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

[CarrotCake]

I love that second one, could definitely see Jana wearing it.

[ihaveanexamintwodays]

On 12/5/2018 at 8:49 PM, AussieKrissy said:

surprise surprise I ended up on a LDS dress site. 

i really like that 3rd dress, something that looks a bit more "structured" (if that makes sense) for Jana. I've shared my dream pick for her bunches of times around FJ, I'll have to go find it again lol. 

dress #4 is GORGEOUS but such a "unique" silhouette idk if i could see a Duggar going for it haha. Maybe a Bates. actually that sparkle and the back....Carlin Bates would totally love that....

On 9/22/2017 at 2:17 PM, ihaveanexamintwodays said:

***

and for future Jana, she's got such a great eye for detail yet a lot of practicality that I like this: 

  Reveal hidden contents

detailed, structured but not super fitted, small train.

 

AHA! found it. Jana. 

[ophelia]

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. 

[TheMustardCardigan]

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.

[RosyDaisy]

I think darker colors are a good choice for a winter wedding: dark blues, dark greens, reds.

[CarrotCake]

11 minutes ago, 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.

The problem is that not every color looks as good on everyone. Yellow looks great on most people with an olive or a dark skin but looks totally different on a blonde person. Yellow is maybe not used that much but one could think black is a very neutral color. Well it is not, it looks really bad on me, I look like a ghost. Navy is I think one of the safest colors since it looks good with almost all complexions but unless your bridesmaids all look alike it will always suit some of them better than others.

Thank god we don't have bridesmaids here, we all just wear whatever looks good on us to any wedding. 

 

[TheMustardCardigan]

I've seen a couple yellow bridesmaid dress weddings and that's a color that looks disastrous on some people. I was in a wedding with bright coral dresses. My skintone is relatively netural, colors with cool undertones look better than warm, but I can still work with warm. However, at the time I had red hair. I switched it back to blonde leading up to the wedding because I knew that would look a lot better better. 

I know one thing I want to do for sure is let my bridesmaids choose the style of dress they want to wear as long as it's all the same color. I find the "everyone wear the same exact style of dress" thing to be a lot more torturous than most color choices.

 

Edited December 7, 2018 by TheMustardCardigan
spelling

[SapphireSlytherin]

Yeah, I can't wear yellow at all Too bad, too, because I think it's a pretty color.

Have you considered letting your bridesmaids choose their own dresses/own colors (a la Jinger - who had an array of colors with identical dresses)? Or maybe giving them four or five options for color? I think that could be done tastefully.

 

[SorenaJ]

Or the bridesmaids could write a list of colours that worked well on them (maybe with your input), and then you could see if there are any overlaps for all the bridesmaids. 

[Jinder Roles]

I personally like white bridesmaid dresses or off-white dresses. I’d say whatever colours fit your aesthetic and you like. 

For me: white, emerald green, indigo, burgundy, black and dark burnt orange are nice. 

Would you ever consider doing different shades of a colour. Then the bridesmaids could have their preference and you could maintain some cohesiveness. 

Edited December 7, 2018 by Jinder Roles

[front hugs > duggs]

Not sure if this will be too small or not, but I went with a blue for my bridesmaids' dresses that was slightly more blue than navy, but darker than like a royal blue. I think this was similar to the dress.

 

Spoiler

 

[libgirl2]

On 12/3/2018 at 6:50 PM, SapphireSlytherin said:

Nothing in the world wrong with a half-carat, or a quarter-carat, or a 1/5 carat diamond.

That's about the tackiest thing to say, really.  Of all the things to judge these people for, the size of their engagement ring stones is WAY down at the bottom of the list.

I got (happily) married WITHOUT an engagement ring. I now have my mother's ring (I inherited it when she died). It's a half-carat, F, VVS1, .54 carat emerald cut. We have to have it appraised every three years (insurance reasons). Every time, the appraiser makes a point to tell me what a spectacular stone it is, and how stunning the setting/cut is. It's worth far more than a 2-carat included, yellowish "rock" that would cost the same $$ as mine is worth.

Further, FWIW, I'm not really a diamond person - I prefer Sapphires (imagine that). But it's what I've got (for now). Maybe someday I'll get a beautiful sapphire solitaire. Maybe not. Things like this aren't at the top of my "want" list. lol

 

My engagement ring is a natural emerald. It wasn't ungodly expensive and everyone who sees it loves it. Never was a diamond fan. 

Edited December 7, 2018 by libgirl2

[DundeeUnFundie]

10 hours ago, CarrotCake said:

The problem is that not every color looks as good on everyone. Yellow looks great on most people with an olive or a dark skin but looks totally different on a blonde person. Yellow is maybe not used that much but one could think black is a very neutral color. Well it is not, it looks really bad on me, I look like a ghost. Navy is I think one of the safest colors since it looks good with almost all complexions but unless your bridesmaids all look alike it will always suit some of them better than others.

Thank god we don't have bridesmaids here, we all just wear whatever looks good on us to any wedding. 

 

This actually intrigues me, because I've done a lot of community theatre and they always stick blondes in yellow, because it looks good on stage against the (typically) fairer skin. I've never thought (bright) yellow looks good on me (olive skin) until recently when I started wearing more burnt oranges and mustard yellows.

I think people tend to go with blue bridesmaid dresses since it's one of the more universally flattering colours. I don't think I know anyone who doesn't look good in blue?

2 hours ago, libgirl2 said:

My engagement ring is a natural emerald. It wasn't ungodly expensive and everyone who sees it loves it. Never was a diamond fan. 

I'm hoping for an opal, but emerald would be next on the list!

Something interesting about engagement rings: It's due to strategic marketing that people want diamond rings for engagement rings. There's a limited amount of diamonds released each year, which bumps up the price, and ads gave us the idea that an engagement ring 'should cost a month's wages' so we would be willing to spend so much to 'show how much we care'.

[Quiver Full of Kittens]

22 minutes ago, DundeeUnFundie said:

 

I think people tend to go with blue bridesmaid dresses since it's one of the more universally flattering colours. I don't think I know anyone who doesn't look good in blue?

 

This was the rationale for my bridesmaids wearing blue. Four bridesmaids in four different states and I live in a fifth. There was no way to get a consensus, so I picked a fairly forgiving shilloute in a pretty blue from a national chain and hoped for best. It worked out pretty okay in the end. The blue was a bit brighter than I had thought, but ended up photographing well. 

[BookwormExtraordinaire]

If I ever get married and decide to have bridesmaids at my wedding I quite like the idea of using different coloured bridesmaids’ dresses. Not like Jinger’s fifteen bridesmaids in eight entirely different colours that did not go well together, but maybe using different shades of blue, purple or pink. That way everyone could get a dress that suits them even if they have different colouring. 

 

[TheMustardCardigan]

I felt like most of Jinger's wedding was tasteful for a fundie wedding but the bridesmaid dress situation was really poorly executed. By the way it looks, it seems as if the dress came in 20 different colors and she told the girls to pick whatever without coordinating or communicating at all. So that leads to 3 different shades of brown, two wine colored dresses, two bright red dresses, a light dusty blue dress, a pink dress, and Jill's lilac dress that is so different from the other shades that it squanders the last lingering chance at a cohesive look. 

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. 

 

Edited December 8, 2018 by TheMustardCardigan

[Palimpsest]

@MustardCardigan many congratulations on your engagement and upcoming wedding.   You do know that you are required to stalk Pinterest obsessively for the duration, and run every decision you make past FJ for approval. 

I'm glad are putting so much thought into your bridesmaids dresses.  Mine wore shades of blue.  Their choice.  The worst bridesmaid dress I had to wear was "peach" (somewhere between blush and coral).   With my coloring I spent the whole wedding feeling like a giant bandaid.  And the photos show that I looked like one too.

15 hours ago, DundeeUnFundie said:

I'm hoping for an opal, but emerald would be next on the list!

Something interesting about engagement rings: It's due to strategic marketing that people want diamond rings for engagement rings. There's a limited amount of diamonds released each year, which bumps up the price, and ads gave us the idea that an engagement ring 'should cost a month's wages' so we would be willing to spend so much to 'show how much we care'.

I'm absolutely with you on the marketing by the diamond industry and I've never been keen on diamonds either.  I've historically also been very wary of "conflict" AKA "blood" diamonds and conditions in the mines.  The US has passed the Clean Diamond Act  but that is not the case everywhere.   https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clean_Diamond_Trade_Act 

Just a word of caution about an opal engagement ring.  Opals are very fragile and sensitive to changes in temperature.  I shattered an opal by reaching into the fridge and then into a hot oven wearing my opal ring.  I think amethysts (which I love) are fragile too because they are quartz.  So the other reason diamonds, followed by sapphires, rubies, and emeralds  are so popular for engagement rings is their hardness on the Mohl scale and durability, which is not the same as hardness. 

But that is the absolute limit of the knowledge I picked up working pert-time at a jeweler's store in grad school.   Everybody should consult a real gemologist about their rings.

And someone on FJ has a really stunning moissanite engagement ring.  I wish I could remember who she is.

[Briefly]

My bridesmaids wore light blue because that is my favorite color.  But I think that pine green would have been a much better choice, given that we are both redheads.  My daughter said that IF she ever gets married, which they probably won't but they are happy living together and nobody cares if they don't get married, that she likes the idea of a range of colors.  I was a matron of honor in a friend's wedding a few years ago and she had us all in black, shorter dresses.  It sound odd, but it looked really good.

As far as engagement rings, I am not a fan of diamonds. Mine was actually a double pearl.  I had to replace one of the pearls once and then one of them fell out (I found it at least) but I decided not to have it re-set because I was afraid I would lose a pearl again so I quit wearing it. Mr. Briefly gave me a diamond eternity ring for our 10th anniversary and I wore that with my engagement and wedding band, then he gave me a small diamond ring later which I wore in place on the pearls.  But then my wedding band split and when it was repaired, the man that fixed it said that I should probably not wear it since it's old (it was my grandmother's) and thin and would be very hard to repair again.  I love opals, my parents gave me an opal ring when I turned 16.  I wore it for years but then we gave it to the Briefly daughter on her 16th birthday.

[SassyPants]

@BrieflyI have had issues with pearls too. My daughter has pearls in her wedding ring and has had issues too. Pearls are just too soft!

[Carm_88]

I have been a bridesmaid twice as an adult. I wore a pale blue in the first wedding and emerald green in the second. Both were lovely. Of course, in the first wedding, it was just a whole bunch of redheaded or near redheaded bridesmaids, and the second there were two of us and we both loved that shade of green!

[Captain Obvious]

9 hours ago, TheMustardCardigan said:

I felt like most of Jinger's wedding was tasteful for a fundie wedding but the bridesmaid dress situation was really poorly executed. By the way it looks, it seems as if the dress came in 20 different colors and she told the girls to pick whatever without coordinating or communicating at all. So that leads to 3 different shades of brown, two wine colored dresses, two bright red dresses, a light dusty blue dress, a pink dress, and Jill's lilac dress that is so different from the other shades that it squanders the last lingering chance at a cohesive look. 

Yeah, that didn’t work at all. 

I didn’t have bridesmaids, but if I had I would have done mismatched colours, but been more in control of the process. I’d have probably chosen a particular dress from a national chain and also chosen the different  colour options (the number of options corresponding with the number of bridesmaids) on the basis of the colours coordinating with each other. Then I would have let the bridesmaids decide among themselves who wears which colour. Otherwise you can’t rely on them picking colours that work together or two of them not picking the same one.

Actually, I’m so picky about clothes colours for myself that I’d probably try and please everyone by choosing a colour for each girl that suited her skin tones AND then trying to get those colours to go with each other. It would have totally brought out my obsessive side. This is why it was a good thing that I didn’t have bridesmaids.

[HideousGreenShirt]

I'm a big fan of navy or black dresses and let the bridesmaids pick their own. (With veto rights if they're really atrocious.)

My issue with bridesmaid dresses is as much about the fabric choice as it is the color. I have seen SO MANY ugly, ill-fitting, shiny satin dresses worn. Thankfully lace and draping are more in fashion these days. Seeing a lot of sparkles too, a friend of a friend had her bridesmaids in full length all over gold sequined gowns. 

[MargaretElliott]

On 12/7/2018 at 6:34 PM, DundeeUnFundie said:

I'm hoping for an opal, but emerald would be next on the list!

Opals are freaking gorgeous, but like other posters have said, they're really fragile. Not a great stone if you plan on wearing it every day. Source - my roommate is a jeweler. Someone she knew got engaged with an opal, so I got to hear her rant about opals for like an hour. I never knew someone could be so passionate about shiny rocks.

As for bridesmaid dresses, I think neutrals or darker colors are safest, in terms of looking best on everyone. I was in my cousin's wedding, wearing the hottest of hot pinks... I'm very fair, but my skin has a decidedly olive undertone. 90% of the bridesmaids couldn't pull it off, but I got the worst of it. Not good. If I ever get married, I'm having one bridesmaid (my twin) and she can just pick a dress that fits my color scheme, compliments my own dress, and looks good.

[DundeeUnFundie]

Thanks for everyone warning me about opals! I do actually know about gemstones, we have jewelers/geologists in the family, and I've done my research. A lot of the time people are thinking about triplet opals, which are a lot more likely to get damaged through everyday use. Triplet opals are layers of opal glued together (to make it more colourful, and cheaper) so when the glue disintergrates, the opal appears to break. It is a softer stone, but I also intend on wearing it on a necklace for most of the working week, due to working in kids and a desire to keep the pretty expensive ring away from play dough and poop lol!

[Shouldabeenacowboy]

On 12/7/2018 at 6:34 PM, DundeeUnFundie said:

Something interesting about engagement rings: It's due to strategic marketing that people want diamond rings for engagement rings. There's a limited amount of diamonds released each year, which bumps up the price, and ads gave us the idea that an engagement ring 'should cost a month's wages' so we would be willing to spend so much to 'show how much we care'.

Like for 99% of the things people buy, some smart marketing folks came up with a clever strategy to make gullible consumers feel like they "must" have something they don't really need to begin with.