For the shorties in the house..

Holy crap those dresses are amazing!!! But anyway... if you want to go barefoot for your ceremony then wear heels for the reception you may be better off having hemmed for you as you are barefoot. I had mine hemmed just a little and I too am 5'4"

HOLY CRAP!! I'm so excited to see I'm not the only short one, 5ft (technically 4ft and 11 and 3/4 inches).

On a more serious note, I'm planning a barefoot beach ceremony as well, and I'd love any more advice you all have.

I'm 5'1" and I ordered my dress hollow to hem, so didn't need to get it hemmed. I told them I would be wearing 1" heels, even though I'm planning to wear flats (or barefoot), and the length came out perfectly.

There are some great short dresses at Priscilla of Boston

Petunia

some others

This is one I'm considering:

Mari

I'm in the same boat - just under 5'3". but my dress has a sweep train. So I decided I'd go ahead and have it hemmed to my 1.5" shoes even though I'll be barefoot for the ceremony. Te train is going to be in the sand anyway, so who cares if a bit of the dress is, too.

What exactly does hollow to hem mean? I'm 5'1" so I'm in the shorty boat as well.

I agree that the "hollow to hem" measurment is the way to order your dress...unless the length of the sample is particularly good for you. What they do is measure from that "hollow" on your neck/throat between your collar bones...like where a charm on a choker style necklace would sit if you were wearing one. Anyway, they measure from that point to where you would want the hem to be (make sure you have a shoe of the height you want for when they take this measurement...most salons will have shoes in almost any height you could use too.) and then they just make the dress that length. I did this for my dress and it was perfect! No hemming for me! It's usually a smallish additional cost to order it this way...but typically far less expensive than having to take off a bunch of length and hem it in the salon.

Ask about it when you're dress shopping and they can show you how it works.

shorty boat hahaha, me too

my dress is floor length, and the skirt is full of pickups, so they didn't really hem it, but created another row of pickups at the bottom to lift the skirt edge up. it also has a small sweep train, and that bustled up into pickups as well. i'm barely 5'3", and i had them "hem" it to barefoot since i'll be barefoot on the beach, but wearing very flat converse at our home wedding. it just barely brushes the ground when i'm barefoot, and i like how my shoes peek out just a smidge when i walk, i think it's fun that way since i'm wearing the silly shoes under the dress, unexpected

Thanks for the explanation. That's a BIG help!