I’ve said this over and over that weddings are evolving from the traditional into more personalized experiences for the bride, groom, and guests. One of the most interesting things I’ve seen is the doing away with the whole idea of bridesmaids. I’ve been helping a friend shape her ideas for her wedding and I think she might go this route. I directed her to these posts from Lindsay and Heather. I kind of went the other way and had extra special ladies by my side.
Personally, I loved having my girls with me and I wouldn’t have had it any other way. Many of them had known each other as long and they’d known me and if they didn’t know each other they looked forward to meeting in the year leading up to the wedding.
That being said, more recently, I have made some of my best friends through blogging. Dani, Rox, Sarah, and I formed this insane bond almost instantaneously. We have an ongoing group chat that almost never dies down and our friendship now goes way beyond blogging. I have a special and different relationship with all three but together the four of us make up one unstoppable crew, dragging our menfolk into it as well. The Bros + The Babes.
The funny thing is that I realized that the day I met Dani and Sarah was the day I matched with Kendall on OKCupid. Rox came into the group a little later and we joke that I recruited on of my best friends because she commented on our first Bubbles + Bloggers picture wanting to get involved and darn tootin’ I did recruit her!
I so wanted to include my newer and very special friends in one of the most important days of my life, especially because they were there from the beginning of my relationship with Kendall. That’s the fun part of planning a wedding nowadays- you can completely customize and break “rules” and do what you want.
The way we decided to include my bonus babes was to have them do the prayers of the people. We had a full Episcopal ceremony with communion and everything, and it was actually Gini, our rector, who suggested that we have special friends do the prayers.
Luckily, they were game! They even rented navy dresses from Rent The Runway to match the wedding party. They had corsages as guests of honor and were all invited to the VIP tea party my mom hosted. I have to give an extra special shout to Rox for flying from Chicago twice for me! She also came to the rehearsal when Dani and Sarah couldn’t so that they would know exactly what to do for the ceremony.
It meant so much to me to have them as part of our ceremony and one of the sweet moments was when Gini stopped the ceremony so Kendo and I could give them hugs after the prayers.
If you’re not having a religious ceremony, and you want to include special people outside of the official wedding party, have them pick a favorite poem, song lyrics, or even have them write something of their own. Yes, you might be constrained by church rules, but aside from those constraints, it’s YOUR day with YOUR groom or bride! Make it yours together and include as many loved ones as you want.
Photos by Darrell McDavid Photography
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I love this special way of incorporating your friends from different stages of your life into the ceremony! Also, love the navy dresses they chose to coordinate!
Thanks Heather! It was so sweet of them to agree to match my bridesmaids and a total coincidence they all chose RTR. We’ve talked about this on twitter but I really didn’t want ANYONE spending a lot of money. My bridesmaids all chose dresses that worked for their personal style and budget as did my bonus babes. I def shared your post with Kate because she’s having a non-traditional wedding and I think her “bridesmaids” are all going to be little ones, kind of the British way.
Thanks for reading!
x0x0 Caro