of, “you’re wearing it, so you should pay for it”, it is a cost that they are incurring because of you after all and that approach won’t go down well! They will generally still want to be up there with you if they can manage it, but of course may have their own financial situation to deal with, so you need to be prepared that some of your besties might not be able to say “yes”. Hello generation Economy Crash!

I personally do believe that if you’re asking someone else to pay, it does somewhat remove your ability to dictate the choice of dress and probably needs to be one they could wear again for another occasion should they so wish, at best you can give general guidelines about colour and length.

Alternatively, if you still really want to be able to pick the look for your ‘maids, have a discussion about what budget they would feel comfortable working within, what items that includes, and then stick within that. Give them time to go away and think about that number. Financials can be an awkward and uncomfortable conversation for many people to have, so don’t put them on the spot, encourage honesty and let them crunch their numbers…this is an unexpected expense, even if a nicer one than a broken-down boiler!

Swiftly putting my therapist hat back in its box now (my previous work-life trying to make a comeback there, as they say you can take the girl out of……).

In this latest instalment, Bride Society are here to help you keep those costs down by taking a look at the bridesmaids dresses available this season on the High Street – at High Street prices! We are wandering down the Oasis rabbit hole to see what treasures we can find. Trying them out on ‘real’ bodies and sussing out whether they are wedding-worthy. We haven’t tried on everything in the Oasis range, we are dedicated but there are limits, so check out their website for more, click here. They have a number of their outfits in different colours and lengths, so you could even mix and match – especially handy if some of the bridesmaids are more comfortable in some styles than others. Shop together and give them options, but our guide is a great place to start….