I bet those blue lampshades set the wedding dresses back some money!

Yesterday I mentioned that Real Housewives of Orange County star Tamra Barney put her bridesmaids in White by Vera Wang bridesmiad gowns, that have been from David's Bridal and fell underneath the $200 mark. I thought which was awesome because Tamra wasn't asking her friends (who is probably not as flush with cash) to splurge on fancy designer gowns simply because she wore an expensive designer wedding gown. (Or, er, three of 'em.)

But Save the Date reader shoponadime thought it might have been even awesome-r if Tamra had paid to place her bridesmaids within their plus size mother of the bride dresses since she'll make some Benjamins from the wedding (her third) anyway. Reader Lauren_F took it one step further and suggested maybe EVERY bride should purchase her bridesmaids' dresses. "After all, the bride to be nearly always picks the gown, the colour, or at best has some say within the matter."

Huh.

While I don't think Tamra's bridesmaids needed custom dresses—since bridesmiad gowns tend to be single-wear items—I do like the idea of the bride to be paying for bridesmiad gowns as the new normal.

Hear me out: While bridesmaids are often psyched to possess a part within their bestie's special day, I think it's reliable advice NO ONE is psyched to purchase a bridesmaid dress. Even if you're OK with the gown, chances are you're simply not going to take it again. (When I'm getting decked out, I prefer to put on a dress that I chose, rather than an outfit that someone chose for me personally!) Even if the bride to be is just dictating the colour of the gown and letting me pick the style, odds are it's not among my favorite colors and I'm not re-wearing it. So if YOU'RE choosing an outfit for me to put on at YOUR wedding, doesn't it seem appropriate for YOU to purchase it?

This would also make allowances for brides with expensive tastes. In my many years of bridesmaid-ing, two from the dresses I bought had $400 prices. When those brides were inside my wedding, I asked them to purchase $120 dresses. I'm not complaining—just bolstering my argument—but that does not feel quite fair. So perhaps if the bride to be wants her bridesmaids to put on spendy dresses, maybe she ought to be the one to absorb the price. A bride having a smaller budget—or one that didn't worry about the dresses' schmancy factor—could cut back, along with a bride who wanted her friends inside a hot-off-the-runway designer dress would need to suck up and pay more.

And it might make things more equitable for females who never got married, or those who got married later in life, whenever you tend to possess a tiny wedding ceremony or none whatsoever. I mean, I have single friends within their 40s who've spent thousands to be within their friends' weddings through the years. That doesn't seem quite right.

WATCH

100 Years of Dresses

It also might help rein in certain out-of-control bridal parties. I feel like oftentimes brides give away "pity" invites for their bridal party simply because they feel bad not including a stray cousin or senior high school friend whose wedding these were in four years ago. It might be nice for brides to possess a built-in excuse to have their numbers down: "While we'd love to possess a big wedding ceremony, it's simply not in our budget."

If the who-pays-for-the-dress tides were to turn, some brides and bridesmaids may potentially get hosed, financially speaking. Say the rules had changed in 2008: I had already taken care of four bridesmiad gowns for friends' weddings AND I might have had to purchase my six b-maids' dresses. But let's assume the arena would be leveled pretty quickly. (The friends whose weddings had already happened could purchase their dresses for my wedding like I taken care of my dresses for theirs, then I would buy everyone else's. Easy enough.)

Do you think the bride to be should purchase her bridesmaids' dresses?

It would happen to be tough to fork over another $1,000 approximately to dress my bridesmaids when I had been spending SO MUCH on my small wedding. But since I spent $800 to stay in just two weddings (and in all likelihood $150 each for that other three weddings I've been in), I might have saved some serious $$$ within the long run.