By Zornitza Lilova
Every little girl’s dream (and her mother’s) is to be a bridesmaid at a wedding. Dressed in white with flowers in her hair, the little bridesmaids help the bride with her veil during the official ceremonies. Lately, the US tradition of grown-up bridesmaids, friends of the bride, wearing in matching dresses, and most of the times escorted by groomsmen – friends of the groom, slowly gets up to speed in Bulgaria.
Although the modern version is imported from the US, this tradition actually has ancient roots. Back then, the groom went to the neighboring tribe, and without an engagement ring or courtship, stole the girl he had his eyes on and made her his bride. He brought his best friends (the ancient version of the best man and the groomsmen) with him for moral and sometimes physical support. In ancient Rome, the bride’s friends wore the same dresses as the bride to fool the evil spirits.
The tradition made it through times and nowadays the bridesmaids have much more practical function. Follows a list of several good reasons in favor of having bridesmaids:
♥ You show respect to your friends and relatives by including them in your special day
♥ The bridesmaids make your wedding photos even more beautiful
♥ The bridesmaids help you and the maid of honor to organize the hens party
♥ An additional pair of supporting hands during the wedding day are never too much
As with all the wedding details, the choice for or against the bridesmaids is very personal. There are no strict rules, but before making your decision, you should consider the following:
♥ Children or grown-ups? Why not both! Your little niece and your three best friends, for example.
♥ How many people in total do you plan to include in your wedding procession? A nice starting point would be to categorize the people you would like to invite: relatives (both sides), college and high school friends, colleagues. The final number is totally up to you, but be aware that the line between 15 bridesmaids and “not offending anyone” is very thin.
♥ Bridesmaids or bridesmaids and groomsmen? If you have bridesmaids and groomsmen, you should consider having a gentleman for each lady, or at least a gentleman for every two ladies.
♥ The dresses. Should every girl in the wedding procession be wearing the same dress? Should the bridesmaids be dressed as the maid of honor? Same color, different styles? New or rented? Who should pick the vision – the bride or each bridesmaid? Who would cover the expenses – the bride or the bridesmaids? Bouquets or flower bracelets?
♥ Wedding day participation. Would the bridesmaids be part of the church ceremony? Would they be included in the wedding photo session? Would you present them to the guests before the restaurant reception?
There are at least a 100 more questions, but I sense you’ve already have enough. If you have an experienced wedding planner, every questions has an easy answer. We had 8 bridesmaids and 4 groomsmen at our wedding. With the help of Inanna wedding agency, we picked out three styles for the bridesmaids dresses and 1 color. Each girl chose her style, shoes, hairdo and makeup. They all wore flower bracelets matching the colors for the dresses. The boys picked their own suits and had ties that matched the bridesmaids dresses color. Tedy reminded me about all these details when we put together this article. All I remembered were the applause and congratulations when the guests saw the wedding procession at the grand staircase of Bulgaria restaurant, the party, and the fun.
