I asked my girls if they would be my bridesmaids shortly after I got engaged. Looking back on it now, after going through all my wedding planner training and helping out other brides during their special planning time I would have definitely done this differently for my girls. I would have given them a cute box with a bridemaid related book instead with some sparking juice and something cute that went along with our colors and wedding theme. But alas that did not happen. Of course I think of all the great ideas AFTER I get married....Oh well I can help out other brides in this area, right? So I asked all my girls, called them if I didn't see them face to face and asked if they would honor me by standing next to me as I say my vows. Everyone said yes! :)
At our rehearsal we gave our bridal party their thank you gifts. We both made bags of goodies for them. The great thing about working at a beauty company is that we get tons of stuff for free. I have bags and bags of it. So I broke it all down and picked out specific things I knew each girl liked and gave them a bag full of goodies and fun stuff. Eric did the same thing for his guys. Below is an example of the numerous bags I have of beauty products. I wish I would have taken a picture of the original bridesmaids bags but I wasn't blogging at the time and felt there was no need.
I have to back up though because before I asked my girls Eric and I sat down to talk about how we wanted our wedding to look. How many people on each side, what traditions were we going to include etc before we could actually pick out the "who." I wanted a small wedding. Something like 3 - 4 people per side. If you were at our wedding or at last have seen pictures you know that this did not happen! Eric ended up asking more people than he was supposed to and because I wanted both sides to be even I had to ask just as many girls and in total we ended up with;
At our rehearsal we gave our bridal party their thank you gifts. We both made bags of goodies for them. The great thing about working at a beauty company is that we get tons of stuff for free. I have bags and bags of it. So I broke it all down and picked out specific things I knew each girl liked and gave them a bag full of goodies and fun stuff. Eric did the same thing for his guys. Below is an example of the numerous bags I have of beauty products. I wish I would have taken a picture of the original bridesmaids bags but I wasn't blogging at the time and felt there was no need.
- 5 Bridesmaids (one Maid of Honor)
- 5 Groomsmen (one Best Man)
- 1 Jr. Bridesmaid
- 1. Jr. Groomsman
- 2 Flower Girls
- 1 Ring Bearer
My maid of honor was my sister. My bridesmaids were some of my closest friends. I say some because I couldn't have everyone I loved in my wedding and had to make the select few. One of the girls I asked I had known since 8th grade and at the time of our wedding we had been friends for 12 years so that was really special that she was able to make it out and stand next to me as I said I do. My jr. bridesmaid was a little girl that I babysit for. Her family started coming to our church when she was three and I was recruited first for the job. She was a handful but I loved it and she loved me so we made a good team. She holds a dear place in my heart so I knew I wanted her to be part of my special day too. I ended p having two flower girls even though I originally had planned for only one. The original one had been in a wedding a couple years prior and she was so adorable and just so excited to be the flower girl that I wanted to capture that excitement for my own wedding. Her family is also close family friends so I was thrilled when her parents said of course she could be my flower girl. I remember I was at church and walked up to my mom and said that I had asked the parents of the little girl if it was ok, they said yes and so I asked the little girl if she was enjoy that and she was so excited, but as I'm telling my mom this she cuts me off and says not right now, let's talk about this later. I asked why? And she said "because I have a little girl behind me who today asked in class why no one asks her to be a flower girl for their weddings." Well that just broke my heart and so after the service I went up to her mom and asked if it would be ok if she was my 2nd flower girl and her said "yes! she will be so excited." And she was!! One of the best moves I could make.
The groomsmen were all Eric's friends. Some childhood friends, some he met while working at Advance. All great guys. I knew all of them and have hung out with all of them before our big day so I knew this was a great group of people we had surrounding us. Our jr. groomsman and ring bearer were Eric's nephews. MY nephews now!!
The nice thing was our kids were all close in age. Jr groomsmen and bridesmaid were both 8 and the ring bearer and flower girls were 7. It all worked out very well.
That is one piece of advice I would give couples who are planning their wedding. If you are going to have children be a part of the wedding pick older ones and ones who are not shy. I've been to weddings where they were too young and didn't know what to do. You're standing there praying they either make it all the way down the aisle without crying, or freaking out. Hopefully they don't scream, run to their parents, hide, forget their job etc...For your sanity...just don't. If you do end up wanting the little tykes then I would suggest having them go down with older ones. Have an older siblings pulling the young one in a wagon. Or have a bridesmaid / groomsmen walk with the little one. There's ways to do it and it still look lovely without the little ones being little ones and freaking out that all eyes are on them and only them.
I absolutely loved our wedding party and all who came to celebrate with us. It was truly a great night with some awesome people. I have since then met some even more awesome people and only wish I could do it all over again with them included! I wouldn't mind renewing our vows one day with a whole new wedding :)
Maybe Some Day.
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