Two weekends ago, I had the priviledge of standing up with one of my favorite people in the whole world to watch her enter wedded bliss. She was one of my bridesmaids last year, and I was more than happy to return the favor.
Being a bridesmaid is a whole lot of fun, but it also comes with a whole lot of work, too. As a bridesmaid, it is your duty to wear, look, do, and be whatever, however, and wherever the pretty lady in the white dress asks of you. I am extraordinarily blessed with super awesome, laid-back, calm friends who are not bridezillas, which makes the whole process about a million times more enjoyable.
During our wedding week, those bridesmaids made my life SO much easier - I didn't have to think about, take care of, or carry anything. Every time I turned around, someone was steaming a dress, or helping someone with their make-up, or coming to the rescue with a strategically placed bobbypin. As a bride, you have so many emotions running through your head and heart that you don't have the capacity to cope with anything that strays from the plan, so hopefully you chose wisely when asking that handful of people to be there for you.
I chose perfectly - I never had to worry about a single detail from the time the first attendant showed up at my apartment 72 hours before the big day. Turns out being a bride comes with a fair amount of work and responsibility, too - you have to have all of the details sorted out, organized, have a mental plan b for each potential situation. Your time is consumed by friends and family members who want a piece of your time, who need to ask you a question, and who want to make last minute suggestions about how they think you could have done something better. After being through it, I kind of understand why some brides snap at what seems to be the tiniest of details - they've been fielding questions and putting out proverbial fires for weeks, months, or sometimes years. The bride is solely responsible for keeping every guest, vendor, and passerby happy. And that's why she has a team of highly trained friends standing by ready to take over when she is about to break or punch a flower lady in the face. Sidenote: if you are, in fact, a wedding vendor of any sort, 1.) Make sure you double check your records BEFORE you call the bride 3 hours before the wedding and accuse her of not paying when she did so a week ago, and 2.) DO NOT call the bride 3 hours before her wedding...about anything!!
Back to the team of highly trained friends - we're ready for anything. I've personally cut a square of fabric out of my dress 3 minutes before show time to safety pin it under another bridesmaid's dress so that she didn't accidentally flash anyone while walking down the aisle. And I've ran into a crowd yelling for 'anyone with silver shoes willing to trade?!' to rescue a fellow bridesmaid who snapped her heel in half moments before the processional. We're manicured, we're wearing ridiculously uncomfortable shoes, we're highly flammable due to the copious amounts of hair spay on our head, and we're ready for battle. Because we will be damned if ANYTHING is going to come between our friend and the day she becomes a Mrs.
This was my 4th time around as a bridesmaid, and I have to say it was my easiest. Due in part to the event planner bride having everything covered, but also due in large part to my assistant. This was the first wedding that I have played a role in where I had Ryan with me, and I'll never do it solo again. For every duty that I had, Ryan had two - 1.)Help Heidi with said duty, and 2.) Take care of Heidi. Starting with dress shopping, where he had to navigate through a sea of half-naked women and zip me into and out of no less than 23 highly secured watermelon-colored contraptions masquerading as chiffon. At the actual wedding, he came with me to pick up and drop off flowers, then ran to Starbucks to keep me caffeinated. He got himself ready and arrived early to bring me medicine that I had left at our hotel so I'd have enough room to pack an extra set of breath mints to share. He packed himself up (and accidentally took my pajamas so I had to sleep in leggings and a shirt with a slit to my ankles...but I think he did more than enough to earn a free pass)so I would have one less thing to worry about. He even came to the rescue of another bridesmaid's assistant who was under the weather and slated to record the ceremony.
As I started to think about how much help Ryan was to me, I remembered our wedding day and how much my bridesmaids' significant others jumped in. Those guys were troopers - everything from delivering 15 pizzas at the exact right moment to keep them hot for the rehearsal dinner to buying and serving lunch from 2 different places to everyone who required more to eat than the granola bar that I packed. They ran all over town helping out the 5 delegates who poured every ounce of their energy into making my day seamless.
So yes, being a bride is hard work, being a bridesmaid is hard work, and being the guy who makes a bridesmaid's life easier is REALLY hard work. A big thank you goes out to the men behind the scenes who keep us sane so that we can look our best, be our best, and give our best to our besties.
Being a bridesmaid is a whole lot of fun, but it also comes with a whole lot of work, too. As a bridesmaid, it is your duty to wear, look, do, and be whatever, however, and wherever the pretty lady in the white dress asks of you. I am extraordinarily blessed with super awesome, laid-back, calm friends who are not bridezillas, which makes the whole process about a million times more enjoyable.
During our wedding week, those bridesmaids made my life SO much easier - I didn't have to think about, take care of, or carry anything. Every time I turned around, someone was steaming a dress, or helping someone with their make-up, or coming to the rescue with a strategically placed bobbypin. As a bride, you have so many emotions running through your head and heart that you don't have the capacity to cope with anything that strays from the plan, so hopefully you chose wisely when asking that handful of people to be there for you.
I chose perfectly - I never had to worry about a single detail from the time the first attendant showed up at my apartment 72 hours before the big day. Turns out being a bride comes with a fair amount of work and responsibility, too - you have to have all of the details sorted out, organized, have a mental plan b for each potential situation. Your time is consumed by friends and family members who want a piece of your time, who need to ask you a question, and who want to make last minute suggestions about how they think you could have done something better. After being through it, I kind of understand why some brides snap at what seems to be the tiniest of details - they've been fielding questions and putting out proverbial fires for weeks, months, or sometimes years. The bride is solely responsible for keeping every guest, vendor, and passerby happy. And that's why she has a team of highly trained friends standing by ready to take over when she is about to break or punch a flower lady in the face. Sidenote: if you are, in fact, a wedding vendor of any sort, 1.) Make sure you double check your records BEFORE you call the bride 3 hours before the wedding and accuse her of not paying when she did so a week ago, and 2.) DO NOT call the bride 3 hours before her wedding...about anything!!
Back to the team of highly trained friends - we're ready for anything. I've personally cut a square of fabric out of my dress 3 minutes before show time to safety pin it under another bridesmaid's dress so that she didn't accidentally flash anyone while walking down the aisle. And I've ran into a crowd yelling for 'anyone with silver shoes willing to trade?!' to rescue a fellow bridesmaid who snapped her heel in half moments before the processional. We're manicured, we're wearing ridiculously uncomfortable shoes, we're highly flammable due to the copious amounts of hair spay on our head, and we're ready for battle. Because we will be damned if ANYTHING is going to come between our friend and the day she becomes a Mrs.
This was my 4th time around as a bridesmaid, and I have to say it was my easiest. Due in part to the event planner bride having everything covered, but also due in large part to my assistant. This was the first wedding that I have played a role in where I had Ryan with me, and I'll never do it solo again. For every duty that I had, Ryan had two - 1.)Help Heidi with said duty, and 2.) Take care of Heidi. Starting with dress shopping, where he had to navigate through a sea of half-naked women and zip me into and out of no less than 23 highly secured watermelon-colored contraptions masquerading as chiffon. At the actual wedding, he came with me to pick up and drop off flowers, then ran to Starbucks to keep me caffeinated. He got himself ready and arrived early to bring me medicine that I had left at our hotel so I'd have enough room to pack an extra set of breath mints to share. He packed himself up (and accidentally took my pajamas so I had to sleep in leggings and a shirt with a slit to my ankles...but I think he did more than enough to earn a free pass)so I would have one less thing to worry about. He even came to the rescue of another bridesmaid's assistant who was under the weather and slated to record the ceremony.
As I started to think about how much help Ryan was to me, I remembered our wedding day and how much my bridesmaids' significant others jumped in. Those guys were troopers - everything from delivering 15 pizzas at the exact right moment to keep them hot for the rehearsal dinner to buying and serving lunch from 2 different places to everyone who required more to eat than the granola bar that I packed. They ran all over town helping out the 5 delegates who poured every ounce of their energy into making my day seamless.
So yes, being a bride is hard work, being a bridesmaid is hard work, and being the guy who makes a bridesmaid's life easier is REALLY hard work. A big thank you goes out to the men behind the scenes who keep us sane so that we can look our best, be our best, and give our best to our besties.
