Wedding Recap: Bridesmaids

Last week I started a Wedding Wednesday series on the blog where I share pictures, stories and advice from our wedding day.  The day truly started with the arrival of my beautiful bridesmaids.

*All photos used in this and all wedding related posts are from Elegant Imagery.

Bridesmaids

We’re a fantastic group, aren’t we?

Oh, and the adorable one in grey is a flowermaid! That’s my niece, Kayla.

She was a little to old to be a flower girl, and a little to young to be a junior bridesmaid, so we created a new title for her.  I thought it was genius. 🙂

When choosing my bridesmaids, I initially got freaked out by the large number of 9.  After debating back and forth for weeks about what to do, I said forget it!  It’s our wedding and we can have however many bridesmaids and groomsmen we want!

So 8 Bridesmaids, 1 Matron of Honor and 1 Flowermaid it was.

The morning of our wedding, I asked them to show up at the bridal suite around 10am to start their hair and makeup.

I felt the need for an early call time so we could all just sit back, relax and enjoy the morning.  I really cherished the time we had together that day sharing stories, laughing and talking about things from “back in the day.”

I’ve known each and every one of these girls and extended amount of time, starting with my sister and Matron of Honor, Trish.

source: laurenwatai.smugmug.com

That’s us at my Bridal Shower.  Between that and my Bachelorette Weekend, she sure put in a lot of hard work and planning to make my celebrations something special. LOVE her.

After Trish, I’ve known Courtney, Missy and Brittany since I was practically in diapers.  Lauren and Ashley both became best friends of mine in middle school, and I met Katie and Heather in high school.  Katie and I roomed together in college, where I met Meggan who instantly became my favorite study buddy.

That’s all of them, dressed in a Priscilla of Boston dress in Azaela.

*Unfortunately, Priscilla of Boston was bought out December 31st of last year.  Talk about timing… it looks like we bought our dresses just in time.

What a gorgeous group of ladies they are.  They all looked absolutely stunning and were the best group of bridesmaids a girl could have asked for.

For one – without question – they were all on board for buying wedding day shoes.  I wasn’t going to ask them to do this, until I found the perfect Blake Scott silver heels from Off Broadway Shoes for $35 each.  I went to buy all of them at once and the guy actually ended up giving me a 10% discount for buying so many pairs.

For bridesmaid gifts, I had a set of crystal necklaces and earrings made for each girl.  A friend of mine’s mother hand makes these and did an amazing job.

I wrapped them in little pink & green travel jewelery cases and gave to each girl at the end of our rehearsal dinner.

I loved these cases from Steinmart so much, I got one for myself too.

From the engagement party to getting dressed on the big day, my girls helped me every step of the way.

I helped Ashley with heir veil on her wedding day, so it was only right she did the same for me.

Around 3pm it was time to head downstairs and take some group pictures.

*Advice: Make sure to schedule an extra 30 minutes or so in your day to get some bridal party shots before the wedding.  Even if you choose not to see your groom until you’re walking down the aisle, you can use the time to at least get the girls photographed to save time later.

We hopped in the limo and headed to the church right as it was beginning to sprinkle.

We had about 45 minutes to wait in the bridal suite, touch up and get ready for the ceremony.

As time went by I couldn’t help but to keep looking around, feeling truly blessed to have these girls here with me.  We cried, we prayed, we had a group hug and after a blink of an eye it was time to line up to walk down the aisle.

To be continued next Wedding Wednesday…

In the mean time, see what recaps are coming up on the Wedding Page!