As in most cases bride-mates pay the orders, the bride should discuss with them a question of the price in detail. Besides it is better to choose such a dress which could be used and after wedding as well or with insignificant alterations. Russian brides also should take into account the sizes of a dress of her bride-mates and also they should be up to date and of appropriate colors.
The bride does not buy jewels for her bride-mates, but she can advice whether it will be a thread of pearls, a golden chain or something else.
She also chooses a style of a hairdress that will become to all of them. If some of them have got long hair, and others - short and curly, probably, the most simple decision is to put a bow which will be a nice accessory to your dress. Straw hats look very bad usually so you'd better forget about them.
Dresses of bride-mates of Russian brides on style and cloth are always combined with a dress of the bride though variations of color are quite allowable. So, for example, two first bride-mates can have bright red dresses, two next - bright - pink, then pink dresses should follow and further on the dresses can be even beige. White dresses of bride-mates, probably, will distract the attention of the audience from the wedding dress of the Russian bride, however when dresses are decorated with belts or tapes of different colors, they may look really superb, especially if wedding party will take place in the garden with many flowers and trees.
As during a wedding ceremony bride-mates mostly stand with their back to the audience, the style of a dress should be chosen so that it look nice from the back as well. Skirts of long dresses ought not to get up to a floor otherwise somebody will step on it by all means.
To put on gloves or not - it's up to the bride to decide. If they are especially well combined with the dress, then it will be pretty good. But note that in the daytime it's better to wear short white gloves and at night gloves should be short, but actually you can do without them.
And of course there should be many many flowers, each bride-mate of Russian ladies must have a nice, well-arranged bouquet!