How to find the perfect dress for your pregnant bridesmaid

When I first started writing about weddings years ago there was an American bridesmaid contract doing the rounds in the press.

The bridezilla in question made a number of demands of her squad, including they wouldn’t have any drastic changes of hairstyle, would commit to flying to her bridal shower and bachelorette and, above all, they wouldn’t be pregnant at her wedding.

If you couldn’t sign up to those, you could forget about being included in the wedding party.

Thankfully this is an extreme example of bride behaviour gone wild but it still can be a worry if one of your ‘maids announces she’s pregnant.

Obviously, you’re thrilled for her but suddenly it adds a whole other level of logistic into finding the ideal dresses for your girls.

When Sarah’s bridesmaid Gaby announced she was due to give birth shortly after her wedding though this bride took it all in her stride.

Pregnant bridesmaid

Sarah and her husband Arron had been set to marry on 25 July 2020 – “a very special date to me as this was my heavenly mum’s birthday” she says.

However, covid put paid to their plans and they delayed their Scotsman Hotel wedding till July 2021.

“Gaby wasn’t pregnant at the time,” explains Sarah.

“None of my bridesmaids were. For the original date Jen would have been four months postpartum, so we were actually coming up with a plan to order another size just incase so Jen felt comfortable in the dress only four months after having a baby!

“Gaby fell pregnant before we had our second date but we knew the due date.”

To accommodate a July wedding that all their original suppliers could make Sarah and Arron settled on 10^th even though they knew Gaby might not be there.

“I suppose for many couples having gone through this, we just had to stick to something and go with the flow, and of course our friends understood this,” says Sarah.

The bride had five ‘maids in total, though her friends Tanya and Leanne weren’t able to travel in the end from Australia and Portugal, due to restrictions.

Sarah herself was living in Australia while planning the wedding and turned to ASOS for her bridesmaid dresses.

“As I was going for the bridal party to be in white, I wanted something elegant but a little different and I was determined to find something that worked for all shapes and sizes.

“I’m so glad online retailers like ASOS existed with a large range of bridal style dresses as I couldn’t be there in person picking dresses with them.”

The gowns came in petite and tall sizes so each woman got to try the best fit and were happy and confident.

“Paired up with dried flower arrangements I thought they all looked pretty glam but of course I’m biased here!” laughs Sarah.

When it came to choosing Gaby’s dress they had a few styles in mind but the only thing that was key was that it be of a similar length to the others.

“We actually didn’t find it too hard to find the dress,” says Sarah.

“I feel you have a lot more options online for pregnant women with nice dresses nowadays.

“We found this dress from boohoo.com in the sale.

“The style we chose was comfy (priority!) and worked well with the other bridesmaid dresses.”

Being a mum herself it was so important to Sarah that she never put any pressure on Gaby.

“Nor did I want to make her feel excluded in any way so we really just played things by ear,” she says.

“The ball was in Gaby’s court, whatever she felt comfortable to do I was happy with.

“Plan Bs were put in place just incase, like who would take on her accommodation if she couldn’t use it but she was also convinced she’d go over her due date.

“She was determined to be by my side on my wedding day!

“Baby held out until his actual due date which was three days after the wedding!”

Having had to postpone their wedding Sarah says it feels special to eventually be Mrs Ferri.

“I feel blessed to have all those who came and made effort to make our day special,” she says.

“I would have loved my full bridal party – we also had two groomsmen who were stuck in Australia – but Zoom gave us the ability to see each other on the special day!

Are you still on the hunt for the perfect bridesmaid dresses?

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