ALT-1 Ways to Reduce the Cost of being a Bridesmaid
Every bride wants to get married with all her best girlfriends at her side. But agreeing to be a bridesmaid is as much an expense as it is an honor. The reality of the situation is that no matter how much you love your girlfriends, some of them may not be able to spring for a bridesmaid dress, shower, bachelorette party, and you may have to either understand that or find ways to reduce the cost for them.
One of the easier ways to reduce the cost for your bridesmaids is to choose dresses wisely. Don’t choose the expensive designer gown for your bridesmaids dresses – or if you do, offer to at least chip in and help your girls pay for them. Instead, choose a more reasonably priced dress that your girls can more easily afford. You can also opt to choose a color and let your bridesmaids choose their own dresses so long as they fall within that color. If you are ok with all of your bridesmaids not looking the same or wearing the same dress, this is an easy way to cut costs for them. If you can swing it financially, you can offer to pay for the dress for them or at least help out. Especially if you know one of your bridesmaids is having a tough time financially, you might offer to spot her for the dress and keep it between you.
In terms of accessories for your bridesmaids, keeping it simple will help keep costs down for your bridal party. Either make a gift of the accessories you would like them to wear or give the girls guidelines that are easy enough and fall within what most people already have. For example, choose black shoes so that your bridesmaids will probably already have something that will work in their wardrobe.
Tell your bridesmaids that you don’t want anything fancy or over the top for your bridal shower so that they don’t feel obligated to spend a ton of money on the shower or the bachelorette party. What is important is that the people that you love and who love you are there for you on your special day. Whether or not they can afford to throw you a huge shower or take you to Vegas for your bachelorette party should be irrelevant. That's not what your wedding day should be about.
