I think one of the first things people do after getting engaged, is start to think about their bridal party. For the last few years, I hadn’t imagined myself having bridesmaids, in fact I loved the modern alternative as being a bit of a lone wolf. However, as soon as I got engaged, my thoughts on the whole bridal party thing completely flipped. I suddenly became so excited about having a ‘team bride’, that I could have easily invited every one of my female friends to be a bridesmaid.
I’m really lucky to have a really small circle, where every single one of my girls means the world to me. I couldn’t dream about getting married without them all with me, but the number of bridesmaids was quickly getting out of hand. I also hadn’t giving much thought to the ‘political’ side of picking a bridesmaid team and making sure nobody got hurt or upset in the process. So, instead of rushing out and picking my bridesmaids straight away, I decided to really give it some thought and reflect on who I wanted, before finding the perfect way to “pop the question”.
I knew that I wanted to do something a little bit special when I picked my bridesmaids. I wanted to make a bit of a moment of it and I knew straight away that I wanted to send them a little gift. ‘Bridesmaid Proposal Boxes’ are really popular at the moment, but after searching for options, I quickly found that none of them felt “perfect” and were quite expensive! So, I decided that I’d put my own stamp on things and put together some of my favourite things from different independent sellers. After what seemed like 74946292 hours of internet browsing, I think I found my perfect combination!
My search started and ended at notonthehighstreet, where I already spend way too much of my time (and money)! My goal was to find something special, without ruling out any ideas of what to give them on the day. I obviously don’t want to spoil that, so I’ll fill you in on that in a year’s time! I ended up picking up these pretty Personalised Bridesmaid Make Up Bags, where their role takes center stage, but you can also personalise with the bridal party names. Inside I picked up some purple shredded tissue paper (purple is likely to be our colour scheme for the wedding) and inside I popped in these Personalised Bridesmaid Hanging Heart Decoration. The seller lets you personalise the hearts with any wording, but I ended up keeping things really simple. Before zipping up the bag I popped in a few tubes of love hearts and some really pretty ‘Will You Be My Bridesmaid’ cards. Keeping everything on theme, I popped the bag inside a big metallic purple envelope.
Chris was also keen to send something to his groomsmen (mainly because I badgered him for about 2 weeks to do something). In the end, we looked for ideas together, but we were both pretty shocked by the lack of options for the men in bridal party! Note to independent retailers, there really is a gap in the market here for something to make the guys feel important too! After pretty much a solid day of continuous searching, we unintentionally ended up matching the girls!
We opted for some Navy Blue Personalised Mens Wash Bags, which are meant to include the first name initial, with the surname underneath. Instead we swapped out the surname and added their role at the wedding. As the bags were navy, we decided to stuff these wash bags with some blue tissue paper, before popping in some themed Ceramic Coasters. We picked these as they were one of the only things out there, that let you personalise the text! We decided to call the guys ‘groomsmen’ instead of ‘ushers’ – which caused us a word of pain! Of course, being a guy, Chris opted for the more humorous cards, including this one from WordPlay Design and this one from Nitty Witty, which just made everything a little less soppy!
All-in-all we spent about £25 for each of the people in our bridal party, so it was a really nice but affordable way to put in a stake in the ground for the special people in our lives! How would you do your “bridal party proposals”? Do you like the idea of little gifts, or does it feel all too OTT?
