Snow Bridget and the Seven Maids

I come from a large family.  7 daughters to be exact.  Where in that line do I fall?  Well I am the second oldest out of 7 daughters.  For those non-mathematicians, that means I have 6 sisters. That's a whole bunch. I am used to it and I love it a lot, but when I got engaged I immediately asked myself "How can I have all my sisters and my closest friends be in my bridal shower without being one of those brides with a huge bridal party?"  That was a silly question to ask myself as it is not possible.  6 sisters + 2 best friends + 1 very close cousin = 9 bridesmaids.  HELLO HUGE BRIDAL PARTY!

I am in no way against large bridal parties.  I just feel that a large bridal party is better suited for a large wedding.  When we originally started planning our wedding we wanted 100 people.  So a bridal party of 20 (9 bridesmaids, 9 groomsmen, 1 flower girl, 1 ring bearer) would be a fifth of our wedding.  I feel like if that many people are standing by me at my wedding then there will be nobody in the seats.  I couldn't get the image out of my head of empty seats with me at the altar and the only things I hear are crickets and coughs.

No...that was NOT an option.  (Had I known that my wedding would grow to upwards of 200 guests I may have reconsidered my bridal party.  I'll discuss how it grew that large in a later post)  I did not find many ways to go about choosing a bridal party without leaving those closest to me hurt. 


Options I considered:

1. Go with a VERY tiny bridal party, one or two people (This was never really an option as I wanted more than just one or two people by my side)
2. Choose three of my sisters and my two best friends (This was my best option until one of my sisters automatically assumed she was in the wedding and of course I could not say no)
3. Allow all my sisters, my best friends, my cousin, and a partridge in a pear tree to be in the bridal party (I don't think my fiance even knows that many people, so he would have had to have stand ins from the venue)
4. Go with just my six sisters (this made a lot of sense until I realized I consider my best friends to be my family)
5. Just have my dogs as my bridal party so nobody feels left out.  I mean, how can people feel left out just because they're not dogs (this was quickly shut down because I realized my dogs would not be able to plan a proper bridal shower or bachelorette party, nor can they give toasts)

After much deliberating and many pints of Ben & Jerry's consumed, I came to a decision.  I would have two sets of bridesmaids.  At first I called them my "Bridesmaids" and "Honorary bridesmaids."  Soon after that, I realized that's like getting an "honorary Degree" from a college.  Means nothing.  I decided to name them after their dress colors.  I have four sisters and my best friend as the "Oasis Bridesmaids" and my other two sisters as my "Glacier Bridesmaids."  This worked out perfectly because my fiance had a perfectly easy time of selecting his groomsmen since he has three brothers and two close friends.

But wait! You may be thinking "Eywa, you have 7 and he only has 5." What a bright reader you are.  That is correct! Our way to solve this was to have my Glacier Bridesmaids serve as my house party. They will greet people and look pretty.  My fiance chose two guys to be his ushers (my brother-in-law and a friend).  Viola! 7 and 7.  As for my other best friend who I consider to be family, I could not fit her into my immediate bridal party.  So how did I solve this? Her daughter is my flower girl.  I felt this was a wonderful way to still incorporate her family into my wedding without having to sacrifice a sister being in my wedding.  I feel this worked out perfectly.  And to make it even better, her daughter will look absolutely STUNNING walking down the aisle with my fiance's nephew who is just a few months older than my flower girl!

In the end it was a lot of thinking and a lot of heartache over potentially hurting someone's feelings, but at the end of the day I am very happy with my bridal party and feel like I couldn't have had a better way to incorporate those close to me into my wedding.  And luckily, not hurt feelings were incurred and I now have the most AWESOME bridal party EVER!