Choosing the color of your bridesmaids’ dresses is a complicated process. Not only do you have to consider comfort, fit, budget, and style, but you also have to confront one of the biggest complications of all time – picking the right color. This is going to depend on season, time of day, and most importantly, skin tone.

That’s right, skin tone is a huge consideration for each bridesmaid. Everyone has a different skin tone, and while it’s possible to find a dress color that works for everyone’s skin tone, you first have to understand how to match a dress color to skin tone.

Check out some of our tips below to help guide you toward picking the right bridesmaid dress color for each of your bridesmaids!

Determine Your Surface Tone

First, try to figure out your surface tone – this is the color our skin, like light, medium, dark, and more! Take a good look in the mirror. Do you have pale skin? Do you have an olive-medium skin tone? Do you have a darker skin tone Understanding and nailing down this broad categorization can help you determine other helpful aspects about your skin tone! It all starts with determining your surface tone!

Understand Your Undertones, Too

Skin tone encompasses more than just your surface tone, you need to understand your undertones, too! Undertones can usually be divided up into basic categories like warm, neutral, or cool. Check out your veins and the irises of your eyes. Are you veins more of a blue or a green? Typically, greenish-looking veins reflect a warmer undertone while blueish-looking veins reflect a cooler undertone. Your eyes can give you helpful hints, too! Lovely ladies with blue, green, or gray eyes typically have cooler undertones while brown, amber, or hazel eyes reflect warmer ones! Remember, it’s possible for people to have similar surface tones but different undertones, meaning their skin tones are different!

Make Some Preliminary Choices

Now that you’ve determined your skin tone, it’s vital to make some preliminary choices and some vital eliminations. This will help you narrow down your bridesmaid dress search (at least in the color department, anyway!)

If you’re shopping for a bridesmaid who has a medium colored skin, consider gorgeous, deep burgundy bridesmaid dresses or gold bridesmaid dresses. If you’re shopping for a bridesmaid with lighter skin, consider light pastel bridesmaid dresses.