Bridesmaids: My Steel Magnolias

I am currently trying to think of the perfect way to ask my bridesmaid's to be in my wedding. I've got a good idea of what I am buying them, and I've become very excited to ask them. I absolutely love shopping and love giving gifts, so this is heaven for me!

Some ideas that are really cute that I am not doing (so I don't mind sharing in case my future maid's read) are...
1. Taking the maid out for dinner and presenting them with a bouquet similar to the one you want them to carry in your wedding.
2. Buying your maid's a piece of jewelry that you want them to wear in your wedding
3. Present the maid's with shirts that say "Bridesmaid" so they can wear them to your bachelorette party
4. I've found cute "be my bridesmaid" cookies and cards


Check out this idea I found! I would so do this if I had a creative bone in my body!

In searching for some ideas I came across the website "Bad Dresses." This is a website dedicated to the ugly dresses that brides force their maid's to wear. I for one will not be making my maid's wear ugly dresses. I am all about fashion and I am trying to find the best looking dress possible. My colors are Navy, Light Pink, and Gold so I was going to have the dresses be a navy or a pink. Since it is a late night wedding the dresses must be long, and that is a little hard to find in the right colors. My worst nightmare came true...I may have to shop at a bridal salon for actual bridesmaid's dresses instead of picking out unique dressed from Nordstrom's or Neiman's! I did find one company when I was searching for my wedding dress that I actually really liked. It is called Watters and Watters, and their bridesmaid's dresses actually look very nice!

My favorite bridesmaid dress is here!
What do you think? 

Some other dresses that I found that aren't too bad (ignore the colors)