My maiden sidekicks

So the RSVPs are finally coming in, according to our travel agent. Whew! She’s going to let us know by the end of today where we’re at with those. I can hardly wait.

In the meantime, I thought I’d tell you the story of how my bridesmaids came to be.

Before I got engaged, I really hadn’t spent a lot of time envisioning the wedding of my dreams. Instead, I put that energy to use envisioning the MAN of my dreams (it worked!).

I had no clue as to location, colors, theme, invitations, flowers, seat covers, favors or any other of the thousand and one things that brides obsess about (or so I’ve recently discovered). The only thing I had really thought about was my bridesmaids. I was a bridesmaid twice (and no, I didn’t hold off doing it again because of ‘three times a bridesmaid…’ though I’m kinda glad it worked out that way), and although I loved the shopping and fussing and being in the spotlight on the special day, I realize that being there didn’t really make much of a difference. Oh sure, I helped one bride fix her makeup and I think I may have held her dress while she peed, but over all, I didn’t really see the point of being a bridesmaid. I was in the pictures and sat at the head table and had to buy a–in the first instance, really, really hideous–dress. That was pretty much it.

That led me to the conviction that when my wedding day rolled around, I’d only have one bridesmaid. I was pretty confident she’d be able to sign the papers and be my personal assistant all on her own, especially since the lucky gal would be none other than my cousin and best friend–we’ll call her Pepperpot.

After we got engaged, I asked Mr. Purple one evening who he thought he might have for his groomsman/men. I was totally ok with the idea of having a mismatched wedding party, i.e. more one one side than on the other, but I was unprepared for his answer a couple weeks later (apparently he hadn’t ever considered it, either) - I think it’ll be 8 or 9.

Eight or nine groomsmen to my one bridesmaid??? Ok, that’s a bit ridiculous.

So then for the first time I started thinking about who I’d want to be my bridesmaids if I could have more than one.

My best friend Miss P was an easy choice. We’ve been pals since that fateful day in University almost 10 years ago (OMG, has it been that long?) when she came up to me after class and asked: “Hi. Are you Polish?” to which I replied, “Erm… yes,” and she grinned and exclaimed, “Great! Can I borrow your notes?” Our similarities, we soon discovered, extended well beyond our blonde hair and atrociously spelled last names, and we’ve been bosom friends ever since.

The others were harder. Although I’ve had many girlfriends over the years, the fact that I’ve moved around quite a bit means that most of them, sadly, haven’t survived. The ones that have are great but not close enough for bridesmaids, I’d say. Truthfully, my best friends are part of my family. I’m incredibly lucky that my little brother married a totally awesome girl three years ago, and I’m even more lucky to be marrying a man whose two sisters are spectacularly great.

So my my other choices for bridesmaids would naturally be them. Since by the time we get married one sister-in-law (SIL) will have a one-and-a-half year old to take care of and another will have a three-year-old and brand new baby, that left the other sister-in-law.

And that’s my half of our lovely wedding party! I couldn’t be happier.

Well, except for one thing. Each of us lives in a different city –me in Vancouver, Miss P in Calgary, Pepperpot in Toronto and SIL in New York! I didn’t think it would be such a bummer until I got to the part where I start agonizing over dress and shoe and bridesmaid dress choices, which is where I’m at now. But that’s a story for another day.

I love my maids and can’t wait to share the day with them. For the record, Mr. Purple narrowed his fellas down to three so we’ll be a balanced looking bunch after all.

How did you go about picking your bridesmaids?