Bridesmaids

Choosing Bridesmaids

Good Afternoon again WBC Ladies! I am in a very posting mood, maybe because I am stuck in the house dealing with allergy and sinus issues with the changing weather! Ugh!

Anyway, I posted earlier my engagement/proposal story, now I thought I should take some time to chat about my wedding party, specifically my bridesmaids. I always knew after college that I would have certain people apart of my bridal party. And now that that time has finally come, I began going to work on how to ask my friends and family members to be my bridesmaids. Let me first say that I had no idea about the bridal etiquette of asking people to be bridesmaids. My cousin, who will be one of my Matron's of Honors asked me few months after I had gotten engaged how I was going to ask my bridesmaids. I simply told her, I was going to call them ask them. You should have heard the dead silence on the phone. She said, "What call them?" She proceeded to educate me on the bridesmaid etiquette and gave me some awesome ideas of her own, told me what she had done, as well as pointed me in the direction where I could gather more ideas.

Fred and I discussed our wedding party, how many people to have and who would those people be. Earlier in our relationship before our engagement we had talked about this kind of thing. I told him that I always wanted 7 because numbers mean things to me from the biblical sense and 7 is the number of completion. At first he thought that was way too many and said he could not even think of 7 people he would want to ask to be a groomsmen. I was a bit disappointed by his response, but I this disappoint would change in the future after our engagement.

Back to the present... After creating a Google joint account designated for joint things and all things wedding, I started a Google document for our wedding party. I wrote down all the people who I wanted to be in my wedding. Off the top I knew 5 of the 7, but I was having difficulty figuring out the other two people to have as part of my bridal party. I was quite conflicted over who to and not to ask. I thought long and hard and prayed over it as well, because even though it may not seem to be that serious, your bridesmaid can really make or break the wedding planning experience. I heard horror stories over bridesmaids egos, attitudes, lack of assistance, etc. My cousin, also my Matron of Honor gave me some great advice based on her experience. She said don't ask anybody that you have doubts about, question, or second guess having them. Those people are usually the ones that you end up regretting asking them to be apart of your special day. That advice along with my own prayer over it helped me select my wedding party.

My wedding party consists of: 2 Matron of Honors, 1 Maid of Honor, 4 Bridesmaids and 1 Jr. Bridesmaids

My first Matron of Honor is my Cousin-in-Law ( I selected her because she is great at this wedding planning stuff, she is the only person in my bridal party that lives in Atlanta with me, she also likes to do this kind of thing as well)

My second matron of honor is my bestfriend from college and my Line sister. We are very much alike and she always gives sound advice even when I don't want to hear it... We have been though a lot together

My Maid of Honor is my longest, and oldest best friend. We have been friends since elementary school. We share a lot of the same values, goals, and aspirations. We are also very much alike in the way we see the world and see life. No matter how long we go without talking it's like we have never missed a beat.

My Bridesmaids- 2 are my best friends from High School and another one is my Line sister and dear friend from college and the other one is my fiance' best friend and my neo/spec (sorority sister)

My junior bridesmaid is my fiance' niece.

Now as far as asking them to be apart of my wedding party, I have composed a unique letter to each person stating our friendship and relationship and why I want them to be apart of this day. I also wrote them each a poem tailored to them. I got them individualized "Will You be My _______" cookies and 2 charms -- 1 that describes their personality and another that goes with the theme of our wedding.

I am going to send them their packages next week, but I wanted to have my location and date set for the wedding before then. I am super excited about my bridesmaid gifts and I cannot wait for them to receive them in the mail.

I will post pictures of everything together as soon as I receive the Bridesmaid Cookies in the mail!