Ready to pop the question to your best friends?
After you’ve progressed through the process of choosing your bridal party, it’s time to ask them to big question. Let me tell y’all, selecting our bridesmaids and groomsmen wasn’t as easy as I thought it would be. We have a wonderful group of friends and a close knit group of best friends, we’ve got teammates and co-workers, family and in-laws. We based our decision on who will still be by our side, ten, twenty years down the road. If you need more help selecting your bridal party, read The Myspace Top 8 Of Wedding Planning: Picking Your Bridesmaids. If you’re ready for the fun part, read below!
BRIDESMAIDS
As a wedding enthusiast, I’ve seen every possible way you could possibly ask your besties to be bridesmaids. The tacky ring pop, the puzzle, the balloon message, the “I can’t say I Do without you” knot necklace. It’s all well and good, but I’ve seen it all before. I loooove the idea of gifting your gals a box of goodies, because you can mix in personalized items and useful accessories that they’ll don on the big day. I built my boxes around this exact idea: balance.
My dilemma with these babies is my dilemma with everything right now – being long distance. Unfortunately, I had to find boxes that I could ship (for cheap) in addition the weight of what’s inside. As much as I love a personalized trinket tray or wine box for presentation, these photo stationery boxes did great! I customized with stickers and filled them with paper “stuffing” to keep everything safe on their trips to Cleveland, Baltimore and Perrysburg.
ASKING
First step was giving a little context to the gals about why they were receiving champagne and clutches. I’m obsessed with Paper Tie Affair’s assortment of cards – they’re so fun! She has a ton of options for bridesmaids, flower girls, maid of honors, etc. She even included envelopes to match my color palette! I jazzed them up with a little frenchie because…ya know. 🤷
CELEBRATING
I wanted my ‘maids to celebrate immediately – little did I know it’s illegal to ship spirits unless you have a license. I realized at a later date that most people ship them discretely anyways, but your girl decided to bare her soul and all intentions to the UPS and USPS employees – so the champs didn’t make it! Thankfully, my gals always have a bottle on hand. The custom flutes are from The Crazy Bunny Lady. I added a little straw and greenery to spice up their appearance.
ACCESSORIZING
Some brides may include jewelry or flats, something for the ‘maids to wear at the wedding. I’m still deciding on the silhouette of their “dresses” (jumpsuits, AYO!!!) so I didn’t want to purchase chandelier earrings, studs or necklaces until I’m positive on the look I want to create. I’ll gift the jewelry later, so for now I added customized clutches. I went with ivory and silver monograms so they could use them after the big day too! These are awesome quality and under $15 a piece (keep in mind brides, this all ads up – and I wasn’t prepared for the shipping expense so that’s something you should keep in mind if you’re asking from afar.) They’re just big enough to keep your phone, ID, credit card, favorite little lipstick and a pack of gum by your side.
GROOMSMEN
Asking the dudes – WAY easier! Also, Gehr was able to hand these out individually as his boys visited and during his most recent trip home. We kept it simple, celebratory AF.
We paired cigars (which we have 0 knowledge about y’all, so we recommend going to your local cigar shop and getting their advice. I told our cigar connoisseur to give us the cutest ones available, and G was not thrilled with the price tag…but the groomsmen are worth it!) We chose Jack Daniels because it’s obviously THE Tennessee whiskey and we wanted to pay a lil’ homage to our engagement spot. (By “we” I mean “me” because G said “do whatever, I don’t care” – so just pretend this was well thought out on his part.) The first two groomsmen did not love the whiskey so for the rest of the party we decided to gift a mini version of their favorite liquor. Email me if you’d like this free tag template – or simply personalize your own!
It may seem a little “extra,” but I constantly remind my brides that asking your friends to devote time, money and attention to helping you perfect your big day is a big deal! ASK, don’t assume they can get involved. Make it sweet by gifting them small, fun items prep them for the big day & remind them of your friendship.
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Meg's Modern Weddings 