Julia Gets Her Comeuppance
One of the dresses was this one. I thought it was a pretty good dress.
A few months went by, and my mom and I went dress shopping. She bought this one, in silver. I thought nothing of it, except that it was a pretty good dress!
At approximately the same moment, Bridesmaid C was looking at the lookbook and thinking she liked the first dress. For a minute I thought that would work, but neither one of them was thrilled about sharing the style. C graciously said she’d keep shopping, even though she would have been totally justified in grouching at me for creating confusion.
A few months went by, and I heard from Bridesmaid M that she’d bought a dress.
This one. 
I’d apparently neglected to tell her about my mom. And C. M graciously said she’d keep shopping. So far no one has made a big deal out of my three-dress-pileup, but I’d deserve it if they did.
This made me laugh because my mom bought that dress, and then J's mom went out and bought it too (even though I described it to her as Mom's dress, she bought it anyway thinking it was a different dress!) Then, she asked if my mom was "settled on it"… why, yes, she is! It was the talk of the house for a couple of days when I told Mom about it.
Oh man, ho would have thought! At least you know they all have good taste!
It's the slimming lines. Maybe I should buy one too ;P
This is almost exactly what happened for us. I thought I was doing my lovely five bridesmaids the hugest favor in the world by letting them pick their own grey dress. But none of them already owned one, and no one had time to hunt and coordinate with each other. So I ended up picking out a $40 H&M number that they could all wear! Saved them so much time!
I'm dying about this! My mom actually had a very similar dress but in black with white design on the bodice for our wedding. It was very flattering!
Update: Just saw these at Marshall's (TJ Maxx) for under $40.
Hahahaha… this is made all the more excellent by the fact that my mom is wearing this dress:
http://content.nordstrom.com/ImageGallery/store/product/Medium/0/_5776480.jpg
… but in "champagne"