My First Bridesmaid Gig

Over Martin Luther King weekend in January, I had the honor of serving as one of my best friend's bridesmaids in her island wedding. This wedding was proof that you can still have huge fun with a really small wedding party. We totaled 8 in all (this included the bride and groom) and honestly I left the weekend wishing we all lived closer so that we could hang out regularly.

The bride's wedding party spanned her life with the Maid of Honor, Carrie, being her childhood best friend, me, from her summers with the Yankees and college days, and Louisa, as the fellow college alum who introduced the two. The groom on the other hand is a Penn State Alum and well everyone who knows Penn Staters can guess that his entire wedding party were his fellow Nittany Lions, which made my husband so excited.

In addition to realizing that your friend's friends are amazing people, I discovered a few things about being a bridesmaid (as I have only ever been a flower girl and a bride before).

The Wedding Party: Tom, Louisa, Me, Hershel, Carrie and Tony

1. Your love of the person you are supporting trumps everything that weekend and you don't care.
Your friend can ask anything of you that weekend and you find yourself not even hesitating. Your love for that person trumps anything else. It's their big weekend and honestly you are just so glad to be a part of it.

2. You hold a lot of power in that bridesmaid dress.
In your bridesmaid dress you can essentially tell anyone it's for the bride and they will oblige. You are like her body guards or secret service throughout the weekend and that authority is even more real during the wedding day. It also doesn't hurt that the bartenders will call you up to the front of the line to order yours and the brides drinks all night.

Our gorgeous flowers.

 

3. It's an experience you will never forget.
No wedding is the same and as a result I can't imagine myself ever saying no to a friend that asks me to be a bridesmaid. It allows you the opportunity to share in the excitement of the big day to a greater level than the rest of the guests, gives you new friends, and results in a weekend that you can never forget. You also end up with some great photos of yourself since after the bride and groom, the wedding party gets a lot of camera time.

4. You realize what an honor being asked to be a bridesmaid is.
Girls will tell each other, when I get married you'll be a bridesmaid, but until it actually happens, its just talk. Yes being a bridesmaid can be expensive and a lot of work but it also gives you the opportunity to reaffirm your friendship with a best girlfriend and learn even more about your relationship. You also realize how close you actually are. I realized this after hosting the bachelorette party and meeting all the wonderful women in Suzanne's life. At the end of the weekend I was in awe that she asked me and that feeling was only reaffirmed throughout the wedding weekend. It's a humbling realization.