Wedding Party Guide

For those of us who are married, we can relate to the dilemma of choosing the gifts for the wedding party. On the bride side, you often have a choice between the same gift for all the girls, or individual gifts for each person. On the groom side, it is usually one masculine gift for everyone in the party. And in some instances, the bride and groom will provide the same gift to both the bridesmaids and the grooms. For example, when my very good friend got married a few years back, him and his wife gave the whole bridal party each a bottle of wine with their names on it and the date of the wedding.

Speaking to the bride, have you ever thought of giving costume jewelry bracelets to your bridesmaids. The reason this can be a great idea is that you can customize the bracelets for relatively cheap but at the same time provide a wonderful keepsake. You could buy the materials for the costume jewelry bracelets at a dollar store or you could go to a craft show or galleria to pick out the pieces. Given that you are likely on a time crunch with the whole scope of the wedding planning, I would suggest placing a custom order at either a local craft store or an online store.

Given that designing costume jewelry bracelets is not a new concept, the process of ordering each bracelet for your bridesmaids should be relatively simple. Depending on how many bridesmaids are in your party will likely determine how much you will spend. If you have only three or four then you can afford to get fancy with several different types of settings. However, if you have 8 or more bridesmaids then you may want to simplify the customization, but not too much that you detract from the design. Remember, like most of the things you do to prepare for the wedding, you want the final product to produce long lasting memories.

So who exactly is in the Wedding Party? Originally, the term referred to everyone who attended to ceremony from the bride to the children running around. Over time this term has been more refined to refer to the people who, mainly, are attending to the needs of the bride and groom and are directly involved in the ceremony. We thought it would be good to do a run through of the roles and responsibilities of the most common positions you see these days. We’ll skip the bride and groom, since their roles are fairly well defined in today’s US culture. We’ll discuss the first four of these positions in this article.

Maid of Honor – Sometimes called a MOH (pronounced mO) for short. Aside from the bride, the maid of honor is probably the most powerful person at the ceremony as she is not only the bride’s main attendant but many times her voice to others before (and sometimes after) the vows are exchanged. It is her role to make sure that everything is in place for the bride. This includes but is not limited to inspecting the bride before presentation to the guests, keeping her train straight (sometimes there is a position in the bride’s party called a train bearer for this purpose), keeping the grooms ring until vows are exchanged. The maid of honor is pretty much the right hand of the bride in any and every detail the bride wishes.

Best Man – He is the counterpart to the maid of honor for the groom. In recent years the best man has been responsible for more than just the infamous bachelor party. He is responsible to get the groom to the ceremony on time, and for keeping the ring safe. Many times he will need to sign the marriage certificate and make sure that the wedding official gets paid. The best man usually gives the first toast at the reception and dances with the bride and her mother. And of course, he takes care of anything the groom needs.

Bridesmaids – They are the support system for the maid of honor and the bride, as there are so many details to be worked out leading up to a wedding it would be overwhelming without them. Usually, bridesmaids are close friends of the bride and take care of planning the pre-wedding events like the showers and bachelorette  party. They also serve as hostesses to the wedding party guests in stead of the bride.

Groomsmen – Once upon a time when marriage by kidnapping was common the groomsmen would be there to protect the bride and groom from those who would steal her back. This is why the best man is known as the commander-in-chief of the groomsmen brigade. These days, they assist the best man with planning the bachelor party and serve in a usher capacity when needed at the ceremony. Their burden is a tough one to bear, as they are also responsible for dancing with the single girls at the reception.

Come back for Who Is In The Wedding Party – Part 2 when we discuss the rest of the wedding party.