Your bridal party are your “a-team” that totally have your back  on the day! They have named roles and should be chosen wisely.  These people mean a lot to you and your other half and asking them to be part of the main party will be a real honour to those asked.  Here are a list of their bridal party duties:

Maid/Matron of Honour/Chief Bridesmaid – This is the lady who the bride will rely most heavily.  Their duties include:

• Delegating tasks to other bridesmaids and coordinating meetings
• Arrange meetings for dress fittings
• Organise the hen party
• Help with general planning activities
• On the day – take charge of the other bridesmaids and flower girls, assist the bride when she gets ready, billow and smoothes her dress prior to the ceremony and for photographs, finds a safe place for her belongings and takes the brides bouquet at the ceremony
• Appear in the majority of formal photographs
• May be asked to be a witness for the signing of the register
• Ensure the guest book is sent round to all guests for signing
• Ensure that all personal belongings are gathered together at the end of the evening and that everything is collected the next day
• Assist the bride when going to the powder room

Bridesmaids – These guests are always female of any age from 8 years upwards.  The main job of a bridesmaids is to assist the chief bridesmaid with their plans, especially the hen party. The bridesmaids will help to gather all the ladies together for a bouquet toss. The bridesmaids would traditionally walk down the aisle after the bride, but it’s now becoming more popular for the bridesmaids to walk down first with the bride walking in last. This creates more anticipation for the congregation.  The bridesmaids are thanked in the grooms speech.  Choosing bridesmaids can be difficult as you need to think about all the ladies and girls in both immediate families, if you choose particular people you may feel that you need to choose others to make it fair.  If you decide on just a few ladies or girls, perhaps others that are close to you could be given important roles such as organising the hen party or reading a poem during the ceremony.  They will usually wear special dresses in the chosen colour theme and may have a floral bouquet to finish the look.

Flower girls – If you have any under 8 year olds within your party you might want to ask them to be your flower girl.  Any little girl will absolutely love wearing a pretty dress and being an important person for the day!  A flower girl will walk down the aisle (usually first in the procession), scattering petals from a basket or carrying a miniature floral bouquet or wand.

Page boys – If you have any little boys in your party you might want to ask them to be your page boy.  Usually the page boy will accompany the flower girl down the aisle and may also act as the ring bearer.

Best Man – The best man (or men) is the main source of support to the groom throughout the planning of the wedding.  The biggest tasks for the best man is the organisation of the stag party, looking after those important rings on the day and of course the anticipated “best mans speech”!  Other duties will include collecting and organising any hired suits, coordinating the ushers, acting as master of ceremonies if required and potentially a witness for the signing of the register.

Ushers – The ushers are there to assist the bride, groom and best man on the day more than anything.  They generally wear the suits chosen for the groom and best man to show that they are part of the bridal party along with buttonholes.  Duties may include, greeting guests at the ceremony venue, handing out order of services and seating of the guests for the ceremony.

 

Good luck choosing your wedding “a-team”!

 

Olivia x