An RW Original: Bridesmaids Inspiration

By Shalese Kocher

With last Wednesday’s post, we told you all about WHY we have bridesmaids, now we’re excited to help you figure out how to dress them! Luckily, we’ve been liberated from the tradition of strictly matching dresses. There are so many options – you can mix and match styles, play with colors, patterns and textures, add statement jewelry, the list goes on!

For our January 2015 issue, we brought three RVA bridal salons together in Paisley & Jade’s infamous studio to bring you some bridesmaid inspiration: Urban Set Bride, Tiffanys Bridal, and Sealed With A Kiss. Theresa with On Pointe Designs brought the glamour with some of her custom jewelry pieces, and I absolutely could not have gotten this shoot finished without her! She spent the entire morning with me to help with styling, pinning dresses to the forms, steaming, and just keeping me company!

I would also like to thank Sharon, the owner of Tiffanys Bridal, for providing the dress forms (they were hauled in and out of my apartment leading up the shoot and my neighbors probably think I am the WEIRDEST!). Plus, a huge shout out to Christine, the owner of Urban Set Bride, for thinking to lend me a mini steamer. She saved the day!

First we played with one of this season’s most popular colors, blush pink.

Left to right: Sealed With A Kiss Richmond, Tiffanys Bridal, Urban Set Bride, Tiffanys Bridal (available in full and cocktail length)

Each dress is paired with a custom necklace from On Pointe Designs.  We even had some bracelets and custom rings to match as well!

Another favorite was this stunning blush bracelet from Tiffanys Bridal.

Theresa’s bracelets and necklaces have a special touch: heart-shaped clasps.  I’ve never seen a detail so sweet!

We then wanted to play with shades of mint, which is a color that is interpreted differently depending on who you ask!  Again, each dress you see is paired with an On Pointe Designs necklace created specifically to match these dresses.

Left to right: Sealed With A Kiss, Tiffanys Bridal, Urban Set Bride

And of course, we had some other fabulous pieces that would also accessorize these beautiful mint dresses.

We loved the delicate sweetheart neckline and bodice ruching on this Sealed With A Kiss dress.

For maids who want to make a statement, Urban Set Bride has the perfect necklace option!

Finally, we wanted to show off a more subdued, wintry look with shades of gray.

Left to right: Tiffanys Bridal, Tiffanys Bridal (available in full and cocktail length), Urban Set Bride

When we took the ribbon belt off the first Tiffanys Bridal dress and added a thin beaded belt they gave us, it took the dress to a very Audrey Hepburn place that we absolutely loved!

It also worked well so spice up the middle dress from Tiffanys Bridal!

Once the photos were finished, the the dresses were returned and the dress forms were out of my apartment, we put our designers at Red Orange to work on creating these lovely editorial layouts.  Jolinda is an InDesign genius!

And thanks to Morgan at Paisley & Jade, I got a behind the scenes Instagram shot of the day’s steaming endeavors!  Steaming some transportation wrinkles out of chiffon is a delicate process, but Christine’s mini steamer saved the day!

THANK YOU to all the wonderful vendors who made this shoot possible:

Venue: Paisley & Jade

Dresses & Accessories from: Sealed With A Kiss Richmond, Tiffanys Bridal & Urban Set Bride

Custom Jewelry & MAJOR Shoot Assistance: On Pointe Designs

Magazine Spread Design: Jolinda at Red Orange Design, LLC