Weddingbee Blog

Besides the whole “who gets the ring?” question, a lot of people have been interested in who our bridal party will be and what the people in it will be called. We had a very well-meaning vendor ask us if we’d be having “groomsmen.” Not quite.

Image via Klobb’s Posterous

Since we’re going to be having a smaller wedding, we didn’t want to have a humongous bridal party. I think its lovely when a couple has so many close friends and relatives that they love so much, that they end up with a huge bridal party. But, we wanted to deliberately keep it small because of our smaller sized guest list and because we wanted to keep the pre-wedding fuss (showers, bachelorettes, dress shopping, etc.) to a minimum.

As you all saw in my DIY letterpress post, we’re having “bridesmen.” In fact, each of us is having one bridesman and one bridesmaid. We had originally wanted to call them “Wedding VIPs,” but whenever we would talk about them using this term, family and friends just weren’t getting it. So we’ve been using our bridesmaid/bridesman titles pretty consistently and it seems like everyone (even my 85-year-old grandma!) gets it, so far. Our bridal party is pretty “nontraditional,” but so are we. We haven’t gotten any negative comments about each choosing one male attendant, but I can sense that a few of our family members and friends don’t quite understand it.

Now for our bridal-party introductions.

Miss Eagle’s Bridesman of Honor: Teigan

Image personal

We met in our 10th-grade Catholic religion class (oh, the irony…), and we’ve been friends ever since. Throughout the years, I’ve done most of my growing up with Teigan. I couldn’t picture him NOT standing beside me at our wedding (and plus, he listens to all of my crazy wedding ideas and is actually interested in the details…he’s definitely earned this position!).

Miss Eagle’s Bridesmaid: Christiana

Image via Christiana

Christiana and I met in University when we were both studying biomedical sciences. Even though our program was killer hard and more people dropped out than graduated: we both made it! And we both now hold a degree that can get us a job…nowhere (unless you count graduate school)! Chrissy has seen me make more mistakes than I can count (or remember…) and has always been an amazing and supportive friend.

Fiancee Eagle’s Bridesmaid of Honor: Jessica

Image via Loree Photography

Jessica is Fiancee Eagle’s cousin. They are a year apart in age and grew up together, on “the farm.” Jessica just got married herself this past summer to her wonderful husband Tanner. She couldn’t have imagined asking anyone else but her “first friend” Jessica to stand up with her.

Fiancee Eagle’s Bridesman: Matthew

Image via Matthew

Matthew and Fiancee Eagle have so much in common, it is seriously scary. They both are die-hard Star Trek fans and love writing fan-fiction stories. They have known each other for years and have an amazing brother-sister type relationship that is so special to her. He even named his daughter after her!

Did you have a nontraditional bridal party, too? How did your friends and family react?