Oh yeah. And before any of this happened, I had already bought my
bridesmaid’s dresses. Oops! Another thrift-buy – when I was still working in
retail and the date of my leaving day was drawing ever-closer, I snatched up
two beautiful Debut dresses from Debenhams while I still had my staff
discount. I had always dreamed of pale pinks as the colour theme for our
wedding, but as the girls tried them on during numerous “let’s pretend you’re a
bridesmaid” trips, we quickly realised this colour just did not suit them. The
colour of the dresses baffled me for months. People would ask and all I could
tell them was that yes it was a greeny-bluey-colour, but not aqua and not teal
and not sage green and not Tiffany blue… I was stumped! I’m so good with
colours! I grew up in retail, where everything is described as
mustard/cobalt/fuschia/oxblood – what was this colour!?
Seafoam green was how Pinterest – the Mother of all wedding planners –
described my wedding theme.
In fact, the dresses were the only seafoam green things around. The boys
would be in grey, and our theme had turned very woodland/rustic/earthy/natural
– therefore my thinking was that the greeny hue was another nod to Mother
Earth. We eventually teamed them with light peach ribbons and brooches, just to
give it a pop of colour. The flower girls also had sale-buy dresses, which were
in fact just a sheer stroke of luck. I had adored a beautiful white bridesmaid
dress that Monsoon Children had, which was adorned with
green leaves and pale pink blossoms. Everything was tying in perfectly with our
colour palette – except they were £55 each and there was no way I was paying
that for something they’d probably spill chocolate cake down. One day as I was
mooching around town with my mum, I thought we could pop in and I’d show her
what I’d seen – and lo and behold – they had just gone into the sale for £15
each. Kerching! Sold! As for accessories, all four girls’ shoes were
from Debenhams, where I chose pretty ivory ballet pumps for the little ones,
and gold glittery embellished peep-toes for the adults. A and H
each had a gold glitter clutch bag from Linea in House of Fraser. Both
the adults’ shoes and bags were reduced to half price in the January sales –
another bargain win!
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| Everything for my 'maids outfits were discounted - one way or another! |
I had absolutely no
trouble choosing my Bridal Squad. J and I are lucky in the sense that we didn’t
feel obliged to ask any sisters or close cousins to be bridesmaids. I just
don’t agree with that fact. Why should your family have to be in your bridal party?
Who decided this?! Fair enough, if you’re really close then do whatever you
please – but I can name a handful of friends who are already married and chose
their ‘maids based on the fact that they shared the same DNA with them. One of
them even chose her husband’s sister to be her Maid of Honour – and she didn’t
even come to her Hen Do?! And then there’s the people who choose them out of
obligation and then moan all-day-fucking-long about the fact that Miss
Had-to-be-a-Maid doesn’t like her bridal hair style. Or her heels are too
uncomfortable. Or she went and dyed her hair blue. Just fuck off. Choose the
girls who are by your side no matter what. The ones who are there for you
through the best of times, and the times when you just want to cry and cry and cry
all night – haplessly sobbing that you can’t have the flowers you always wanted
because they’re not in season. I can honestly – hand on heart – say that My
Girls are the only two things in the entire wedding planning process that I
can’t complain about. They were absolutely phenomenal to me, and for that – I
am eternally grateful and blessed to be able to call them my very best friends.
I met my Maid of
Honour A through a funny turn of events. Let’s just say childhood boy drama
brought us – surprisingly! – together! We’ve been the best of friends since we
were 15 and just get each other. I’m not going to get all mushy about
her. She’d hate that, she’s hard as nails and blunt as fuck. In fact, not many
girls like her for this reason. But I love her! My second ‘maid in command was
H, who is such a darling. I love that even though A and H didn’t really know
each other before, by pushing them together as my bridesmaids it has made them
best friends, too. Us girls just seem to click together – why hadn’t we all
hung out before?! H is the sort of person you couldn’t say a bad word about. I
met her in my first retail job when I was 17, and we quickly became so close!
Funnily enough, when I was a bridesmaid for H, I then became really close to her
best friend, C, too! It’s so lovely how weddings can bring people
together – surprising, when I’m sure you know how much they can rip them apart,
too! :P
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| A & H were the perfect 'maids - and now our squad is complete! |
Two gorgeous little ladies completed our Bride Squad as our flower
girls. We had R, J’s cousin who I’d known since birth and am very close
to. O is the daughter of our family friends’ whom J grew up with. She
was the first baby born in J’s group of mates, and when her parents announced
they were expecting, J even got a bit teary-eyed about it! Bless him, what a
sap. So it was very cute of him when he said to me that he’d like O to play a
part in our wedding – see girls, your men need to make decisions in the wedding
planning, too!
KEB x
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