How do designers deal with
pregnant bridesmaids? It is not a major problem, however, it is a challenge and here are some tips to help you get the most out of your day and have all your bridesmaids looking their best.
When designing bridesmaid dresses for bridesmaids we normally would take into consideration what kind of wedding the bride and groom are having. Needless, to say as a design studio we design around the bride and groom's personalities and their requirements for the day.
To help explain what I mean, here is an example: if they are getting married on the beach, for instance, we would design something very different than if the same couple where having a church wedding and a formal hotel reception. Generally speaking, most formal weddings feature long bridesmaids dresses and the more casual weddings have cookie-cutter or tea-length bridesmaids.
Alfred Sung and
Jim Hjelm have created some gown perfect for the bridesmaid who is bring an extra little person.
In the case of a pregnant bridesmaid (and for the purpose of this article we are assuming she is at least six months or more pregnant on the day of the wedding), I break this rule. Let me explain.
Even if the wedding is a formal wedding, we would normally design a bridesmaid dress that at the longest will be ballerina length. A ballerina length dress is still a big block of colour in contrast to the
wedding dress with whom she will be photographed. The reason I suggest ballerina length as the longest is that there is no place on the lower part of the body where the eye is allowed to see the prettiness of the bridesmaid's frame. If this does not happen then you get the Big Blob affect. By showing her ankles and some pretty shoes it balances her out and allow her to look more feminine. My aim is not that she does not look pregnant. It is instead that she looks pregnant and not fat.
If the
pregnant bridesmaid is one of many bridesmaids in a party then we suggest a tea-length in winter and a cookie-cutter length dress in summer. This is because it is a smaller amount of colour. The bridesmaid definitely will look like a mother to be and not just a very big bell-tent. Pair this up with some lovely strappy sandals and you are well on the way. As most mums to be do not like wearing very high heels for various reasons a pair a little higher than a court shoes will look fantastic.
Empire line dresses are an obvious choice for a pregnant bridesmaid but unfortunately they often have a swing skirt. As a dress designer, this in my opinion does her no favours. We have had success with an empire line dress and a panel skirt that curves into the small of the back of the bridesmaid to show off her waist. The panels on the front of the skirt we cut to drape straight down from the fullest part of her bump. As babies are sometimes very active we always allow a little room for expansion. The garment therefore needs to fit in such a way that the shape of her bump can change without affecting the dress too much. Any good design studio or bridal boutique should be able to help you with this.
Most pregnant bridesmaids will be wearing
maternity bras that tend to have quite thick straps. In these cases, we prefer to add a double shoestring strap and sew the bra in so that the dress straps support the bra and remove the thick strap completely from the bra. If the dress is strapless some bridesmaids will not wear a bra rather than wear an under wire strapless bra, due to the affects it may have on milk production. This is entirely the mum-to-be's decision in my opinion and our design studio will work with whatever she decides. On occasions we have sewn pockets in for breast pads and other times bra loops to make sure the bra does not ride up.
With all of the above in mind, I know that the best photographs that I have seen in which one the bridesmaids was pregnant were reportage style wedding photographs. Due to the lack of formal portraits, the fact that one of the bridesmaids was pregnant did not seem to even show.
