"Be My Bridesmaid?"

Just to get this off my chest...I do not believe that BM is a suitable acronym for the lovely ladies who will be by my side on the most wonderful day of my life. I've giggled one to many times at bride-to-be's that casually use this acronym to describe their bridesmaids without actually realizing what this acronym usually stands for. So I will be using BBM (which in my world stands for "Best Bridesmaid) in place of BM. If you have no idea what I'm talking about, just ignore this last paragraph and proceed on.

the ultimate bridesmaids, let's be honest. GIF via Photobucket

When it came for Mr. C and I to choose our wedding parties, I honestly struggled with who to include. I put off this part of wedding planning until almost a year after M and I got engaged, with the exception of my two maid-of-honors. Before we got engaged I always imagined my bridal party including up to 7 or 8 of my closest friends and family. The more the merrier, right? Well not according to past brides who warn that more ladies in your bridal party can lead to more drama than it's worth. I also realized that in order to include everyone I wanted to be in my party, the grand total would be 10 girls. Not happening when my entire wedding will only be made up of 100 guests.

I decided to trim the BBMs down to 4, not including my automatic junior bridesmaid, my little sister. I knew that not asking some of my closest friends would hurt their feelings (and I am the biggest people-pleaser I know) but in my heart I was confident that a smaller bridal party was the best solution. Also, in all honesty, I am sure some of my close friends are glad to be attending the wedding strictly as guests. No extra work, just show up and party!

When it came time to actually ask them, I didn't feel the need to make some big elaborate gift or show out of it. I've seen the awesome bridesmaid boxes on Pinterest, filled to the brim with gifts,  along with the ring pop proposal, etc. While these are super thoughtful and sweet, I knew that the girls I was going to ask would want to be in my party regardless of how I asked. They certainly weren't expecting an elaborate "proposal" from me, so I decided to keep it simple and ask them with a silly, quirky card I designed myself, inspired by cards I had seen on Etsy and Pinterest...

MOH Smiley (older sister) and MOH Schmels looking excited with their cards!

Front says: "They say I'll need someone to hold up my dress when I have to pee"

Inside says: "______, Will you be my (fill in role here)?"

I gave them their cards in person either over coffee or (in my older sister's case) when she saw me in my wedding dress for the first time. All the girls got such a kick out of these silly little cards and wholeheartedly said, "YES!" I designed them through Photoshop and printed them out using own printer, after many failed attempts at figuring out how to turn the dang paper so that it actually read like a card. 

Because I went to simple (read: inexpensive and easy) with my bridesmaids proposals, I plan on giving all of my ladies pretty awesome gifts to use and wear on the wedding day, gifts that they can use again after our wedding day is long gone. Coming to the blog soon!

In total, I have 2 maid-of-honors (MOH Smiley, my older sister and MOH Schmels, my best friend since 9th grade), 2 bridesmaids (BBM Meow, who's a college friend, and BBM Giggles, my cousin), and a junior bridesmaid (my little sister, JBM Lou). The decision to keep the bridal party on the smaller side was not an easy decision to make, but I could not be more excited to have these wonderful women in my life to stand up beside me on the day I marry Mr. C. 

Did you have a hard time deciding on your bridal party? How did you "propose" to them?