When to Buy Bridesmaid dresses

Hi Emma. I am getting married July 2024 and I was leaving it until February 24, but I’ve decided I’m starting (baring in mind I haven’t got them picked out yet) in august. Another thing to think about is you might get the dresses and not like them on your bridesmaids so best to be a little earlier than too late just incase this happens.

View quoted message Thank you so much for your reply. That is very true about maybe not liking them. I’ve looked at so many different ones. Did order one that they all liked the look of but then decided it didn’t look right so have sent that one back. The one that’s been chosen now, all the bridesmaids like it and I like it. I’ve found I t’s stressful picking dresses.

View quoted message No problem at all. If you are finding it stressful just order them now and keep doing the same process until you find the right one. It all comes together in the end remember. Where have you tried?

I can say what we did, but I’ll caveat it at the end with a few things.


We’re getting married in July, and in the November just gone, we had a girly weekend, there’s me and my 2 MoH’s where they both came to my house and tried on about 10 different dresses that I ordered. We also popped into Manchester (I live quite close to the city) to visit Wed2Be and House of Fraser. From there we made the decision of what they were wearing, and it was all sorted in one weekend 🥳
The caveats - in hindsight it probably would have been better to do it after my other half chose his suit. The colour schemes all match and the other half got the suit he wanted but it did make me nervous with the “what if”, so I did create myself unnecessary stress. We had settled on our colour scheme welllll in advance, and I already knew that the pale blues suited both my MoH’s based on similar things I’d seen them wear, so I only ordered dresses in pale blue. The final caveat is that one of MoH lives nearby and the other one a 4hr drive away, so we based it around when the one further away was coming up to visit, which is why we did it so early. Chances are it’d have been fine to do it in April/May time, but I was using that as a backup in case we liked nothing from when she visited in November.

I ordered mine a year in advance as we found the ones we wanted. Just bear in mind if your BM's have a tendency to fluctuate in weight or if they are trying for a baby ( my MOH got pregnant 3 month after we got the dresses and was 8 months pregnant at the wedding so had to buy another dress!) also if you are having small BM/s teens then I would wait till 3 months before and order slightly bigger for growth room, but gives you option to take in if they don't grow.

View quoted message Thank you so much for your advice. My moh is pregnant at the moment so will be leaving getting her dress for a few months but thinking I might get the others by April/ May time.

View quoted message Thank you for your reply, I’m thinking maybe April/ May time and then if they need altering we have time to do it.