Wedding Wednesday- The Bridal Party

Whats next in importance after choosing your groom or bride?  Choosing your wedding party!  For some reason when I was thinking of writing this post I kept picturing the end of 27 Dresses and all of the bridesmaids at Katherine Heigels characters wedding haha!

27 Dresses- Great movie to watch if you are planning a wedding!

When choosing your bridal party there is a lot to consider.  For some people they might want to keep the bridal party very small with just a maid of honor and a best man. Other people want multiple bridesmaids and groomsman along with a flower girl, ring bearer, family dog, etc. It's totally up to each couples preference. I even like when the parties are uneven.  Sometimes the bride and groom don't have an equal amount of people on each side. I think its so cute when walking back down the aisle a girl has a groomsman on each arm or vice versus.  What I learned from planning my wedding is that you can do whatever you want, you can have 10 people in your bridal party or 2, or none! You can have 5 bridesmaids and 7 groomsman. Who cares?! It's your wedding and when it comes down to it I would much rather have extra people in the bridal party then leave someone out because it made the numbers uneven.

Jason and I chose to have 4 bridesmaids and 5 groomsman, and 1 maid of honor.  If you are trying to decide who will be maid of honor there is always the option of having a maid of honor and a matron of honor. (Maid is unmarried and matron is married) If the groom wants to have 2 best men or none- just do it! No one is going to question it and if they do who cares because its your wedding! ha

There are some important things to consider when picking a bridal party:

• If you look back at your photos in 20 years will you still be in contact with the people in your bridal party. Some people might not care about this question but to be honest it was something that crossed my mind.  In fact, everyone in my bridal party is a member of our family. Cousins, cousin-in-laws, sisters, brothers, brother- in-law... they are all people who will be in our lives forever. Actually there was one groomsman who wasn't in our immediate family but him and Jason have a bro-mance that I know will never end so it's pretty much the same thing. 
• When choosing the size of the bridal party make sure you make limo/car rental reservations that will accommodate all the members. Getting bigger limos or more than one can be costly.  Figuring that into the budget before hand will help keep within your budget.
• Make sure before you book your hair and makeup team for the big day you get a head count of how many girls will need these services. Remember Mother of the Bride and Mother of the Groom, Flower Girls, and sometimes Grandmothers are also included in this time of the day so make sure that there are enough hairdressers and makeup artists to get the job done in time. Check to see if it will cost more money to have extra hands working on your bridal party and triple check the time needed to get everyone done.  If you are traveling to a salon make sure you give yourself ample time to get everyone done and then time to get back to the ceremony location and time to get dressed.  This tip is very important because it could dictate if you are late on the day of your wedding which is not a good thing.  As with everything on your wedding day- if you give yourself enough time to plan everything you will be fine!
• Depending on the place of your reception you will most likely be given a bridal suite and a groomsman suite- make sure to double check with the venue/ceremony location that the allotted rooms will be able to accommodate the size of your bridal party. Most brides might not think of this but some rooms for getting ready are very small- definitely something to think about. 
• Just like limos can eat into your budget remember that it is customary to get the bridal party gifts before the wedding as a way to say thank you for being in the wedding. This is often an over site when making a wedding budget but if you have 10 people in the bridal party that is  10 people who need gifts. You might not know now what your gift to everyone is going to be as you're planning but factor that into the budget for the size of your party.  Most bridal party gifts that I found were cheap and in-personable so I went out of my way to find practical items that my party would use and not just something generic from a wedding website.  That took lots of work but it was totally worth it! 

Since we are talking about bridal party gifts I decided to show you what Jason and I gave our bridal party!  Maybe it will give you some ideas for your own gifts- remember you don't need to order something cheesy from a wedding website, there are plenty of websites like Etsy and even Amazon were you can find gifts that you can tailor to your bridal party. You don't even need to give everyone the same thing- we didn't!  Check it out:

This is some of the gifts as I displayed them at the rehearsal luncheon that we had for the bridal party. 

The Girls

I did bags for each bridesmaid, my maid of honor, my mother, and Jasons mother. 

For my gifts for the girls I made them each up a tote bag with their first initial and how they were a part of my wedding- I had myself a 'Bride' one made with blue thread to match the maid of honor and that was the only bag i used on my honeymoon! I also bought them the earrings I wanted them to wear in the wedding and I customized tube top dresses that I wanted them to wear on the day of the wedding! I love those dresses and I wear them all summer long so when I was trying to decide what to get my girls to wear I thought of this one day and knew this is what I wanted! Unfortunately no where online customizes and sells these dresses so I had to get creative.  I bought the dresses on Amazon and then took them to a local shop to get them embroidered. They all came out amazing and I got myself a white one that said Bride on it!  That is what everyone wore while getting ready on the day of the wedding- it made for some gorgeous pictures of the bridal party! My sister Lizzy was Maid of honor and her favorite color is blue so I used blue for her accent colors and bright pink for everyone elses. I also included a personalized card to each girl thanking them for being a part of my special day.

My sister Theresa's gifts

For my mom and Jason's mom I wanted to do something similar to the bridesmaids but not exactly the same.

I had pink robes customized with their initial for them to wear while we were getting ready and I also had them personalized totes made. For their gift I had glass jewelry dishes made with their initials. I also wrote them a personalized letter thanking them for everything.

The Guys:

For the guys Jason wanted to get them something fun so he found a metal flask/cigar holder/ zippo lighter.  He had all their initials engraved into it as well!  The bullet you see on the gift is actually a bottle opener and it is engraved with each guys last name! We got one for Jason's dad too! These were a big hit with the guys. 

For Jasons dad we got him 2 beer mugs engraved with his initials and for Jason's one groomsman who doesn't drink we got him a leather bag with his last name engraved into the leather. 

Everyone loved the gifts we gave! It took a little extra time and searching to get it all right but since I had given myself plenty of time to do it I was never stressed!  The gifts are only one small part of the wedding but they go hand in hand with picking your wedding party- once you have a wedding date set its never too early to search and order gifts for the bridal party.

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Once we chose our bridal party we wanted to ask them to be in the wedding in a unique way. For the bridesmaids I had hangers made and mailed them with a card asking them to be in my wedding!  For the guys I handmade cards asking them! It doesn't have to be anything crazy but when you put thought and effort into the little things people really appreciate it. I also think the gifts really got everyone excited for the wedding! Plus the cigars in the guys cards came full circle when they were given another in their gifts at the rehearsal dinner before the wedding!  

Close up of the bridesmaid hanger

Card front for the girls

Card inside

Hard to see but I had a white one with Maid of Honor customized for my sister, the rest were dark wood with Bridesmaid

The guys cards front and back! Ha this couldn't be more true- good thing Jason lets me do whatever I want ha!