When my best friend from college recently married, she picked out her bridesmaids’ dresses from the Nordstrom website. All seven of us — only two of whom lived in the same area of the country — were able to order our dresses online in multiple sizes, test them out with various permutations of undergarments and shoes in the comfort of our own bedrooms, and return whichever ones didn’t fit us (as we lost weight or got pregnant over her year-long engagement) to our local Nordstrom store in the weeks before we needed to wear them. Easy as pie.

Nordstrom.com also designates a decent number of bridal gowns on its website, like A.B.S.’s retro-demure minidress and Kay Unger’s Grecian floor-length column (pictured above, at left).

Designers who turn out reliably spot-on collections of party dresses every season can often be a good source for ready-to-wear bridal gowns. BCBG, for example, offers up a flatteringly tiered satin gown (pictured above, right) for seriously little cash, while a floaty chiffon confection from Laundry by Design in a superpale blush mimics the haute designer trends at a tenth of the cost.

Nicole Miller owns up to its de facto position as a bridal favorite, offering some of its selection of gowns online. And while more often hitting the “suburban prom” nail on the head than the “urban sophisticate” one, Jessica McClintock occasionally gets it right, as with this tiered chiffon number with waist-nipping black lace detailing that borrows a page from Carolina Herrera’s style book.

The geniuses over at Thread Design found a way to bridge the gap between full-service bridal salon and sheer off-the-rack luck. Their simply designed dresses, (such as the pink dress pictured at left), with flattering colors and wearable fabrics aim to blur the distinction between well-chosen party dress and my-friend-forced-me-to-wear-this attendant attire. Thread carries a few bridal gowns, too, which could almost be mistaken for bridesmaids’ dresses — just in all white.

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