Dress for eleven-year-old bridesmaid?

Okay, so it's early days for us - we've only been engaged for two weeks and have yet to set a date, but it will probably be late next year or sometime in 2013. My stepdaughter-to-be has already (very enthusiastically!) agreed to be one of my bridesmaids. I'll be having up to three adult bridesmaids. My SD2B will be eleven-ish on the day, and I'm struggling to find ideas for her dress. I know I'm jumping the gun a bit, and I do have ages to sort this out, but it's one of the few things that I have strong opinions about at this stage.

She was a flower girl at a family wedding earlier this year, with the frothy frilly white dress & basket of petals, and completely stole the show - I'm not sure anyone noticed the bride! Yes, she was very cute, but what works at nine won't necessarily work at eleven. She is small for her age, but definitely already beginning to develop typical teenage behaviour - absolutely desperate to be allowed to wear high heels, and knows exactly how to throw a strop when she wants to! I don't think either of us are interested in putting her in a little-girl dress. 

I've been looking around at possible dresses for her, but everything seems to be either too young or too old for her. A lot of "junior" bridesmaid dresses seem to be either strapless or halterneck, which don't really seem to work until they've developed slightly more in the chest department, and I don't particularly like long dresses as I think they'll just drown her as I'm leaning towards quite dark colours for my maids.

I've spotted one dress that I like the look of;

What is anyone else is putting their not-quite-teenage-bridesmaids in?

Tht dress is lovely! My OH's neice is 12 and she is a skinny binny so we're going to order her dress from the online store we got the other bridesmaid dresses from. She'll feel as grown up as them but instead of the dress being strapless like the others, we are having spaghetti straps fitted to it.

We are on a tight budget so we found the dresses off ebay. We already have 3 of them and they are the exact same as the expensive ones in the shop and they make them to the wearers size free. Granted you have to wait for upto 3 days but if you have the time then its worth it!

I think that dress is lovely! I went to a wedding last year where the 2 BMs were the bride's cousins. One was 14 and one was 12 (although quite a young looking 12). They'd put her in a full on flower girl dress with little flat pumps whereas the older one was in an adult BM dress with heels. The younger one looked so uncomfortable and she was obviously too old to be a flower girl.

A lot of the "proper" bridal ranges do junior BM styles. Even though you say the strapless/halter neck isn't appropriate until they're more developed, they will have borne this in mind and the dresses will have been designed appropriately, so that they won't be too big on the chest etc.

If she's the only one, you might be able to find something on the high street. Just a nice dress that she might wear as a guest but matching your colour scheme.

Hi

I had the same problem with my OH's niece who is being bridesmaid. She is 10 and I felt she was inbetween flower girl and bridesmaid.

She is quite tall for her ages and thought she wouldnt look right in a white flower girl dress. The older bridesmaids are having one shoulder dresses so we decided to get her the same dress, but get another strap added to make it a bit younger.

x

I have the same problem with my SIL who will be 11 when we get married. She's very grown up already and has requested hot pink! I want her to look cool and funky (as she does every day) rather than princessy as it just wouldn't suit her. This is very hard to find and any flashes are appreciated!!

I'm the same, my niece will be nearly 10. She is very headstrong and dresses how she likes now, so im worried she will feel too babyish in a younger dress. Mum and my sister insist she will be fine int he dress I've got for her but I'm not convinced. The dress above is lovely tho, tempted....

I was going to comment and say it looks lovely then realised the OP was from 2011 

:/ 

Mrspetal:

I was going to comment and say it looks lovely then realised the OP was from 2011 

:/ 

Haha I never even noticed that! How the hell did I stumble upon this then?! The mind boggles!

It may be a bit late for the OP (I didn't notice the date either until it was pointed out!) but I'm having similar issues with my pre-teen but grown up bridesmaids. I found this site that has a few nice options that aren't too grown up but aren't frilly flowergirl dresses that they'd hate. http://www.priddi.co.uk/uk-bridesmaid-dresses/teenage-bridesmaid-dresses