It’s Wednesday! That means it’s time for another Wedding Wednesday. If you missed it, here’s my post from last week, Ring Shopping!
These days, there seems to always be a big competition on the cutest and most creative way to… propose marriage, ask someone to prom, announce a pregnancy, reveal your baby’s gender, and ask your bridesmaids to be your bridesmaids. I blame the internet. Especially Pinterest. On the other hand, these things can be a pretty big deal. These days, being a bridesmaid is a big commitment financially, emotionally, and time-wise, so you want your bridesmaids to feel loved and honored as much as possible.
My bridal party consisted of my 3 roommates, 2 other friends from college, my cousin, and a good family-friend. My junior bridesmaids consisted of my cousin, a good family-friend, and Pearson’s sister. And my flower girls were my 2 little cousins. Did you get that? That’s 12 girls.
So I could use the excuse that I had too many girls and didn’t want to spend the money or make that many cute souvenirs or something. But honestly, I put off asking them and ran out of time to do something cute and fancy. I was graduating from college that semester and planning my wedding, OK? So what I did was, one Friday night, I cooked dinner for the 5 girls who were at Harding with me. This is a big deal for college students, you know. And I just asked them over dinner. Lame, I know.
For the girls at home, I waited until labor day when they were all at my grandma’s house celebrating (including the family-friends) and I video called them. I asked them each individually if they would like to be in the wedding. Most of them were sort of shocked and flattered and one of them (the youngest flower girl) flat out said no. But she eventually warmed up to the idea and did a fantastic job!
Next, I had to decide who was going to be my Maid of Honor. I think for a lot of girls, this is a no-brainer. And if I were doing it now, it would be. But 3ish years ago, it was a difficult decision for me. I decided to go with Ashley because I knew we had a lot in common and I knew she would take the responsibility seriously, give me her honest opinion, and never make this about her. Even though she was 2 years younger than me and I probably knew her the least (at the time) out of all my girls, I made the right choice. She went above and beyond my expectations, and no doubt, became my bff.
So how did I share my decision with her? Well, I was really nervous about it because it wasn’t the obvious choice. One day, me and Pearson were eating dinner with her and Taylor (now her husband) and she asked me who was the MOH. I hesitated, looked to Pearson for support, and said “Well I would really like for it to be you?” She was really surprised. Pretty lame, huh?
Looking back at my wedding planning, this is one of my only regrets. I wish I had made a bigger deal about asking my bridesmaids. I hope they know I appreciate them so much! To see about how wonderfully they treated me the whole wedding weekend, read my wedding series. I couldn’t have asked for better girls by my side!
My Advice: Make something special that your bridesmaids can keep forever like what Ashley did when she asked me (pictured below). And take pictures of the ordeal.
A mason jar wrapped in burlap and lace that says “Matron of Honor? Charlene June 1, 2013” filled with Hershey’s Kisses |
How did you ask your bridesmaids? Did you make it a big deal or keep it low-key?
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