Today's brides are usually post-college rather than just out of high school, with friends who are also in the first years of trying to be financially stable and independent. So there's a much greater need to fit the bridesmaid dress to the financial means and personal tastes of the wearers.

And the "shut up and wear it" approach always had the downside of limiting your pool of potential bridesmaids to the women who look good wearing anything and the ones with enough sense of humor to not care if they looked awful.

In addition, the humorous ones resurrected their bridesmaid dresses as Halloween costumes or entered them in Ugly Bridesmaid Dress contests.