Apache

I had 6 bridesmaids, 6 groomsman, a flower girl and ring bearer. There was just no way my hubby and I could pay for the girl's dresses plus the tux rental for the men. We paid for the wedding ourselves. (except for my mother and father-in-law paying for our photographer.) It was a decent size wedding, about 100 guests which more was invited but we did get married thanksgiving weekend so that family could be there.

I picked out the dresses that I wanted and let the girl's know how much they were going to be. Only 1 of my 3 sisters didn't have the money, her daughter was my flower girl so with both of them in the wedding we did pay for her dress. She had let me know she didn't have the money and said she just wouldn't be in it, but there was no way I could have 2 of my sisters in the wedding and one setting out.

We did get them all really nice gifts though!

In my sister's wedding she took all of us to a dress shop that rents dresses for weddings and pagents. (she had 6 in her wedding also) We all had identical dresses and only spent $50.00 to rent the dress for the weekend. They were really nice dresses and none of us would have been able to wear them again so it really was better that we only rented them.

Then back in May I was matron of honor in my best friends wedding. We waited until stores like Sears, JC Penney's ect. put all their left over prom dresses on sale. I got a $100. dress for $50.00 Since we had less to choose from, finding identical dresses was more of a problem. So her only other bridesmaid got the same dress as mine, they were just 2 different colors. I had no problem spending the money to be in any of these weddings, and Im sure they had no problems spending it to be in mine.