Your Complete Guide to Planning your Mismatched Wedding Party Outfits
It’s definitely more common than not to have your wedding party members wearing mismatched, different dresses for your wedding day. Many couples like that their family and friends can choose a look that THEY enjoy while also looking incredible all together. While it seems like it would be easier to hand off the plans to your wedding party and let them just run with it, there is usually some element of planning necessary to make sure that the whole group looks amazing. We will run through how it goes to plan mismatched outfits for your bridesmaids and groomsmen.
Deciding on a Theme and Palette
Generally, you’ll first need to have an idea of a general color scheme that you are interested in. If you’re looking for inspiration, definitely go to Pinterest for some mismatched dresses and attire and see what they call the “themes” in the captions to help you hone in on what you like. Some people want everyone to wear the same color but allow the wedding party to choose the cut of the dress. Some people give their wedding party a color range or palette and let them go wild. And some people want to incorporate multiple patterns such as a “garden theme” with floral prints that are all still cohesive.
Set the Parameters
There are still more things to consider after choosing the colors and patterns - you have to tell your wedding party members some parameters to make it easier on you and them both. Generally, it’s good to let them know if you have desires for the material/fabric, the length of the dresses or if they need suit coats, or if you have any opinions on styles that you’re interested in. I actually recommend looking up individual outfit inspiration with the styles, cuts, and colors that you like and then making a Pinterest board of those to send to your friends to give them inspiration. They don’t need to select the exact outfits from this, but they can pull inspiration to find exactly what you’re looking for and they still love.
Set the Lineup
One of the things that people often forget until actually getting started with this is the lineup of your wedding party where they are standing. If you’re doing 3 different colors, you probably don’t want 5 people in a row with the same color with the last two people wearing the other two. There is an element of cohesion that is necessary for the order of where everyone is standing, so this means you need to know who is standing next to each other and when they determine some choices for you if they will all look good next to one another.
Figure Out the Pairs
Typically, the wedding party walks down the aisle in pairs. If you’re having both sides do mismatched options, you should decide beforehand if you want those pairs to match each other or if that matters to you. What is common is that anyone that is wearing a dress gets to make the decisions and anyone in suits generally follows the same outfit and colors, but you can also add some colored ties that match the people they are walking with so it remains cohesive and doesn’t look like a bunch of random people are walking down the aisle together.
Ask for Approval
Along those lines, make sure to tell your wedding party the parameters and then let them know that you would like to have the final say on what they wear based off of their choices. This will make sure that if they pick things that won’t look good together or next to each other, that you can ask them to find something in a more specific color. If you really want to make sure that they are choosing things they love, consider moving around the order of wedding party members to ensure everyone gets what they want (of course remembering it is your day, so you don’t have to do this unless you WANT to!).
Photography by Jill Houser Photography
I personally LOVE this look and I love it even more when there are different patterns introduced as well as the color palette. This group of bridesmaids here had one of my favorite uses of mismatched dresses that I think really made the whole wedding pop. I loved that the man also got to participate on the bride’s side by having a pink tie. I think that this look can really elevate a wedding and add a variety to your wedding party photos that you would otherwise have not had before. The differences in texture, material, pattern, and even the lengths of the dresses really grab your attention and make it stand out more than it might have with only a mauve.
If you’re struggling to figure out your palettes and the parameters, I would love to help you out! You can go here to tell me about what you’re thinking and I can help you come up with a perfect palette that your family and friends will love.
