Leaving Room for Flexibility

A few months ago, I got a phone call from one of my bridesmaids.  It went a little something like this:

Bmaid: Heyyy
Lioness: Hi!  What's up?
Bmaid: Ummm...
Lioness: (awkward pause)
Bmaid: siiiigh...
Lioness: Dude, is everything okay?
Bmaid: Welllll...
Lioness: WHAT'S WRONG? (at this point, I'm thinking that she's about to tell me she can't be in the wedding, she doesn't want to be in the wedding for whatever reason, or something horrible happened)
Bmaid: (giggles) Are you sitting down?
Lioness: (feeling relieved and instantly knowing what's coming next) Yes?

Bmaid:......I'm PREGNANT!

{lots and lots of squealing}

Lioness: Congratulations!  Ohhhh I'm SO happy for you guys!
Bmaid: Oh good!  You're not mad.  I'm really worried about my dress, and I was worried that you would be worried, too!  I mean, I still plan to be there and everything, but what are we going to do about my dress?

Obviously, her dress was the last thing on my mind at that moment!  But she did bring up an excellent point: what's a bridesmaid to do?  This particular bridesmaid had not yet ordered one of the dresses that we had decided on months before she learned this news.  Allow me to remind you what those dresses looked like.

Oh, Sister Lioness.  Never a dull moment.

Empire waist? Some forgiveness around the hips?  Our first thought was that this dress would work with a baby bump...but then we did the math and figured out that my bmaid would be 8 months pregnant on our wedding day.  Again, I asked her if she was sure she wanted to commit to standing up there next to me.  She responded with things like "ARE YOU SERIOUS?" and "I'm just going to make him drive the whole way to Atlanta anyway."

I started to look at maternity bridesmaid dresses.  My first stop was Alfred Angelo; they make the dress that we had initially chosen, and I hoped I could find something in the same color.  Lo and behold, I found this:

Source

Is that similar or what?  I was so glad this bridesmaid of mine decided to put off ordering her dress!  She must have had a feeling.  I called the store where we had ordered the other bridesmaid dresses from.  I told them that one of my bridesmaids was pregnant, and they said, "Oh, so would you like to change her order to the 7002MA?"  I was a bit surprised that they knew which exact style I had chosen, but she simply replied, "Well, it looks the most like the one you had initially chosen."  It's always nice to have a salesgirl who knows her inventory!

I walked away from bridesmaid dress shopping having learned an important lesson: sometimes, it's best to go with the larger, more popular designers.  They're large and popular for many reasons, and one of the main reasons is their variety.  Granted, if I had chosen bridesmaid dresses from a small boutique, we would have been able to figure something out.  But this switch was very easy and very inexpensive, and for that I was grateful.  It's definitely important to leave room for flexibility...especially if you have a bridesmaid who you know will make a wonderful mother some day!

What kinds of changes have you had to accommodate for during your wedding planning?  Any major curve balls?