Wedding Wednesday...The Wedding Party

As soon as we got engaged, I went into full wedding planning mode. We got engaged at the start of my Fall Break so I had an entire week to plan, day in and day out. I admit, I got a little overwhelmed pretty early on trying to do SO much SO fast, but I just felt like I needed to get the "big" things booked before anyone else took them since we are getting married at such a popular time. Thankfully, we got what we wanted (after some near panic stricken moments) so I was able to finally relax and start having fun with the other details, one of those being asking my girls to be in the wedding.
M and I decided that we didn't want a large bridal party. As we have gotten older, we've realized that the wedding really is about us and our commitment to God and each other. We've been to weddings with larger bridal parties and both felt it just distracted from the bride and groom.
So, I began to think, "How can I incorporate everyone without having 10 girls on the stage with me?"
We tossed around a few ideas and came up with our final decision: 3 on each side, and then have our other dear friends as honorary bridesmaids and ushers. I have 3 absolute best friends from growing up/high school and M has 3 from college. We felt since these people have been in our lives the longest that it was only fitting that they were the ones on the stage with us. I decided to make all 3 of mine Matron of Honors because they are each just so special to me and then asked 7 other of my dear friends to be honorary bridesmaids.
The HB's will be escorted down the aisle by their husbands/boyfriends, have a special flower to pin in their hair, wear the same color dress but in any style/brand they want, and sit in the front row. Each of these girls is incredibly dear to me and I couldn't imagine not having them involved in my big day! I'll admit, I was a little nervous that someone would take offense to this, but each girl LOVES the idea. We're all pushing 30 and we just view things differently now than we would've at age 22. It makes wedding planning so much more fun when all of that drama from your early 20's is gone. No one getting jealous, upset, anything. It's wonderful :)

Before I asked the girls to be apart of the wedding, I had to decide how to ask them. I've seen different ways done before and of course, I wanted to be different. I wanted it to be personal, fun, and something each girl could keep. I decided to go with a personalized cookie from my favorite bakery, Caramanda's and attach a fun little poem for each girl to keep. I began working on the poems shortly after our engagement and finished them up right before I left for the half marathon in FL (where I asked 2 of my MOH's to be in the wedding). I wrote one of my 3 MOH's, 7 for the HB's, and 1 for my flower girl. I won't type out the whole poem but it went something like "Because I love you and your friendship is so dear, on my wedding day I want you near....." It went on describing the colored dress they'd buy, the wedding date, what role I was asking them to take, etc. It was cute and funny, but also very sentimental to how they all were so special to me. I dropped off a cookie cutter (a Wilton brand from Micahels) at the bakery,  gave them the name of each girl, and told them my wedding colors. Caramanda's is fabulous, so I knew they'd do an excellent job! I picked up the cookies a week later, and was SO excited about how cute they turned out!

I attached each poem to green card stock, placed the cookies in Wilton brand treat bags, used a heart hole punch (I'm super cheesy, I know) to make a hole in the card, then tied it all up with a navy and green ribbon.

I LOVE the final product :)

M just laughed throughout the whole process. He said "I'm calling the guys and saying, here's the date, be there, and you're out getting personalized cookies made to ask your girls." He's quickly learning that a lot goes into wedding planning, but he was right there, tying the ribbons on the cookies with me. He is such a good groom ;)

XOXO,

the bride to be