Jinder's Dresses: A Very Subjective Rundown/Review of all Duggar Wedding Gowns

[singsingsing]

Strategic marketing definitely plays a role, but that's not the only reason people want diamond engagement rings. There are a couple very practical reasons as well: diamonds are very hard and difficult to damage or discolour, and they go with pretty much everything.

[CarrotCake]

On 12/8/2018 at 2:30 PM, TheMustardCardigan said:

I'm all for letting your bridesmaids pick something they feel comfortable in (I look dreadful in one-shoulder dresses, and that's like the most common bridesmaid dress look) but communication is key. Different shades of the same color tend to look nice, as does having all the girls in the same color but whatever cut of dress they feel comfortable in. If they'd all done the neutral-nude-brown spectrum colors it would've looked nice, but having the colorful dresses next to the neutral ones just make them look drab. 

I think Josie Bates' bridesmaids dresses were a good example of different but coordinated.

[Eponine]

On 12/7/2018 at 7:12 AM, TheMustardCardigan said:

What do y'all consider to be good colors for bridesmaids versus colors they'll feel tortured to? For my wedding I'm leaning toward a winter wedding and considering wedding colors of a frosty light blue and navy. I personally love wearing pastels but I'm sure not everyone does. Navy seems neutral enough that maybe everyone will actually enjoy wearing that color.

Pastels look really bad on a lot of people. Navy is pretty universal, I would go with that. I think in general darker colors look better on a wider range of people, and for the most part I think jewel tones on the deeper side are pretty safe.

I have very fair skin and most things with yellowish colors make me look like a corpse, basically. I'd be mortified if I had to be in wedding party pictures in those colors! Of the weddings I've been in, one had lavender/lilac dresses that looked terrible on exactly every woman in the wedding party (some really different skin tones but it still didn't work!), and two had wine/burgundy colored dresses that pretty much worked for everyone!

[SassyPantswithASideofClass]

On ‎12‎/‎7‎/‎2018 at 4:12 AM, TheMustardCardigan said:

What do y'all consider to be good colors for bridesmaids versus colors they'll feel tortured to? For my wedding I'm leaning toward a winter wedding and considering wedding colors of a frosty light blue and navy. I personally love wearing pastels but I'm sure not everyone does. Navy seems neutral enough that maybe everyone will actually enjoy wearing that color.

Personally I love your wedding color choices. I'd say go for it. Its your and your spouse's day.  

[AussieKrissy]

On 12/7/2018 at 6:30 PM, ophelia said:

I could see myself in some of these dresses. At least if I manage to ...

... lose a LOT of weight 

... find a guy

So there is that. 

Me too. I actually lean towards modest style dresses anyway. I am overweight and have big knockers. more modest styles suit my body shape the best. 

 

[Shouldabeenacowboy]

On 12/7/2018 at 7:12 AM, TheMustardCardigan said:

What do y'all consider to be good colors for bridesmaids versus colors they'll feel tortured to? For my wedding I'm leaning toward a winter wedding and considering wedding colors of a frosty light blue and navy. I personally love wearing pastels but I'm sure not everyone does. Navy seems neutral enough that maybe everyone will actually enjoy wearing that color.

I think, as other posters have said, you can rarely go wrong with navy. I like all colors, including pastels, but not all colors suit me. I have dark hair but light skin, with freckles (thanks, mom!), so grey, beige, some pastels (light pink, light yellow, light green) are a no-no for me. Light blue works though. A navy dress is also something that people could also wear again at another occasion. 

[louisa05]

On 12/7/2018 at 6:12 AM, TheMustardCardigan said:

What do y'all consider to be good colors for bridesmaids versus colors they'll feel tortured to? For my wedding I'm leaning toward a winter wedding and considering wedding colors of a frosty light blue and navy. I personally love wearing pastels but I'm sure not everyone does. Navy seems neutral enough that maybe everyone will actually enjoy wearing that color.

Jewel tones look good on most people. 

I did a dark purple that worked well for everyone and I had a Filipino bridesmaid, a pale as pale can be one, and two others with opposite skin tones.  Pastels are hard, though. Save them for the other stuff. My wedding was monochromatic with varying shades of purple and lavender; the dresses being the darkest. 

[Cheetah]

On 12/10/2018 at 5:39 AM, CarrotCake said:

I think Josie Bates' bridesmaids dresses were a good example of different but coordinated.

Does anyone else think these dresses just look like slightly fancy slips?  Especially the woman who is 3 to the left of the bride.  I'm really not a fan of this 'nude' (caucasian nude, anyway) color.  

[BachelorToTheRapture]

7 hours ago, Cheetah said:

Does anyone else think these dresses just look like slightly fancy slips?  Especially the woman who is 3 to the left of the bride.  I'm really not a fan of this 'nude' (caucasian nude, anyway) color.  

A bunch of my opinions:

I hate the pale pink/ivory/whatever light close to white colors for bridesmaids. I feel like they look much better in a brighter color, especially a green, blue, purple, maroon. I wonder about the idea of white for bridesmaids with a bride in a jewel tone, I might like that better. If I had the budget I'd likely have made a custom gown in a blue or green, but I loved my dress as it was. I wanted a dress that really stood out and wanted my bridesmaids to choose their own long dresses (partially for the look, partially for layers in the cold) in the color I chose, so white was really all I could do in my budget. I loved it, I looked great, but if money was infinte... fun to think of I'm also one who likes when the bride really stands out in pictures, not blending into a sea of bridesmaids. I also don't like it when people wear a color too close to their skin tone.

Sorry for the long ramble of opinions, I've had a rough week and this is fun

[Cat Damon]

When my cousin got married and I was in her bridal party, she picked a line of dresses (think like one dress designer's spring line) and then gave us the option to choose whatever dress we wanted from that specific grouping and then choose from a few different colors. It ended up working really well! I attached a photo to kind of show the colors, but these worked really really well with all of our different skin tones. The grooms had boutonnieres and ties that matched our bouquets.

[VelociRapture]

My updated rankings:

1. Lauren. I still adore how simple the dress looked from the front and the fact that she chose a silhouette so different from the others. She absolutely rocked that dress!

2. Abbie. I think it fit her great and she looked really happy and confident wearing it. I also like that she had cap sleeves as opposed to a t-shirt look. 

3. Jessa. I like that she opted for something that needed basic alterations and that she wore a non-traditional color. I think she looked and felt pretty confident in that dress. I don’t like the t-shirt look though.

4. Kendra. Super bubbly look which matched her personality well, fit great, and she just looked so dang happy. Bonus points for including part of her mom’s dress (as the Duggar daughters have), but points removed for it needing to be repaired right before the ceremony. There had to have been a better way to add that ruffle. 

5. Jinger. Unpopular to rank her this low, I know. I normally love long sleeved dresses like this, but I honestly feel like that dress overwhelmed her at times. I think it was the train mostly - I just feel like it was too dramatic for her personality. Like all the others, she looked really lovely though. 

6. Amy. Because cleavage at a Duggar wedding just makes me want to laugh. The top was a bit tight, but I get the reasoning for that. I liked that her dress was simpler though and that she added a colored belt to break up the white a bit. 

7. Jill. I cut her a bit of slack because she was the first daughter to marry and their parents likely had stricter standards/expectations. I like that she went with something more fitted that she liked, but the modesty alterations at the neckline were not done well. 

8. Joy. There’s nothing wrong with not being interested in a big wedding, but I just felt really bad that she seemed forced into it. She looked lovely, but I just don’t think she was happy with the dress or wedding she ended up with and the alterations weren’t great. I do like the concept of her dress though and I think it could have been really beautiful with better alterations. 

9. Anna. I really don’t even like including her in this because she was married so long before the others and she had next to no budget. I think she looked really nice all things considered, but it was just too plain for me. 

[patsymae]

On 12/10/2018 at 10:40 AM, Eponine said:

Pastels look really bad on a lot of people. Navy is pretty universal, I would go with that. I think in general darker colors look better on a wider range of people, and for the most part I think jewel tones on the deeper side are pretty safe.

I have very fair skin and most things with yellowish colors make me look like a corpse, basically. I'd be mortified if I had to be in wedding party pictures in those colors! Of the weddings I've been in, one had lavender/lilac dresses that looked terrible on exactly every woman in the wedding party (some really different skin tones but it still didn't work!), and two had wine/burgundy colored dresses that pretty much worked for everyone!

And blush is the most unflattering to almost everybody. One of my sisters, I must say, had the ugliest bridesmaids dresses in the history of ugly bridesmaids dresses, guaranteed to look awful on everyone. Even it being the '80s is no excuse. Blush colored with square necks that made the thin women look like chickens. Rouched bodice that made the not slim women look like pregnant whales. Giant puffed sleeves, hemline right at the widest part of your legs. Almost 30 years later still makes me shudder.

 

I sort of stayed away from the critiquing because it's not like this is a high-fashion community, and these are very young brides and what's wrong with a very young bride in a pretty dress? Any pretty dress (ok, any pretty dress without a T-shirt modesty panel)
But then I got curious and went back and looked and Jeez, Jill, couldn't you at least have gotten something that fit you? It's like this woman works at looking awful.

I'll show myself to the prayer closet now.

[AussieKrissy]

On 12/24/2018 at 10:37 AM, patsymae said:

And blush is the most unflattering to almost everybody. One of my sisters, I must say, had the ugliest bridesmaids dresses in the history of ugly bridesmaids dresses, guaranteed to look awful on everyone. Even it being the '80s is no excuse. Blush colored with square necks that made the thin women look like chickens. Rouched bodice that made the not slim women look like pregnant whales. Giant puffed sleeves, hemline right at the widest part of your legs. Almost 30 years later still makes me shudder.

 

 

And now I want to see a photo......lol

[Sullie06]

My bridesmaids wore the same dresses (except my MOH) in different colors. This was back in 2006, but I wanted something different yet still cohesive. I originally wanted black dresses but I was having a spring wedding then I saw a bedof tulips blooming one day and was like “yes”

[patsymae]

On 12/26/2018 at 7:34 PM, AussieKrissy said:

And now I want to see a photo......lol

I'm having a hard time finding a picture but if I do I surely will post. I forgot the part about the dropped waist that just hit the widest point of the hips and the bouffant skirt.

[neurogirl]

My bridesmaids did wear blush. I absolutely fell in love with this dress

and depending on the lady’s preference, half of them kept the sleeves and half sliced them off. The fairest friend preferred to get a slight spray tan because of her rosy hue, but on the day they all looked like princesses. I always dreamed of my bridesmaids in pink as it’s my favorite color. It’s your day and you should get to pick. 

On rings, I have a moissanite ring and i can’t recommend it enough! My grandma and aunts who care about it being “real” couldn’t tell it wasn’t a diamond, it’s sparkly, conflict-free, and a third of the price a diamond would be. We went to Brilliant Earth and they have lots of beautiful more vintage-y settings for a variety of stones.

Spoiler

 

[ihaveanexamintwodays]

it's been so long since a Duggar wedding (a whole 3 months...) that this thread has slipped to the second page of the subforum O.o just thought i'd post here for kicks, lol. 

it's (un)official - ihaveanexamintwodays is getting married in about 15 months! gotta say that i will *not* be deriving my wedding inspo from Duggarland xD 

Edited February 14, 2019 by ihaveanexamintwodays

[Kelsey]

12 minutes ago, ihaveanexamintwodays said:

it's been so long since a Duggar wedding (a whole 8 months...) that this thread has slipped to the second page of the subforum O.o just thought i'd post here for kicks, lol. 

it's (un)official - ihaveanexamintwodays is getting married in about 15 months! gotta say that i will *not* be deriving my wedding inspo from Duggarland xD 

It's only been 3 months. JD married in November.

[ihaveanexamintwodays]

Just now, Kelsey said:

It's only been 3 months. JD married in November.

oh, shoot! I forgot about that one! lol, corrected. 

they just get more and more boring.....

[WhatWouldJohnCrichtonDo?]

9 hours ago, ihaveanexamintwodays said:

it's (un)official - ihaveanexamintwodays is getting married in about 15 months! gotta say that i will *not* be deriving my wedding inspo from Duggarland xD 

Congratulations!

[potato]

Congrats, @ihaveanexamintwodays!!!  I'm getting married in about 16 months and can totally relate.  I keep finding myself saying, "we're SO excited" and feel like a Duggar every time.

[ihaveanexamintwodays]

@potato congrats to you too! and, thanks everyone, haha. I say "unofficial" because we're not engaged yet, but we have set a 4-week time period in which we will be having a wedding. i'm trying to get my bf to hurry up and propose so i (super type A/micromanaging/been planning our wedding for about 2 years/know specifics of what i want if we can afford it) can start executing the plan xD 

[Nargus]

For my bridesmaids dresses, I chose a colour I loved and said ‘any dress that comes in this colour/fabric is ok by me’. I love the way my bridesmaids looked on the day, plus they were all comfortable with what they were wearing.

They all ended up picking a similar silhouette (that particular designer had everything, very full skirts, simple a-lines and pencil styles) but they were all different necklines. 

 

[SassyPants]

Abbie’s dress suited her well. I did like the last dress she tried on, the more fitted dress, better. Josiah and Lauren seems like an odd match.

[CarrotCake]

Since I cannot tell anyone I know yet (we want to tell our parents first over Easter) and there are some wedding enthousiasts over here, I decided to start telling people I don’t know: I got engaged yesterday