Okay, it has been wayyyy too long since I've had a wedding focused blog post....and now that it's 2014 - aka the year I am getting married(!!!!) I figured it's about time to get back to business. If you follow my instagram (@theshorelinebride) you will start to notice a few more wedding related errands over the next couple of weeks. I've decided it's time to refocus after the holidays and check a few things off the list that have been lingering for awhile! Hopefully I can also use January to go back through and finish some posts about my vendors....the process of picking them, etc.
In the meantime - I thought I'd go back and talk about how I asked my favorite ladies (now my bridal party!) to be just that. First - I knew I wanted to make sure that I made a big deal out of asking the girls - while it is mostly about fun, there are some time and money commitments that come with being in a wedding - and I wanted to make sure they knew how much I appreciated them and couldn't imagine getting married without their help (and fabulousness). I also asked everyone fairly early - one piece of advice I had gotten was to wait until a little later in the planning process - but I came back from our EMoon and knew I wanted to get all the girls together for a White Carpet appointment at the White Dress by the Shore later that month to kick off the wedding planning (blog posts about it here and here) - so I had to get right to work!
There are so many cute and unique ways to ask your girls to be bridesmaids. I googled and searched Etsy and saw so many great ideas (here, here, here and here for a few example) - but none were exactly what I wanted! So I took bits and pieces from each thing I saw and slowly started to put together my perfect combination.
Below is the note that I put in each box - since it was so early, we had almost NO details yet. I didn't even know the location and date yet! But I knew I was marrying Ant and I knew I wanted them involved. What more do you need, really?
This note comments on 5-hour energy...my 19 year old sister got this one, the rest of the girls got a nip of Jack Daniels! I love that in addition to all the fun little bits, like chocolate and champagne, I was able to put a quick trip down memory lane with some pictures of me and each bridesmaid. The nail polish also became the perfect last item for the box - I had gone through all of Essie's colors looking for a fun name - there were lots of wedding related ones, but none that quite matched what I was looking for. Then I found Sunday Funday, one of their newer summer colors...not only was it a bright fun color, but the box was doubling as an invitation to our first event, on a Sunday! It was meant to be. So I bought every bottle the store had :)
I also included personalized handwritten notes, that actually asked each girl to be my Maid of Honor/Bridesmaid. I used beautiful place cards I had bought in Venice as the cards - I thought they were the prettiest and allowed me to make them way more personal than any of the Etsy versions I'd seen.
I always knew Melissa was going to be my Maid of Honor (MOH from now on)...she has been my BFFL since 6th grade - we used to practice walking down the "aisle" in her bedroom....and so on and so forth. She is also the most organized person I know - the perfect balance to my lack of organization and planning. I could trust 100% that she'd be there for me - even though neither of us really know what planning a wedding truly entails! (Although trust me, I'm learning) I decided that it would be fun to ask her in a way that went along with the way Ant had asked me to marry him! This is what the door looked like when she showed up at my apartment:
I included a long list of her responsibilities (don't worry it's not as long as it seems, every third line or so says "Have fun!"). One she said "yes!" she came in and was greeted by her box! Presentation is everything - in addition to all of the fun items inside, I bought tulle ribbon, lots of white tissue paper, and some wedding related stickers to tie it all together.
AHHHHH. I forgot about the best part of the entire thing. The top of the boxes. Each box was decorated with the girl's name....by my fiancé. This is why he's the best. He was helping me brainstorm ways to decorate them, and came up ON HIS OWN with the idea that he could decorate them. (I may or may not have commented on how nice his handwriting is compared to mine...which is true, but still!) It added such a special touch to each one - they all were completely different and unique and done by him. While in the scheme of things, maybe not a huge deal, I really loved that he did it. It shows that it is truly our wedding, and while they are saying yes to being part of MY bridal party, it's his wedding too. Anyway, rant over...here is a picture of Melissa's.
YAY! I officially had a maid of honor. Then I put her to work :) Our project for the rest of the afternoon was to put together the rest of the boxes! Here is the table covered in all of the goodies...
All wrapped up and ready to go! Having Melissa help me made the project SO much faster - and also more fun! It allowed us to spend the afternoon talking about wedding stuff while accomplishing a huge task. Don't they look nice all ready to go??
How did you ask your bridal party to be a part of your big day?
