When someone utters the words “bridesmaid dress” movies like 27 Dresses erect an image of unflattering, brightly colored messes that some poor woman needed to charge to their Visa card. However, not all brides are this cruel. With chain stores and downtown boutiques, finding a flattering yet affordable bridesmaid dress is well within reach.

The issue usually is not the availability of dresses. Rather, it’s the opposite. Too many styles, price ranges and quality differences can make bridesmaid dress shopping more a chore than anything else. I found that doing my research ahead of time, looking at different styles online and factoring in the affordable of the gown, helped keep my choices more selective. Anything over $150 was out, anything but long length was out and anything with poor reviews, you guessed it, was crossed off my list. Instead of thousands of dresses, I had narrowed my choices to a halter style dress, floor length and in my color.

If you’ve chosen your color already, like I did, then you’ve definitely helped narrow down your choices. If you haven’t chosen your exact color yet, I’d highly recommend doing so, and be specific. If you walk into a store and say ‘red’ you may be asked “which shade of red.” Well, I didn’t know there are 285 shades of the color red. So which shade did you mean? David’s Bridal offers 5 choices of ‘red’ from to “Apple” to “Ruby” to “Berry” to “Persimmon” while Alfred Angelo offers “Cherry” and “Lipstick“. Whatever happened to just plain ole red?

If you’re having trouble selecting a color, the blog at David’s Bridal offers some tools to help you narrow it down. http://blogs.davidsbridal.com/?p=5. There are really only 40 colors to choose from, but even so, the popular of a color might determine dress availability and also the resell value of the dress. If you chose a simple color and style, your entire bridal party may be able to purchase their gowns used from sites like recycledbride.com or even ebay.com

Luckily for me, I choose a somewhat less traditional color, but perfect for Autumn. Some call it Espresso. Others Truffle. I’ve seen it called Mocha, Latte and Chocolate. What is it? Dark Brown! Photo of this simple, yet elegant dress is shown above.

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