Wedding Advice – Here Comes the Blog

Posts Tagged ‘bridesmaids’

If you want to host a luncheon for your bridesmaid gifts, you’ll need some ideas to make it fun and lighthearted. After all, these are your best pals and some of them have had to travel and go to great expense to get to buy the dress, stay at a hotel, and purchase your gift. This is your chance to repay them with a fun thank you luncheon.

Hold your luncheon as close to the date of the wedding as you like. If all bridesmaids are local and there’s no traveling involved, have it a few weeks before the wedding. If a few of the bridesmaids have to travel, you should have it no more than one day before the wedding. The afternoon before the wedding is a great time to host a bridesmaid’s lunch because everyone will already be there and they will have nothing to fill their time before the rehearsal dinner.

Keep the theme of your bridesmaid luncheon focused on pampering your bridesmaids. You can have it at a spa which includes lunch with its manicures, massages or pedicures. Just be mindful that some of your bridal party may have already gotten their nails done at home for the wedding, so offer a facial, massage, or make up application as options.

Another place you might host your luncheon is at a mall. Find a restaurant that won’t be overly crowded at the time you want to have your lunch. The anchor chain restaurants often have enough room to accommodate your whole party in a private area. Ask and book well in advance. You don’t want everyone standing in line the day of the party.

Have fun with your luncheon. Include shopping around the mall for last minute items the girls may need or just for window shopping relaxation. The girls will love it. Some brides like to include their mom as well as the mother of the groom in the bridal party luncheon. It just makes it more cozy and inclusive, especially if the groomsmen and dads are off playing golf or having their own afternoon party, the moms will have somewhere to go.

Try not to plan anything too strenuous as the guests have to be perky for the night’s rehearsal dinner.  Also, try not to force everyone onto the beach or out into the sun for the luncheon. They may get sunburned and then not only be in pain, but they won’t be happy with their lobster red appearance in the wedding photos.

Some other ideas include having the party at someone’s home. It can be at your mom’s or your own home if you have the room. You can do spa facials or just hang out and read magazines or watch funny movies. It’s girl time and you should serve yummy treats. If it’s the day before your wedding, don’t stress yourself by trying to make all the food. Hire a caterer to bring food in or visit a warehouse store that specializes in party platters and cakes. You can buy everything you need the morning of the party or the day before.

Have little gifts on hand to thank your bridesmaids. You can provide bridesmaid gifts or treat bags that have bottled water and little snacks for the hotel room, or you can give them earrings that they can wear at the wedding or a nice bracelet.

For more bridesmaid gift ideas, try:

• Monogrammed Bridal Party Gifts
• Personalized Bridesmaids Gift Ideas
• Bridesmaid Gifts on a Budget

If you’re like most newly engaged women, your mind is off in dreamland planning the perfect wedding day. You’re thinking about what your dress will look like, where you’ll have the reception, and what’s going to be on the menu. Soon, you’ll start wondering who you should ask to be in your bridal party—and when should you ask them?

These are important details to attend to. As soon as you become engaged you’re going to want to get things started right away. Even with all the excitement, you want to take the time to plan each detail carefully.

Before you name your bridal party and tell all your friends and family, you’ll want to sit down with your fiancé and have a discussion. Who is he thinking of asking to be groomsmen? Does he have sisters that he assumes will be part of the bridal party as well? Is there a special person in the family who simply has to be included in the bridal party? If he has children from a previous marriage, do you want them to be at the altar with you? Often today one or both of the couple bring children into the new union. You’ll definitely want to consider whether they’re the right age to serve as attendants or if they even want to.

After you’ve talked and gotten your groom’s take, you can start to plan out the bridal party from your perspective. First make a list of all the women in your life who are especially important to you. Include cousins, friends, sisters, the groom’s sisters, etc. Now comes the hard part—the narrowing down.

Chances are, in a situation that involves choosing only a few people, you are bound to hurt someone’s feelings unintentionally. Be prepared for how and when you will deliver the news of who’s made the cut. This is one good reason for not rushing out and announcing who’s in the bridal party too early.

So how early is early? And how late is too late? There is no rule set in stone, but you should give yourself enough time to really consider the bridal party from every aspect. Even if you’ve dreamed about your wedding since you were ten years old and know exactly who you want to ask, you now have a groom’s side to consider as well. And remember, you can’t go switching your choices after you’ve asked people.

So follow these suggestions:

• Plan to ask each person you want in your party at least eight months before the wedding. This will give them time to prepare for travel, costs that arise, etc. If you don’t have eight months to plan the entire wedding, ask them as soon as you possibly can.
• Ask each person privately if they would like to be in your bridal party. Notify them of the approximate cost (wedding attire, travel, etc.) of what they’d be responsible for. Take no for an answer if it seems they can’t or don’t want to do it.
• Don’t be upset if someone can’t be in your party. Many couples are facing job loss or have small children and are not in a position to lay out cash for wedding expenses that are required of the head party. If your feelings are hurt, try to understand it from your friend’s perspective.
• After each person has been chosen and given a definite yes, announce your bridal party through the grapevine. In other words, don’t go onto Facebook and announce it to the world. Let your mom, sisters, and friends tell people when they ask or mention it in casual company. It’s in poor taste to hand out a list of who’s in the party. It may offend people who are not asked.
• Prepare in advance for how much help you’ll be asking of your party. If you want little help, tell them. If you envision your girls being at your side every step of the way, let them know what you’re planning throughout the process and be prepared to have some special bridesmaid gifts ready in your appreciation.
• Above all, let the people you haven’t asked know you care deeply about them but were limited. Invite them to participate in another way.

For more bridal party advice, try:

• Who Should Pick the Bridesmaid Dresses?
• Booking Bride/Bridesmaid Spa Weekend Packages
• Bridesmaid Luncheon Ideas
• Spa Day Bridal Shower

It's been a long debate for years now. Who should choose what the bridesmaid dresses look like? Ultimately the bride chooses the color, but should she also pick the style for each and every bridesmaid? Or should the bridesmaids be able to choose what dress they will all wear on the big day?

I was chatting with an upset MOTG (mother of the groom) yesterday and she was disappointed with the dresses that the bride had chosen. "Who's choice is it?" She asked me. It made me think. Technically I had always thought that what the bride says; goes. It's her wedding and everything is her (and his) choice. When my sister got married, I subtly asked if we could avoid the strapless bridesmaid dress style. When she told me her decision two weeks later, low and behold, she had chosen the strapless dresses (of all the gowns we tried on!) I wasn't thrilled but I told myself that it was her wedding, and I will suck it up and wear what she wanted me to.

The mother of the groom was really wishing that the bride would have consulted with the bridesmaids (one of which is the groom's sister) with what style they were most comfortable in. Her point was that she wished the bride would have taken into account the shape and figures of the girls before she chose a dress. Which is a good point, and I'm sure the bridesmaids did have valuable feedback on the dresses but it's not really accounted for as bridal essentials. But ultimately... who's choice is it?

The question therefore still remains unanswered. What do you think? Who should choose the bridesmaid dresses?