Brides- a little help please

[FlyingDumbo]

I have just been honored to be asked to be a bridesmaid! I really need your help! Please be honest, as I love the bride and do not want to add any stress for her. I was wondering if you all could help me out. What was the total cost for your bridesmaids to be in your wedding? Here are expenses I am trying to budget for, let me know if I am leaving anything out!

Dress
Shoes
hair & makeup (bride said she has a deal with someone?)
shower (no idea how much)
bachelorette
travel back and forth


Also for those of you that have bridesmaids that live out of state, how many times do you expect them to travel and for what events? I would love to be at all of them, but due to work and cash I am afraid I might have to miss something. I NEEd to be at the shower rehearsal and wedding, I might miss the bachelorette. Is it expected that I fly home to try on bridesmaid dresses or is it ok to just find out what color and style and try it on here?

Please help!

 

[yourgypsy]

Hey

I'm in MA, and while my bridesmaid is just 20 minutes away, my maid of honor is living in CA. Seeing as it's expensive enough to go cross-country just for the wedding, I'm not worried about her coming out to MA before going to FL. I told both my girls what color I'd like at David's Bridal, since they're national, and I'm letting them choose what style they want, since one's tall and thin, while the other is short and buxom.

It's more important to me to have them there at the wedding. If I don't have the traditional wedding or bachelorette party, that's fine. Spending time at Disney with the people I love is more important than a bachelorette. But that's me, and I'm nowhere the traditional kind of girl. As a gift to them (in addition to something else), I'm taking care of the cost of the professional for hair and makeup.

So, yeah. Kristen gets babble-y at times LOL. I feel that with all the info online these days, you should be able to get the exact dress that your bride wants near where you live. Flying is expensive! And I'm sure your friend understands that.

 

[iluvasoldier]

My Maid-of-honor lives in the UK. I sent her a bunch of pictures and she loved the dress. I went and ordered her dress since Mori Lee is only sold in specific stores and you cannot trust the dresses sold online (as they are not approved sellers). She will fly in 2 days before the event. Therefore I don't even WANT a bachlorette party of shower. (even though my MIL is trying to tell me I should).

Another bridesmaid lives 1 hour away. She came and tried on the dress and got measured and ordered it. She'll make a trip here whenever the dress comes in. Other than that she isnt expected to travel until the event.

As far as shoes I and jewlery I told them they could choose with some limits: Shoes can be any size and color just as long as they aren't seen(the dress is long so no problem there). Jewlery must be white gold or silver with no color other than white or clear.

Hair and make-up I got prices for and told them they can do only one or both if they'd like. Hair is $65 and makeup $45.

I think traveling will depend on how strongly your bride feels about having you there for EVERYTHING. None of my bridesmaids were there when I ordered my wedding gown or when it came in. They only have seen pictures. I'm so easy going because all that really matters is that they're there to spend the day with me.

Hope this helps.

 

[MaidMeghan]

I'm the MOH for a wonderful DisBride (disneylizzylou) and I can give you a general ballpark for what I've spent so far and I hope it helps!

My dress was $275 and my shoes were $95 I picked out my own shoes, she didn't choose the same shoes for all of us, so what you spend will depend on whether or not your bride will choose a pair for all the maids to wear.

As for hair and makeup, I know that my bride is paying for everyone to get their hair done and I am paying for my own makeup.

The shower is the main financial obligation (in my opinion) but it usually split between all of the bridesmaids. Being the MOH, I paid significantly more for the shower than the other maids, but that comes with the territory. The shower in all costs around $900 if I had to make a guest - I didn't keep track of everything, but I know that the venue and food for 25 people was $515 at the place we had ours. And of that price, I paid around $500. It all depends on where/when/what you want to do for the shower.

Hope this helps!

 

[belle2211]

it probably depends on your bride. I had 2 bridesmaids that live out of state and I just told them which dress I liked and asked them to go try it on to see if they liked at their local store (which they did).

They had to pay for their dress and alteration. Then shoes I told them that as long as they were silver/gray, I didn't care what they looked like. I know one of my bridesmaids got a really cute pair at Payless, so that wasn't expensive. Then I told them that I wanted them to have a french manicure with silver on their toenails. I told them it didn't matter to me if they did it themselves, or they got it done at a salon (we ended up all going together and making it a big party). Then I paid for their hair, makeup and jewelry as part of their presents. For my shower, since I had it at Disney, my parents paid for most of it. I think my bridesmaids split the cost of the invites, favors, and game winner presents. I think it was like 15 a bridesmaid. And for the bachelorette party, they paid for a tshirt each (12) and they each bought me a drink.

As for the traveling, I planned my bridal shower and bachelorette party for the same weekend so they would be there for both! So they just made two trips (actually DH's sister only made one since she was on vacation during my shower/bachelorette party)

 

[Bippi]

I live in VA with my MOH and my other BM now lives in TX. We were able to try on the dresses here before BM moved but she ordered it from TX. They bought their dresses (from Davids Bridal so i think they were $120). I told them they could either do matching blue shoes from davids or any silver pair. They both found comfy shoes they like at davids for under $30.
As far as my bachelorette and bridal shower my MOH will be here in VA. My mom is paying for everything needed. My moh is doing games and stuff so just a few bucks if she needs anything for that. My mom has prizes and gift baskets. My BM from TX wont be able to make it back for either due to cost.
They are paying for their own trips to disney.
I am covering jewelry and hair/makeup for them