Today its all about Bridesmaids. I have the privilege of being one for my best friend next year in Cyprus. There are four of us and we have been discussing our dresses, and the various ways in which we are going to help our lovely friend Melanie, enjoy her day, and reduce her stress levels on the run up to the wedding. This got me thinking about all things bridesmaid.
Here are my top tips for choosing your bridesmaids, keeping them happy and how to get the best out of them during the planning of your wedding.
Choosing your Bridesmaids
This can be very difficult especially if you have lots of friends. First of all choose the friends or relative that will be the best support to you. Planning a wedding is very stressful not to mention time consuming, so you really want someone on your team who is calm, has time to help, and who understands you. The number of bridesmaids is another issue and how many you choose will depend on a number of things, probably the most important one is budget. Explain to your friends that you can’t have all of them, they will understand. You can always give them other roles to play on the day to make them feel part of everything.
The Dresses
The four of us are all totally different in personality, not to mention size and shape. You can ask your bridesmaids to choose their own dresses if you give them a style, theme, and colour to stick to. The picture in this blog illustrates perfectly how lovely bridesmaids can look when the dresses don’t all match. You don’t have to go with tradition, unless you want to. To reduce costs there are great choices on the high street, such as Monsoon, Coast, and French Connection. This way your bridesmaids may not even mind paying for their own dresses, especially if they can wear them again, and feel comfortable wearing them. There is nothing worse than making bridesmaids squeeze into dresses that don’t fit, or choosing colours they hate. At my own wedding we had different bridesmaids dresses and to pull the look together they all had the same shoes and matching jewellery.
Hair and Make-up
If you are having your hair and make-up done it is lovely if the bridesmaids can have theirs done to, but if your budget won’t stretch you can always pay for a make-up lesson for them. This can be fun and you can make an evening of it. Alternatively you can visit a department store where they sell MAC or Bobby Brown, get free advice and a free makeover. An alternative idea is to combine the make-up lesson with a day out, and that could double up as your hen party. Another idea is to visit somewhere like Beauty Boutique where a trained make-up artist makes you all up to look fantastic, and gives you lessons along the way. You even get afternoon tea, and if you really want to spoil yourselves take champagne to sip as you are being pampered.
Bridesmaids Gifts
Bridesmaids are a big help. On the morning of the wedding they will be running round doing all the last minute details, not to mention the time and effort they will have put in, in the run up to the wedding. Giving them a small gesture as a thank you is really appreciated. Jewellery is a lovely present and can be bought at really good prices. You could try Bead Fusion. This is a fantastic web site that makes custom jewellery for excellent prices. You can order the same style to go with the dresses to wear on the day, or different items for each bridesmaid. Another good idea which is really inexpensive but shows a lot of thought is giving each bridesmaid a framed picture of them with you taken on the wedding day.
Thank you cards are a nice idea especially if you personalise them for each bridesmaid. A little tip here is to try Ebay, they have a great selection of companies who make cards that are personalised at really good prices.
Let me know if you have any great ideas for bridesmaids gifts or advice and I will post it on my blog. If you have a bridesmaid question you need an answer for just call or contact me and I will be happy to help.
Good luck choosing your bridesmaids, until next time, happy planning.
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