My bridal party style, outfits and details
When you have quite possibly the most beautiful and most stylish bridal party you can’t help yourself but to show them off! So here are all of the outfits and details of my girls.
Bridal party style isn’t always easy. It’s not just always a simple case of, yep love that dress here you all go. And that certainly wasn’t the case for my girls. So I thought I’d go through all of the outfits and details of my bridal party style. And why we chose what we did for each of them. But to begin with, I think it’s probably best that I introduce them all.
So from left to right, Cassie – my sister, three years younger than me. Full of life, laughter and capable of world domination. Abi – my maid of honour and best friend. Who I quite simply could not do life without. Meg – my littlest sister, six and a half years younger than me. The most kind and caring girl I know, and the brightest spark in the world. Alice – the friend that lights up my life. Always makes me laugh and is the first one there to share a couple of glasses of wine with.
These are my best girls in the world, and the ones I would not want to be without. I’m lucky enough to have two sisters, that aren’t just sisters but also the very best of friends. And I’m lucky to find myself with two more friends that would quite simply do anything for me. So that’s my bridal party, and now we can talk about my bridal party style.
I didn't have styles that I wanted my girls to adhere to, I just wanted them to be happy and comfortable in their own skin.
As you will know if you’ve read my post on what it felt like to be a bride, we started with hair and makeup from 10am. It might seem quite early for a 4pm ceremony, but there were all five of us and my mum having hair and makeup done. We didn’t want to be rushed or stressed, so started as early as we could do. The whole process was so relaxed and so easy.
Eleanor Nancy was our makeup artist. But it was actually only my mum and I that had already met her as we both had a pre wedding trial. Ellie is so amazing. She listened to every single one of my girls makeup wants and needs. I had no requirements for the girls, I just wanted them to be happy and look and feel like themselves.
Louise Alway was our hairstylist. And she had only met me, as I was the only person that had a hair trial. Everything was so easy with Louise, and the girls just got up a photo of a style they liked on the morning of the wedding and Louise recreated it for them. Again, I didn’t have a design or a style I wanted the girls to have, I just wanted them to be happy.
Of course one of the biggest parts of bridal party style are the dresses. I actually wrote a blog post on finding the bridesmaids dresses. But at that stage we only had two, so here are the details of all the dresses.
The Bridesmaids Dresses
As I’ve mentioned before, I found finding my bridesmaids dresses a lot harder than I thought I would do. I have to admit, I didn’t really help myself if that I wanted four quite specific colours, and also didn’t really have a very big budget for them. But we got there in the end! The main thing for me, was that every girl was happy. They all looked beautiful, and the dresses all fit my scheme. Even if I did have to spend a little more than I wanted to!
- My Maid of Honour’s Dress – This was actually high street from Oasis and the perfect silver grey. The style suited Abi so well, and she looked amazing. Given the time between when we bought it and now, it’s no longer stocked. But I have linked a really similar version here.
- My sister Cassie’s Dress – I got both of my sisters dresses from Wed2B after visiting to view them first. Fortunately Cassie, who lives in Australia, was back in the UK for a short time. So we managed to go in and try out the four styles. She chose the Thea Dress in light blue.
- My sister Meg’s Dress – Meg’s dress was also from Wed2B. I’d already gone to select the two colours we wanted from there so it was just a case of both of them deciding which colour and style they preferred. She chose the Bella Dress in silver grey. Although it was definitely just grey as opposed to Abi’s silver grey.
- My Bridesmaid Alice’s Dress – This was definitely the trickiest dress, and the last one to be purchased. We just couldn’t find the right shade of dark grey/charcoal grey that I wanted. Or at least we could – just not at the right price. In the end, I gave up, and forked out for the Jenny Yoo Adeline Dress in Denmark Blue from NABBD.
The last bridesmaids dress was the hardest to get, as I just couldn't find the right colour for the right price. So in the end I caved and splashed out on the right colour.
I’m so pleased that we went for four individual dresses and styles. As each style selected suited each of the girls perfectly. And once we’d decided that, shoes became the same. As the dresses were all different it didn’t matter if everyone wore the same shoes. So each girl chose their own. Abi went for Blue/Silver. Cassie and Meg for Nude. Alice for Grey, and they all looked amazing.
My Bridesmaids Gifts
Rather surprisingly, we actually have barely any photographs of the girls gifts! And none at all of the most special gifts! As we spent such a long time in the room all together, I think we’d actually opened everything by about midday. So they missed the cameras, but here are the details of what I did get for my girls.
Back in the summer of 2018, I saw a wedding at Babington House. Strangely, it was actually a girl in the year above me at school. And her and her girls were wearing the most beautiful blue floral robes. I absolutely loved them, so I just typed into google ‘Blue Floral Robes’, ‘Blue Floral Kimono’, ‘Floral Kimono Blue’ etc. And eventually I found the ones she had, from New Look.
I bought them straight away, and a pair of matching shorts for me too. We had them embroidered with their initials in grey to make them more personal. And finished them off by cutting out the New Look tag, and stitching in a tag that stated “Jordan-Haylock 12.09.19”. I’d love to link them, but they are so old, they just don’t do them anymore.
I then forgot I’d missed out my dad. So I tried to find another pair of shorts. They’d sold out online, but I found a pair on eBay. Fortunately we have a very talented family friend, and she turned the shorts into a pocket square for him! My mum is also very talented in the sewing department though, and works a lot with leather.
I’d seen leather pouches and wanted to recreate them. We then had them foiled with the words Bridesmaid, and Maid of Honour by Rose Press. As we’d spent so much by this point, I just simply popped a card into the leather pouches.
It was lovely though to set up all of the gifts the night before, so that when the girls came into the room in the morning they were greeted by everything. I bought a black rail from Habitat and set it up with the girls dresses and their robes. I then laid out the pouches containing the cards onto the sofa.
That morning was so special. We laid down on the bed together, chatted and cuddled. Then at about 1pm, we had Champagne brought up to the room. I actually went diva at this point, and sent my sister down to change it to Prosecco! We all find it easier to drink, and will very little to eat, it was probably a change for the best.
It’s like time sped up and after a slow morning, we were all of sudden, needing to get dressed. It was just sort of strip down to pants quickly. Finish off steaming the dresses and put them on. That last 30 minutes was all a bit of a blur. But I’m so glad that we got time to just smile and cuddle each other before going down to the chapel.
Abi picked a few flowers out of the walled garden in the morning, and each of the girls had a couple put into their hair.
Of course the bridal party style wouldn’t be complete without a bouquet. It might seem like I’m saying this on repeat, but as we’d spent so much of our total budget on the venue and accommodation, we really did have to cut down wherever we could. I decided on foliage only bouquets for the girls, as I knew it would be cheaper. However despite choosing them for cost, they actually looked incredible. And I think anything more might have been a bit too much.
I will go into more detail in my post on flowers, but they were of course made by our florists Erin and the team from Flowers by Passion. And then finished off with the Deep Ocean Ribbon and the Steel Blue Ribbon by CFleursDesign.
A very large part of the bridal party who I’ve not really mentioned much yet, my mummy. The mother of the bride. Who I couldn’t not mention in the blog post on bridal party style. Because she was the most stylish mother of the bride I ever did see! My mum found her outfit before I’d even started looking at wedding dresses. It was from a small wedding boutique called Nero e Bianco in Barton-under-Needwood Marina.
My mum has never really been a dress person. Just like me actually, she’d happily wear jeans and a jumper every single day. And so it only felt right that her wedding outfit suited that style too. When we saw this trouser/tunic combo – both myself and dad persuaded her to try it on. We were worried it was too early to purchase and she might go off it before the day. Thank goodness she didn’t! Because she looked amazing!!
Mum also isn’t really a hat person. But if you can’t wear a hat on a wedding day, then when can you? To compromise, she chose the cream version of this fascinator from John Lewis. I think it made her outfit that little bit more special.
And last but not least, the boys. This post was mainly about me and the girls, obviously because I spent my morning with them. So had more to talk about. But I didn’t think I could write a blog post about the bridal party and not mention them at all. We struggled a little bit with trying to get them together to actually experience the suit buying together, with some busier than others and unable to come to London.
So in the end, we sent them all a link to an M&S suit that we’d got my dad to try on. And asked if they could buy them in their appropriate sizes to make it easier for everyone. We then finished the outfits off by purchasing feather bow ties from Wings Bow Ties. Although we purchased a different style for the boys. And then of course the buttonholes to bring them together with the bridesmaids.
There you have it – our bridal party style. The more posts I write, the more I’m excited to tell you all about everything else.
Images – All Photographs throughout this post were taken by Benjamin Wheeler. Ben was our wedding photographer and I think you can tell from these photographs just how wonderful he really is.
Disclaimer – We always endeavour to credit the correct and original source of every image that we use. If you think that this credit may be incorrect, then please contact us at info@houseofthree.co.uk