Choosing Your Bridal Party

It can be one of the hardest decisions for a newly engaged couple to make. Choosing the bridal party. It can especially be difficult if you are from large families or have a big group of friends that you are super close with.

Some couples decide to include everyone in order to avoid hurting feelings, this can result in huge bridal parties, the kind that take up the whole front of the church. Other couples narrow it down by only selecting the people they are the closest too and asking others to do things such as readings, solos or personally assisting them while getting ready.

When my husband and I got engaged I knew I wanted a small bridal party, maybe 3 or 4 on each side. I decided to ask only my "sisters" (my sister, my future SIL, and my cousin). But for my husband it was much harder since he had been living with the same guys for the last 4 years at college and had close friends from high school still. So what we decided is that we would have 3 on each side and four ushers. It turned out perfect and we were so glad to have everyone important to us involved.

The size of the group may narrow itself down as well. Depending on the financial and time commitments you are asking they may not all be able to participate. When asking your friends to be a part of your big day let them know date and location as soon as possible, as well as what will be expected of them. By doing this, if they know they will not be up to the task you will have time to ask someone else without it seeming like an afterthought.

In the last year or two I have noticed a relaxation of the "bridal party rules", and I fully support it! Do not feel that you need to have an equal number of bridesmaids as groomsmen or that you can't have two best men or two maids of honor. Anything goes!