Pretty Maids All in a Row: 5 Girls in 5 States

Over the Labor Day weekend, I took a trip with my mom and Mr. Aardvark down to Ohio to visit my grandpa. We also got to catch up with Mr. Aardvark's parents and MOH MD. It was a very nice family filled weekend with lots of chit chat, catching up, and just a splash of wedding talk. It was the first time I had been able to meet with MOH MD since becoming engaged, and though it was only a few hours, it was so nice to have some time with a member of the wedding party. As we were heading home, across four states, it got me thinking about my side of the wedding party. You see, as the title implies, I have five bridesmaids in five different states. That's right, MOH MD is in Ohio, Flossy is in Nebraska, Red is in Minnesota, Sis is in Michigan, and OT is now here, in Wisconsin. That's a pretty big spread!

So far it has not really caused any issues. Everyone is pretty computer savvy and e-mail has been a life saver. Not all of the girls knew each other when we started, so I made a private facebook group to facilitate stalking, or at least putting faces with names. That also seems to be working well. They are all such fantastic ladies I can't wait to have them all in one place at one time!

Speaking of one place at one time, there has been some talk of a group-dress-shop-weekend in Chicago in the fall.  This would be the best case scenario. All of us are very busy, but we should know in the next week or so whether or not our schedule stars will align to make this possible.(Keep your fingers crossed!)

If that falls through I think we may divide and concur and have a "West of the Mississippi River" and "East of the Mississippi River" groups and shop that way. If that also proves impossible (hey, we are some busy ladies!) We will do a virtual group shop, in which, everyone would go to her local store with a list of "contender" dresses. Take pictures, send pictures and comments, vote. For obvious reasons, the biggest one being I would not get to hang out with my ladies, this would be less than ideal.

 Earlier in the planning process I isolated the dress styles pretty quickly and sent the following image out to my girls. There has been lots of talk and agreement and three of these styles are favorites, but we will have to try them on to know for sure!

Photos from Dessy.com and Bari Jay.com


At first, I was pretty amazed at how easily women with different body types who had never met each other could come to agreement so quickly. Then, thinking about my ladies as a group I realized that despite their geographic differences they all have some pretty big things in common. 1) They are all amazing women 2) They are all very smart, 3) They are all pretty easy going about things like dresses, and 4) they all the kind of friend that you can, not talk to for a very long time and then, pick up as if you have never missed a day together. This last point is critical for maintaining long distance friendships, not to mention distance wedding planning!

All in all, I could not ask for a better group of women to support and celebrate with me during this exciting time. I am so blessed to have so many fantastic friends and we are not going to let something as little as a couple hundred miles or state lines stop us from having a great time!

Did you have any (or all) long distance bridesmaids? How did they shop for dresses? How did you all stay in touch?