That's U-G-L-Y/ Ex-bridesmaids reveal atrocities from the back of

Gazette, The (Colorado Springs), May 14, 2002 by Linda DuVal

For all women who have been forced to traipse down the aisle in an appallingly ugly bridesmaids dress, know this: You are not alone.

A recent survey by the DeKuyper liqueur company showed that even though most brides think they choose dresses that their bridesmaids can or will wear again, 60 percent of bridesmaids hated the selection.

About half of these fashion victims donate the dress to charity afterward, according to the survey. The other half wear them for Halloween or keep them in a closet.

When The Gazette asked readers to tell us about the awful- horrible-atrocious bridesmaids dresses that had been foisted upon them, most, apparently, quietly shoved them even farther back in their closets and closed the door. Tight.

But a handful of brave women came forward to enter our Ugly Bridesmaids Dress contest, and several even put them on again for all the world to see.

Though we'd originally considered having readers judge the contest, we didn't want these courageous contestants to wait too long for the results or prizes, so about 40 Gazette newsroom employees weighed in on the four finalists.

Quay Oaks and her sister, Helen Foster, got the most votes (15) for Ugliest Bridesmaids Dress. Their '50s net frocks got them comments such as "Unspeakable" and "They look like barmaids' dresses from a Western saloon!"

Insults aside, those dresses also got them a $25 gift certificate to Dillard's at The Citadel mall, plus a gift pack of Gazette goodies. (Hope they've learned to share.)

Close runners-up were Patty Breece, with her shiny pink flowered number, with 13 votes, and Lynn Damewood's ruffled extravaganza, with 12 votes. Breece also gets a gift pack of Gazette goodies.

And all our finalists get to keep their dresses, because we sure don't want them hanging around here.

AND THE WINNERS ARE ...Sisters' dresses still festive -and scratchy - 47 years later

Quay Oaks of Colorado Springs and her sister, Helen Foster, had to dig deep into the closet to come up with these two beauties: 47-year- old net-covered bridesmaids dresses in Easter egg colors, worn on the occasion of a favorite aunt's wedding in 1955.

"I was in ninth grade and my sister was a junior in high school," Oaks says. "At the time we thought we looked great! ... With my gown of aqua and lavender and Helen's of yellow and coral, I suppose we fit very well into the season." (The wedding was on Easter Sunday.)

The sisters got to wear their dresses again for a friend's wedding a year later, and Oaks wore hers to her ninth grade prom. As the years passed, they stashed one bad dress memory away.

"We had forgotten how scratchy these were until we put them on for the picture," Oaks says. "I'm sure we were miserable throughout the ceremonies."

So why keep two ugly, scratchy dresses all these years?

Sentimental value, she says. It was their first time in a wedding, and the celebration was for a well-loved relative.

And now, those dresses can go back in the closet where they belong.

SECOND PLACE: Only a devoted sibling would wear this dress

What's a sister for, if not to buck up and wear an atrocious bridesmaids dress for her sibling's wedding?

Patty Breece shared then-and-now photos of a shiny pink, flowered dress her sister chose for bridesmaids for her 1972 wedding.

The styling was bad enough - double-banded puffed sleeves and an Empire waist, giving it a sort of a medieval, Renaissance-festival look. The glossy fabric made it even worse.

Breece, of Colorado Springs, only wore the dress that once, and later offered it as a prom dress to her nieces, who "almost died" at the thought.

"When they first saw the dress, they asked if it was made of plastic, and what in the world was their mom thinking when she selected this fabric," she wrote.

The dress has been hanging in a closet at her parents' house all these 30 years. The truly amazing thing is, it still fits her, but that isn't enough reason to let it see the light of day for at least another 30.

THIRD PLACE: Wearing this dress surely was no treat

It's a dress too ugly for even a Halloween costume, she says, yet Lynn Damewood of Colorado Springs bravely modeled this lovely number from several angles (though we only had room for one).

The dress, chosen by a so-called friend for a 1978 wedding, features a custom-made rose and pink ruffles.

"(We) couldn't believe our friend had chosen these dresses ... anything else she could have chosen would have been better," Damewood says. "To make things worse, we had to wear them off the shoulder to make the chiffon roses stand straight up. Then we found out we had to hook the dress bottom to the waist so the ruffles would cascade down the back."

Maybe it was a struggle, but Damewood came up with one positive comment.

"I was actually the lucky one, as I was the maid of honor," she says. "The (other) bridesmaids dresses had the colors reversed - pink with burgundy ruffles."

So why does she still have it?

"I was pretty sure the thrift shops couldn't sell it, and it was too expensive to just throw away. ... I kept it for my daughter to wear as a Halloween costume. I didn't realize it was so horrifying that she would refuse to wear it, even as a Halloween costume."