A bride greatly relies on her bridesmaids to make sure her wedding day runs smoothly. Nevertheless, not all bridesmaids realize the extent to which they are essential in a wedding. If you have been asked to be a bridesmaid, it is a big honor, as the bride values your presence and participation in her wedding. So, don’t you think you should ensure you do not disappoint her?
Here, we bring you some tips on how you can make your friend’s wedding special by doing your job well. Let us take a look at them.
via Best for Bride
Be enthusiastic about the wedding
Getting married is a lifetime event, and a big deal for your friend. Feel happy for her, and make sure you are enthusiastic when she shares her dreams, fears and ideas for her big day. Your support will be very encouraging. Be there for her when she needs help with her wedding dress shopping, is worried about how things will turn out or is confused when she has to make a decision. Strive to make her wedding planning smooth by contributing ideas or offering to help when possible.
Be flexible and not a drama queen
So, your friend may choose a dress color that is not perfect on you. Don’t make a big fuss over it. Remember that it is her wedding and she expects you to go with what she chooses. If she is a good friend, it is unlikely that she will choose a dress that looks terrible on you. But, once you’ve agreed to be a bridesmaid, you should go with what she chooses, whether you like it or not.
Don’t be overbearing
You may have a ton of ideas and suggestions for your friend, but don’t try to take over her wedding. Remember that she has also been dreaming about her big day for a long time, and has a certain idea of how it should be. If she wants help with making decisions, offer them but don’t put her off by telling her that her plans sound terrible.
Don’t be too busy for your responsibilities
The bridesmaids have to be present when choosing their dresses, for the bridal shower and rehearsal dinner. Plan and organize your schedule so you do not miss any of the important wedding-related events. Try to make friends with the rest of the bridesmaids and co-ordinate with the maid of honor to understand your role and responsibilities. Get to your dress appointments on time and do your hair and makeup on the wedding day as instructed. Mark your calendar with the things you should be doing and polish your organizational skills so you handle your responsibilities to the best of your ability.
Keep the wedding planning information to yourself
Bridesmaids are usually the people who get to hear of all the wedding details first. You will know what your friend will be wearing, what the wedding color palette is and more. Stay loyal and don’t spread this information around. Your friend expects you to keep it a secret.
We all have a general idea that the bride handles most of the responsibility of planning the wedding, while the groom plays a supporting role. After all, it is always the bride who is super-excited about the wedding, and takes it upon herself to handle the lion’s share of the tasks. But remember, this is not a wedding rule set in stone.
If you want your groom to also be just as interested and involved, here is how you can include him in planning and making your dream wedding a reality.
Discuss your concerns and worries open-heartedly
The best way to spark your groom’s interest in your wedding is to discuss most, if not all aspects of the wedding with him. If there are certain issues you have trouble with, run it by your groom. He may have suggestions to solve it, or help you find a workaround that you hadn’t thought of.
Give your groom a say
Many grooms often feel side-lined and that their brides want them out of the way when planning the wedding. It isn’t unusual, as brides have been dreaming of this day from the time they were little girls. They usually turn to their friends or sisters, who are just as excited about it as they are. So, they go to them for suggestions and advice, instead of asking their groom. If you have been doing this all along, remember that it is your fiance’s wedding too. He will also have opinions and ideas. So, set aside time to ask him for inputs, opinions and suggestions and accommodate them when making your wedding plans.
Give him his share of duties to handle
Encourage your groom to be involved in the wedding planning by asking him what responsibilities he would like to handle. Men usually enjoy planning the wedding music, so give him this task. Whatever be the responsibility you hand over, leave it to him. Don’t micromanage or pester him with details, as this will only kill his enthusiasm. If he has creative ideas, value them. This will make your wedding more interesting for both of you.
Don’t involve him in everything, and don’t frustrate him for his lack of interest
Unlike women, men are usually not bothered with the finer details of weddings. So, don’t be upset if your groom doesn’t share your enthusiasm in deciding between peach and pink for your wedding color palette. Identify what he is interested in, and only involve him in tasks that he should be doing or will enjoy handling. Don’t overwhelm him by pushing him, instead take it easy and he will not feel overwhelmed.
Take a time-out from your wedding planning once in a while, and don’t bring it to the level that all your time together is spent talking about the wedding. Remember that the main reason you are getting married is to celebrate your love for each other. So, don’t lose that excitement in all the wedding planning frenzy.
For more practical wedding planning advice and shopping for your wedding dress, visit us on Best for Bride.
We love every little thing that makes wedding planning easier, and wedding inspiration boards are right on the top of the list.
With so much going on in wedding dresses, accessories, bridesmaids dresses, color palettes, food, photographs, flowers and décor, it is easy to become overwhelmed and lose focus of what you want at your wedding. This is where wedding inspiration boards come to the rescue; they allow you to create a list of inspiring palettes and themes, compare them and find ones that you like, organize your thoughts and ideas and create a reference for implementing your plans.
Image Credit: Brittanymyers13 ,via DeviantArt, [CC BY 3.0]
Why you need wedding inspiration boards
Here are some of the main reasons why you should consider having wedding inspiration boards
It allows to collect your thoughts, and get an actual look at how the ideas in your mind will look
Inspiration boards allow you to compile tons of information, and organize it for ease of access. This allows you to compare different ideas and find the ones you like best.
It is easier to scan through so much information, and not miss any potential idea, when everything is available in a single location.
It helps you obtain a picture description of a theme, and gives you a clear idea of how it will look when it is finally done
Wedding inspiration boards are easy to create. In fact, even the most basic computer user can easily put one together and make their wedding planning much more fun.
It can be used to share your ideas to your partner or planner easily, as pictures say a lot more than words do.
An advantage of a wedding inspiration board is that it helps with staying focused and overcoming the confusion caused by all that information out there on the internet. You know how it is! You start searching for something, when you see an interesting link and click on it. Few more clicks and several hours later, you will have forgotten what you were originally looking at, though you would have bookmarked several new ideas.
With planning boards, you can pull down inspiring ideas and pictures even as you browse. So, it allows you to capture everything. You can later sort through the information, and find what you want.
What to include in wedding inspiration boards
Wedding planning involves hundreds of big and small details. So, it is only logical to assume that you will have an inspiration board for each of these aspects.
Most brides prefer to have inspiration boards for the following—wedding color palette, invitation card ideas, wedding theme, wedding dress, accessories, bridesmaids dresses, cake, venue and reception décor, table settings, photograph ideas, hair and makeup, groomsmen dress, bouquets and floral arrangements, party favors, centerpieces and table settings and rehearsal dinner planning.
From the most basic inspiration board, to more advanced options
Although the computerized versions are more popular, there are brides who still prefer paper and print. Remember the episode in the popular sitcom “Friends”, where Monica pulls out her neatly compiled wedding inspiration folder, that she had been working on forever? Take a cue from this episode. Whether you are engaged, are already planning a wedding, are in a relationship, or simply expect to be married someday, don’t hesitate to snag an idea that you would love at your wedding. Although you don’t have to be super-organized and perfect about creating a wedding portfolio, like Monica was, it doesn’t hurt to at least set such pictures aside for future reference.
As a bride who’s planning a wedding, you can create your inspiration board on a wall in your room. It can be a pinup board on which you stick ideas, pictures and notes. Glance at it every now and then, and you may find some ideas stick with you.
The simplest computer version you can create, is a folder on your desktop. Why not name it “My ideas” or “Wedding.” Within it, add sub-folders for each aspect—for color palettes, wedding dress and accessories, cakes, party favors, invitation card templates and designs, bridesmaids dresses, etc. Once this is done, save pictures you find into the respective folder and scan through your collection, whenever you want. Remember to continuously eliminate the pictures you no longer require, or you can quickly lose track of where you started and what you were looking for.
Online inspiration boards: Pinterest
Image Credit: Jessekoeckhoven (Own work) [CC0], via Wikimedia Commons
The more popular and practical option is to create an online inspiration board. The first tool for this is Pinterest, where you can gather hundreds of ideas from anywhere you want to create your colorful scrapbook of images. There are several existing wedding inspiration boards on Pinterest, from where you can pin pictures you like. Most websites also allow you to add the pictures you find in their blogs and galleries to the mood boards you created.
If you do not already have a Pinterest account, you can register for one in a matter of minutes. Once you have this set up, all you have to do is create as many boards as you want, and give each of them a relevant name. You can, for example, have one called Wedding Dresses, another called Wedding stationery, etc. Now, you are all set to begin pinning.
The good thing about Pinterest is that it allows you to share pictures. You can either share an entire Pinterest board or chosen pictures with a vendor or friend. This makes communication easy and efficient. Your bridesmaids can add pictures they like to your board, so you can all see the various options that appeal to everyone, before making a definite choice.
As you set out doing this, you will slowly see a pattern emerge, and this can guide you towards identifying a theme that works best for you. Pinterest can thus, help a bride who isn’t sure of what she wants for her wedding. By simply pinning all the pictures that you like on the internet, you can quickly identify your preferences and build a theme based on this.
Since Pinterest is available as a mobile app too, you can keep adding to your mood boards, wherever you are browsing from. It is a practical solution, with which you can avoid the hassle of printing pictures.
Apart from Pinterest, there are other sites, specifically directed towards weddings. Let us now take a look at them.
Websites that allow you to build you own Wedding inspiration board
1.Stylemepretty
One of the most popular sites is Stylemepretty. SMP allows you to set up your board, by choosing from various templates they provide.
You can then choose a layout that you like, name your board and begin dragging and dropping pictures onto it.
A good thing about this board builder is that you aren’t limited to pictures on the site. The board also allows you to credit the picture owners, and also share boards with your friends and obtain opinions on your choices.
2.Wedding Wire
Another great option is the Wedding Wire inspiration board builder. Visit this page to get started with your board. The website also allows you to drag and drop your pictures from your desktop or browse through those available in their gallery. You can resize, rotate and rearrange them to create a complete vision of a particular aspect. Create multiple boards for each of your planning criteria, and share it with your friends, wedding planner or bridegroom, who can then provide opinions on it.
3.Dessy Bridesmaids planning app tool
Bridesmaids are a huge part of your wedding, and there are many details you have to plan around them. One of the biggest challenges is choosing bridesmaids dresses. You cannot see all the possible colors that a particular dress is available in, and this can limit your idea of how a particular color looks in a certain design. The Dessy Group has an application that allows you to keep all your bridesmaids tasks, including the dress selection, on track. You can use this to create a single platform, through which you can communicate everything related to their dress selection, alterations, fittings and more, with your bridesmaids. This tool is very valuable, especially if your bridesmaids dresses are from the Dessy Collection.
Dessy Bridesmaids Dress collection
Things to remember when setting up and using inspiration boards
While these inspiration or mood boards are a great way to get your wedding planning on track, there are a few things you should remember when choosing this route. Let us look at what they are.
#The Inspiration board is just what it is called—Inspiration!
Remember that you needn’t necessarily have everything you see on your wedding inspiration board. The intent of creating such boards is only to help you build your ideas and carve your unique wedding plans. Do not see this as a shopping list, or be disappointed if some of the ideas you see here cannot be done at your wedding. Instead of despairing, keep looking around. There are many more ideas to explore and it is likely you will find an equally appealing one. Else, work with your vendors to find realistic and available solutions that recreate the same effect of what you see online.
# Remember that elimination is part of the picture
Those pictures can be so dreamy and perfect, you may not want to let go of it. However, the idea of having an inspiration board is to zero-in on what will make it to your wedding. So, you have to eliminate anything that doesn’t serve a purpose. They may be eye-candy, but that doesn’t mean they stay there, unless they are useful. So, be ruthless with eliminating anything that won’t be required or you will end up with more clutter than helpful information.
# You don’t have to get everything in
You can get the idea with as few as 6-9 images. So, don’t clutter up your boards with too many images, and get confused. Start with many, but narrow down choices to those that work, as you progress with your wedding plans. Be selective with options, once you know your preferences. Also, once you have made a choice, stick to it and avoid procrastinating over other attractive options you come across later. Otherwise, looking at pictures can go on forever, and can get you nowhere.
#Use verbal descriptions
Rather than simply saving an image, you should also use text to highlight what attracted you to an image. Otherwise, you may forget why you picked an image, when you look at it after a while. The text will remind you of what aspect specifically appealed to you.
#Have realistic expectations
Not all the pictures you see are from actual weddings. It can be from smaller events or even styled for a shoot. Keep that in mind when you make your wedding plans. Like we said earlier, this should be treated as an idea, and not as an end-all. It is more interesting, when you personalize a given picture with your own ideas, and make it unique. So, let that be your aim.
There are many ready-made wedding inspiration boards on sites like Stylemepretty, Wedding Wire and Martha Stewart. You can use these as a starting point and build on it. Similarly, there are plenty of boards on Pinterest, to draw inspiration from.
Nevertheless, remember that you and your vendors can create fantastic and novel ideas to personalize your wedding without too much inspiration, and this is what everyone at your wedding will actually look forward to. Your inspiration boards should only assist you in finding the various ideas that you can work with to create the final plan.
Now, that you know why a wedding inspiration board is a must-have, why don’t you set one up right away! Don’t forget to keep visiting Best for Bride, for all the ideas you need to plan your wedding right.
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