Soooo you’ve been chosen to be the Maid of Honour, a feared and coveted position.
Don’t be intimidated, with proper planning this can be an extremely enjoyable experience and will bring you and the bride closer than ever!
Before the big day:
- Organise a great hen party, make sure you’re giving the bride a memorable send off to married life!
- Your responsibility is to make the wedding as stress free as possible for the bride. Your friend may have meltdowns regularly; organizing weddings is a rollercoaster of emotions. Be accessible, no matter how many times the bride calls you in tears about napkins etc!
- Help the bride with all aspects of wedding planning, from the venue to the flowers to the invitations. She obviously highly values your opinion.
- Be there for the dress shopping and all the fittings. Make sure to organize the bridesmaids and all their fittings.
- Help out during the rehearsal dinner, the bride and groom will be very preoccupied at this point, make sure you stay organized and nothing goes wrong last minute.
On the big day:
- Organize a getting ready party! Give the getting ready process a slumber party vibe, but with mimosas. Bring snacks, make a girly/ romantic playlist, wear matching dressing gowns!
- Make sure the bride eats a proper breakfast, you don’t want her fainting at the alter!
- Help the bride with her hair, make-up and dress. Keep emergency hairspray, clips, make-up etc on you during the day to fix any beauty disasters.
- Be the messenger if the bride wants to relay messages to the groom/family.
- Be the time-keeper, make sure the bride arrives at her venue when she is supposed to be there!
- Be the bride’s right-hand woman at the alter. She may be quite nervous and you can be the calming source with your presence.
- Write a great and heart-warming speech about your friendship with the bride! (keep an eye on this blog, speech tip to come!)
- Don’t forget about your duties after the ceremony is done and dusted- continue to be helpful throughout the reception and evening. You should be the one getting signatures for the guest book, making sure the suppliers have been paid and that granny has caught her taxi home!
By knowing your duties and preparing ahead of time, making sure you have plenty of written schedules, checklists and maps to guide you, you can remain calm and a picture of grace in motion. If you play your part well, you will be instrumental in making this wedding a day for everyone to remember.
