One of my bridesmaids had a thing on her personal blog for a while where she would pick a shoe that reminded her of a specific friend and explain why the shoe was representative of the friend. I always thought this was a neat idea.
Since I’ve spent a goodly amount of time looking at shoes in order to put together what I’d like to look like on our wedding day*, it has given me ample opportunity to find shoes that remind me of my bridesmaids.
So, without further ado, introducing the bridal party with shoes!
Maid Of Honor Tart has been my friend since I was five years old. I was originally better friends with her older sister (Tart is two years younger than I am), but over the years I grew closer and closer to Tart. Tart understands me better than most people and has been there for me through thick and thin. She’s practical but fun and (like this all around adorable shoe) is great to have in many different situations. This shoe especially reminds me of her because her favorite color is pink.
Hi hive! As discussed the other day, the idea of having eight attendants was mostly due to Cam. I had no problem coming up with eight of my own lovely ladies.
MOH JJ, BM Hamster, and BM Twerk from PA school:
Personal photo / MOH JJ’s wedding July 2012. Clockwise from top left: MOH JJ’s husband, MOH JJ, BM Hamster, me, BM Twerk
No, this isn’t about our reception, which I am sure will end up being one of the most amazing parties our guests have ever experienced. This is about something much more important—our bridal party!
I knew from the get-go that we would most likely have lopsided sides of the bridal party, and I was OK with that. When thinking of who I wanted to stand with me as I married Mr. B, one question came to mind: Who do I want to get ready with on my wedding day? Who would I miss if they weren’t there with me, getting our hair and makeup done together? Who do I want to distract me with dance parties and mimosas in case I get nervous or stressed? OK, that’s more than one question, but you get the idea!
I am blessed to have so many amazing women in my life. I have college friends, work friends, adult friends, etc. I will go ahead and cut to the chase here. I have 10 bridesmaids. Ack! I know, I know. None of them were people I included for the sake of including them—they are all people I love deeply and would feel incomplete if they weren’t getting ready with me.
Despite the feeling of being swamped over the last few weeks, I actually got a lot done! I want to introduce to you my first wedding DIY project…”WILL YOU BE MY MAID” invites. Speaking from experience, it is HARD WORK to be a bridesmaid. And often you are overlooked and underappreciated. I didn’t want to start my wedding-planning process with my bridesmaids not feeling as special as they truly are. I know I may be biased, but I think I will have the best women in the world standing by my side on my wedding day.
This was truly a labor of love and I enjoyed every minute of it. Even better than making it was the reaction that I received from my bridesmaids! I am so excited to share with you. They were not all that difficult to make. Here is what you will need:
I decided to go with a more elegant look for the invites with the flair of my personality in the text. I made a layered look that I thought would mirror an actual wedding invite. I used Microsoft Publisher to create the files. If you want them, please let me know and I can send them to you. I made the following sections:
Now that our entire wedding party has been formally asked to participate in the wedding, I can finally share my first DIY project, my “Will You Be My” gifts!
Brides are finding such cute and inventive ways to ask their friends and family to stand up in their weddings. After pursuing some of my favorites, I came up with this idea.
Please tell me I am not the only bride who is constantly thinking about this topic. Love! Of course this applies to Mr. Squirrel, but that’s not what I’m talking about here. I daydream about brand spankin’ new love. Love at first sight/conversation.
What the heck am I talking about?
Not just the love we have for our friends and family in the wedding, but I am banking on some serious relationships forming. We both have nine people in our wedding parties. Some of these people are in committed relationships but many are single and ready to mingle! A lot of them have established their careers, “played the field” over the years, and now are at the point where they are ready to settle down.
Mr. Squirrel’s friends and brothers have never met any of my friends or sisters. Ah, I can’t wait!!! I know it is completely naive to think everyone will hit it off, but I like to be the optimist. I literally create diagrams where I pair people up. And yes, Mr. Squirrel helps. 
This is my favorite version:
Don’t worry, one of my good friends who will be a guest at the wedding will be a perfect match for the Old Roommate.
For some people, you may have had an idea of who would be in your bridal party for some time now. For others, a root canal is probably more pleasant than the thought of deciding who to include as your leading ladies (or men).
“I’m glad he’s single because I’m going to climb that like a tree” — Melissa McCarthy in Bridesmaids / Image via IMDB.com
Then there are some who get so fed up with the whole process of choosing a bridal party that they ultimately decide not to have one. And you know what? That’s totally fine. There are no rules saying you have to have anyone (and there’s no rule saying you can’t have 10 bridesmaids if that’s what you want). Ultimately, you and your fiance need to do what works best for you.
Miss Sword’s “Learn from my mistake” Wedding Tip: Do not use the term “personal attendants” when referring to other awesome friends that you want to include in your bridal party. People will think “personal attendant” is a synonym for “do whatever I say bitch” and you will be grossly misunderstood.
Instead call them “Honor Attendants” and all will be well with the world.
(Mom Sword even had a personal attendant in her wedding back in ’79, but I guess times have changed!)
For a refresher, my bridal party consists of MOH Big Eyes (my beloved and also engaged Sister), my BFF L Dawg (who’s so tight with my family that she’s even traveled with all us), Cousin Jo (whom I’ve watched grow up and turn into an amazing young woman), and Mr. Sword’s Wee Sis (aka my future-sister-in-law and therefore stuck with me for life-hehe). My bridal party is filled with those I call family. And it’s four people on purpose. I didn’t want a huge bridal party.
That said, I have some amazing friends and if I could recognize everyone I would, but it’s just not possible!
In the end, I felt strongly that two particular girlfriends (besties for life) needed to be a part of bridal party but not necessarily walk down the aisle, and that’s how I found myself with honor attendants.
Meet honor attendant H Bomb.
Meet honor attendant C Fri.
I realized a couple of months before the wedding that it wasn’t only about me being prepared for the wedding. It was also about the bridal party being prepared. After all the chaos that I have seen unfold at friends’ weddings in their last couple months, and knowing that our wedding was (slightly) out of town, I knew that getting everyone together and on the same page was very important.
So back in April, I sent out a Facebook invite setting aside a day in the last 60 days where the entire bridal party could get together, I could disseminate information (and also KNOW they got it), and everyone could have one last chance to hang out before the hectic-ness of the last 30 days set in. To be honest, I had visions of grandeur for this barbecue. I pictured myself having packets of handouts and schedules and lists. I figured we’d push a couple picnic tables together and I would stand in front of them like a CEO at a large board meeting explaining to them, in detail, what was going to go down. YYYYEAH. That did NOT happen. When it came down to it, it was more about everyone enjoying themselves: the guys at the barbecue, the ring bearers getting to play together in the sand, the girls talking about the disorganization of the guys, actually getting to sit down and (briefly) meet with M about cake (bottom line: I trust her to make it perfect with no direction whatsoever). While everyone was eating I went between two tables, bringing up the miscellaneous things I did need to discuss, trying to keep it casual and trying not to come off as a bridezilla dictator. But at the end of the day, the barbecue was awesome! And I’m so glad we had the chance and forethought to plan it!
Here are some awesome photos of the event!
GM R, MOH S, BM T & BM J (and S’s FI in the background)
Hive…I come here with my head hanging in shame, and OK.. maybe I’m also blushing a little about the horrible fail that my was my first DIY wedding project. It’s so bad that I don’t even have any photos to share…and I’m not exaggerating—it was that bad.
So…here it goes. If you’re on Pinterest, or browsing any wedding blogs in the whole wide world, then you’ve seen these “Be my maid?” boxes that the fabulous Bethany from Rinse. Repeat. made.
Image via Rinse. Repeat. / And the lovely Bethany gives instructions on how to make these gorgeous “Be my maid?” boxes!
…bridesmaid?
I’ve seen a lot of cute and unique ways floating around on the web how brides have asked their best girls to be bridesmaids at their weddings. Unfortunately for me, I had asked the majority of my bridesmaids over the phone or online practically right after I got engaged, mostly because many of my bridesmaids are family members who I called right away to tell them the big news of my engagement—BFF and cousin Henna, Henna’s younger sister, Dancer, and my baby sister, Lil Dillo.
Anyway, just because I’d asked them in the rush of engagement excitement didn’t mean I couldn’t do something sweet for them in terms of how much they mean to me, and there was still one other wonderful lady, Mascara, I hadn’t yet asked about being a member of my bridal party. Ergo, with my natural inclination to be crafty and creative, I considered making them some kind of…something. Eventually, I’d decided to make them all completely handcrafted cards from scratch and mail them in pretty, decorated envelopes. Aside from being crazy-fun and crafty, it would also allow me to try out my newest crafting purchase: the heat embossing gun.
Before I talk about the embossing gun, let me show you some pictures! All of my bridesmaids (by the way, Mascara agreed to be a bridesmaid—hooray!) have confirmed they have received the cards, so I feel like I can now reveal them to the blogosphere. Enjoy!
Picking my bridal party in many ways was easy. I always knew S would again be my maid of honor. She was the first person I called, and I don’t know how she was able to make out my squealing request! It was difficult for me to breathe, let alone ask her a question (or wait for her answer)! I saw Bridesmaid K a few days later, and even though I was dying to ask her to be a bridesmaid and her son little K (one of my two favorite little guys) to be the ring bearer, Mr. B claimed that even though he had completely decided who would be his groomsmen, K’s hubby and his brother included, he claimed he wasn’t prepared to ask them. So I planned on waiting and planning an awesome way to ask. Until we were celebrating at their house and he just blurted out that he wanted them to be groomsmen. So much for creative planning. They all happily accepted, and now there were only two left to ask. I quickly planned a lunch with my two best friends from high school. I honestly couldn’t believe how nervous I was! But luckily they happily agreed, and my bridal party was set!
Now that I’m far along in the planning process and I’m working on putting together bridesmaid gifts, I’ve found so many cute cards and gifts for asking someone to be a bridesmaid, and I wish my impatience had not gotten the best of me! I would love to have given my bridesmaids something like this:
Photo via Michele Purner Designs Etsy shop
I took a while to ask my ‘maids to be in the wedding (sorry, pals) even though I’d known forever who I wanted to ask; the reason it took a bit is that I wanted to ask in a creative way…and here’s what I came up with!
It was around the Christmas holiday, so I bought clear christmas ornaments (super inexpensive at Michaels) to make “wishing ornament.” A wishing ornament is designed to hold a hope or a wish—usually a small piece of paper hidden inside.
I cut up small strips of paper that said “will you be my bridesmaid?” and curled them around on shiny blue paper:
As Mr. Coyote and I wrapped up our portraits, our officiant, Robyn, popped in. This was it. I knew that we were only moments away from our ceremony. She asked me how I was feeling and I immediately blurted out, “I can’t stop crying!” (and promptly started crying again). She assured me that everything was going to be OK and that she carried a handkerchief with her at all times in case the bride (or the groom!) needed one during the ceremony. Meanwhile I had found a box of tissues and grabbed a few to stuff down my dress in case of emergency.
Fortunately, Robyn has a very soothing personality and immediately put me at ease. Unfortunately, she soon stole my groom from me so he could line up downstairs with the other groomsmen. She did, however, replace him with my mom and maids of honor, so I guess I can’t complain.
While the men were goofing off during their photography session, my lovely bridesmaids and I were working our best model poses.
