There are many people that are “necessary” for a wedding, the members of the bridal party are just one example. The “traditional” bridal party consists of the bride, the groom, the bridesmaids, best man, groomsmen, ushers, flower girl, pageboy and mother and father of the bride. However with traditions changing and becoming more modernised it has become normal practice to have more than one best man and in some cases the mother of the bride is the one to give the bride away on the day.
Brides fear not the overarching traditions, this is your day (well technically you have to share it with the groom) and if you choose to have things a certain way then you should do so.
In the case of our wedding, there will be no Maid of Honour, but 2 bridesmaids of equal standing and 2 best men/groomsmen. The father of the bride is not invited to the wedding so it’s a fight to the death between the mother of the bride and the brother of the bride to see who will be giving me away!! To further break from tradition the bride will be giving the first speech at the wedding reception.
Each member of the bridal party has a specific set of tasks associated with their role.
The best man for instance is primarily charged with looking after the groom on his stag night and the morning of the wedding. The best man traditionally gives a speech at the wedding banquet, loaded with jokes and good humour.
The bridesmaids, apart from looking absolutely glamorous are in charge of the hen night planning and keeping the bride calm. On the day they should help the bride get ready and prepare her for the ceremony. Generally they help with all details of wedding planning, from making up favours to blowing up balloons the list of tasks is endless!
The ushers are meant to look presentable and direct the guests to the right side of the church or ceremony venue whilst handing out the Order of Service booklets. Unless you are our ushers who are planning on causing havoc and directing people randomly to seats…..we shall see how long they live after that! Ha ha
Lets not forget the witnesses. In Scotland you are required to have 2 witnesses, both over the age of 16 to bear witness to the marriage and to sign the register to that effect. These can be 2 random people off the street if you so wish, however most couples choose to ask the best man and the chief bridesmaid. A growing trend is to ask the mother of the bride and the father of the groom so that all parents have a "role" in the wedding.
In our case we have opted for 2 close friends to act as our witnesses.
It has long been tradition to have both a flower girl and a pageboy at your wedding, however they have no specific "fixed" role, other than to look abslolutely adorable. The Pageboy can be asked to carry a ring box up the aisle to the groom and best man, but depending on his age this might be a risky idea - often young boys will try and keep the box!
As for the flowergirl, she generally walks down the aisle ahead of the bridal party scattering petals or confetti before the bride makes her way down the aisle.
Showing posts with label bridesmaid. Show all posts
Showing posts with label bridesmaid. Show all posts
Tuesday, 30 June 2009
Wednesday, 3 June 2009
Steps to being a "Super Bride"
As we all know planning a wedding can be a costly business! As soon as you mention the "wedding" word, prices seem to skyrocket and suddenly you're thinking it might be better to elope.
There are so many ways to save money when planning your wedding, for instance you could buy a dress from the High Street from the likes of Littlewoods, Marks & Spencer, Monsoon? They sell some really pretty dresses and at a fraction of the price of bridal shops they are a steal! Failing that when you're dress shopping tell the assistants in the bridal shop your budget and that way they will point out dresses that you can afford and steer you away from the ones that will break the bank.
Other ways to save are to hunt around for bargains, eBay will soon become a favourite for many brides to be. You'd be amazed at the things you will find on there! So far I've managed to get all the favours, favour boxes, thank you gifts, cuff links for the attendants and many other things from shops on eBay and at very good prices. So long as you're not afraid of hard work this route might be for you!
Often a lot of brides to be want to make their own stationery, which for those who are creative and not in any way artistically challenged, it's a great way to save money. Again EBay will have the bits and bobs you need, failing that there are many websites out there with everything you will need. But if like me you want something professional looking then there are a variety of shops, sites etc to buy stationery from or you can have it custom designed for you to suit your theme. Some of the stationery and gifts for our wedding is coming from www.littletigercreations.com which is run by a close friend of mine. She has been great and helped me work out what I wanted from my stationery and made my ramblings turn into an actual creation.
For the cars, do you know anyone with a "posh" car? Does your uncle drive a Rolls Royce? Can you sweet talk him into taking you to the church/hotel? Failing that ask the car companies if they offer any discount for booking more than one car, or if they would give you discount if you are only needing the car for a short time? It's worth asking, you never know you might get £50 off the price and at the end of the day wouldn't you rather the £50 in your pocket?!
There are so many ways to save money when planning your wedding, for instance you could buy a dress from the High Street from the likes of Littlewoods, Marks & Spencer, Monsoon? They sell some really pretty dresses and at a fraction of the price of bridal shops they are a steal! Failing that when you're dress shopping tell the assistants in the bridal shop your budget and that way they will point out dresses that you can afford and steer you away from the ones that will break the bank.
Other ways to save are to hunt around for bargains, eBay will soon become a favourite for many brides to be. You'd be amazed at the things you will find on there! So far I've managed to get all the favours, favour boxes, thank you gifts, cuff links for the attendants and many other things from shops on eBay and at very good prices. So long as you're not afraid of hard work this route might be for you!
Often a lot of brides to be want to make their own stationery, which for those who are creative and not in any way artistically challenged, it's a great way to save money. Again EBay will have the bits and bobs you need, failing that there are many websites out there with everything you will need. But if like me you want something professional looking then there are a variety of shops, sites etc to buy stationery from or you can have it custom designed for you to suit your theme. Some of the stationery and gifts for our wedding is coming from www.littletigercreations.com which is run by a close friend of mine. She has been great and helped me work out what I wanted from my stationery and made my ramblings turn into an actual creation.
For the cars, do you know anyone with a "posh" car? Does your uncle drive a Rolls Royce? Can you sweet talk him into taking you to the church/hotel? Failing that ask the car companies if they offer any discount for booking more than one car, or if they would give you discount if you are only needing the car for a short time? It's worth asking, you never know you might get £50 off the price and at the end of the day wouldn't you rather the £50 in your pocket?!
Tuesday, 2 June 2009
What to do & when to do it!
Technically there is no correct answer to this, you can do whatever you like in any order if you so wish, but I would recommend taking a logical approach to planning your wedding.
To begin with we sat down and decided what we wanted:
* Civil or Religious - Civil
* Big or small - since we have very little family it's a small affair
* Budget - realistically how much would we be thinking we should spend?
* When - We opted for April 2010 (originally we wanted the 10th, but someone else had booked the hotel that day!!)
* What style of wedding - this was primarily my area, bless him but my other half has no idea and lets face it I don't think I would have trusted him.
*Guest list - List A, then list B and then anyone else we could think of lol
* Attendants - Who do you want as bridesmaids, best man, flower girl, pageboy?
Once some of that is out of the way you are well on your way to planning your wedding. The trick is to keep a list or even a notebook of ideas that you can look over and discuss with your other half.
And girls, note that sometimes your other half might just say "uh huh/whatever you think/ you decide...etc etc" it's not that they aren't interested, it's that you are often more excited about the day than they are. To them it doesn't need to have ice sculptures and a dove release, all that matters to them is that they are marrying the woman they love, whereas we girls want EVERYTHING to be perfect and do not in any circumstances want to give our future mother in law anything to moan about!!
I would advise booking your venue and registrar/minister as soon as you can to avoid disappointment. When we booked ours it was roughly a year and a half till the wedding (maybe more I just can't count!) and there were so many things booked already!
There's nothing to stop you asking for quotes with over a year or more till your wedding, just explain that you are merely making inquiries as you are working out your budget and would like a rough figure to work from. But do remember that prices are likely to rise year to year so things may not be the exact price you were quoted 9 months previously.
I'll make up a short what to do and when to do it list and stick it up here to act as a guide to work from, just remember that no one list is perfect or right, there are so many out there and they are only what one person feels is the best for them. You should do what you want to when you want to, so if that means you want to be like me and well organised then good on you it will save you stress and aggravation closer to the wedding. However if you prefer to wait till later to start your planning there is nothing wrong with that, everyone is different.
To begin with we sat down and decided what we wanted:
* Civil or Religious - Civil
* Big or small - since we have very little family it's a small affair
* Budget - realistically how much would we be thinking we should spend?
* When - We opted for April 2010 (originally we wanted the 10th, but someone else had booked the hotel that day!!)
* What style of wedding - this was primarily my area, bless him but my other half has no idea and lets face it I don't think I would have trusted him.
*Guest list - List A, then list B and then anyone else we could think of lol
* Attendants - Who do you want as bridesmaids, best man, flower girl, pageboy?
Once some of that is out of the way you are well on your way to planning your wedding. The trick is to keep a list or even a notebook of ideas that you can look over and discuss with your other half.
And girls, note that sometimes your other half might just say "uh huh/whatever you think/ you decide...etc etc" it's not that they aren't interested, it's that you are often more excited about the day than they are. To them it doesn't need to have ice sculptures and a dove release, all that matters to them is that they are marrying the woman they love, whereas we girls want EVERYTHING to be perfect and do not in any circumstances want to give our future mother in law anything to moan about!!
I would advise booking your venue and registrar/minister as soon as you can to avoid disappointment. When we booked ours it was roughly a year and a half till the wedding (maybe more I just can't count!) and there were so many things booked already!
There's nothing to stop you asking for quotes with over a year or more till your wedding, just explain that you are merely making inquiries as you are working out your budget and would like a rough figure to work from. But do remember that prices are likely to rise year to year so things may not be the exact price you were quoted 9 months previously.
I'll make up a short what to do and when to do it list and stick it up here to act as a guide to work from, just remember that no one list is perfect or right, there are so many out there and they are only what one person feels is the best for them. You should do what you want to when you want to, so if that means you want to be like me and well organised then good on you it will save you stress and aggravation closer to the wedding. However if you prefer to wait till later to start your planning there is nothing wrong with that, everyone is different.
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