Fifty Shades of (Cobalt) Blue

As soon as we got engaged, inspiration hit me in the form of bridesmaid’s dresses and I knew exactly what I wanted! Blue! Specifically, cobalt blue. Little did I know how difficult this would be to define to everyone around me… Cobalt blue: not quite royal or navy blue, with a slight hint of purple. Confused? Observe:

image via images.yourdictionary.com

I envisioned my girls in long, flowy, Chiffon cobalt dresses with a bit of Grecian flair. Here is some of my early inspiration:

image via design my heart out

Notte by Marchesa/ image via Zimbio

dress by Pamella Roland/ image via The fashion court

At first, I figured I would embrace the mismatched trend and let each girl pick out a dress to flatter her own body type and budget, as long as it was long, chiffon, and cobalt blue. That is, until MOH Long Legs not so subtly pointed out to me that I’m the most anal retentive person she knows and clearly am not nearly a laid-back enough bride to allow each girl to pick a dress without worrying that it’s not the exact shade of blue. 

So with that, it was back to picking identical dresses that would please three different girls, with three different personalities, body types, and zip codes! I figured we could plan a shopping trip and get everyone to try dresses together, until BM Green Eyes announced she would not be travelling to Montreal to shop for dresses, so we needed to find a retailer that sold in Canada and the USA. I was heartbroken that I would miss out on the traditional experience of shopping with all my girls, but had no choice but to get over it and get to work. 

Finding a long, chiffon gown with a sweetheart neckline wasn’t very hard at all, finding one in the correct shade of blue proved to be maddening! I was shown dresses in navy, royal, teal, even baby blue!

One of my early favorites was the long Arabelle by J Crew (swoon!), unfortunately, we could not find a J Crew retailer to try on this dress.

dress by J Crew/ image via Lemoncrate

Another contender was this chiffon gown by Ralph Lauren, the advantage was that it was off the rack, unfortunately, it was too short for Long Legs.

Ralph Lauren Wrapped Bodice Sweetheart Gown/ image via Nordstrom

After many dresses tried, there was one designer whose dresses seemed to really flatter my girls, Bill Levkoff. If I’m being honest, the “horizon blue” wasn’t the exact shade of blue I had in mind, but sometimes you have to work with what’s available! We were torn between two models, the 165 and 193. 

Bill Levkoff, model 165/ Left to right MOH Long Legs, BM Green Eyes, BM Tiny/ personal photo

Bill Levkoff, model 193/ Left to right MOH Long Legs, BM Green Eyes, BM Tiny/ personal photo

In the end, we chose style 193 because it featured a flowier skirt as well as less prominent sweetheart than the 165. Here is MOH Long Legs showing off the Horizon Blue color that the dresses will come in! 

Bill Levkoff, model 115/ personal photo

It was not easy getting everyone to agree on a dress and we wound up getting our dress order in right under the wire. Since the girls were spread out all over, they decided to order the dresses online to save some money. 

A word of advice about the Bill Levkoff size chart: it's not the most accurate thing in the world! If you're considering ordering a BL dress, try to find a sample as close to your size as possible and gage from there... None of my girls ordered the size it said on the size chart, which said to order 1 or 2 sizes up from their street clothes. For example, BM Tiny wears a size 0 in street, but the BL chart said she needed a 4, luckily they had a 4 in store and we were able to see that it was too big on her so she ordered a 2, but will need to take it in a bit.

Who will your girls be wearing?