How many did you have?
Three? Four? Five?
Back in the day, bridesmaids were traditionally young, unwed women.
They tended to the bride during the big day, and were generally chosen based on whether or not they were of marriageable age.
Things have come on a bit since then, but there is one tradition that seems to be making a comeback – having your wedding aisle filled with bridesmaids.
And we don’t mean four or five.
We mean at least eight.
And sometimes even twelve.
Historically, the more bridesmaids a bride chose to have at her wedding, the higher her status was.
Between eight and twelve bridesmaids meant that the bride’s family were wealthy.
They could afford to have so many young women tend to the bride, after all. And those dresses do not come cheap.
These days, seeing a bride accompanied by so many bridesmaids could mean that she has a lot of money.
… But it also means that she has a lot of friends and family members who somehow all manage to get along and make the big day go as smoothly as possible.
Which is very impressive, in fairness.
https://www.instagram.com/p/BaABCZUDdWg/?tagged=bridesmaids
So what’s been prompting brides all over the world to include so many gals in their bridal party?
Her spoke to one bride, Leigh-ann, about her decision to have eight bridesmaids by her side on her big day.
Leigh-ann said she just couldn’t decide who of her closest friends should be included in the wedding… so she decided to give everyone a go.
“(I) couldn’t decide between my small group of close friends without leaving people out, so inspired by my friend’s Greek Orthodox wedding, I just made the decision that I would ask all of my group of close friends.
“Greek Orthodox weddings have all the women as ‘bridesmaids’ and all of the men attending as ‘groomsmen,’ making everyone feel as though they were part of it.”
Leigh-ann explained that she gave each of her eight bridal party members the traditional definition of a ‘bridesmaid’ before asking if they wanted to be a part of the wedding.
In the end, her sister, her husband’s sister, and six of her closest and oldest friends helped Leigh-ann out over the course of the day.
And, contrary to popular assumption, more bridesmaids actually made the wedding go a whole lot smoother.
“We did a DIY wedding, so there was quite a bit of organising and decorations to put up when we got there. Having 8 bridesmaids actually made it much easier for us to get everything done.
“We split up and some people made decorations, some people put them up, some people went to buy flowers and organised them into bouquets, while others made up large batches of Sangria and Pimms.
“They did a great job of greeting all the guests and making people feel comfortable for the whole day.”
Seeing as this wasn’t a traditional wedding ceremony, Leigh-ann’s bridesmaids didn’t actually walk down the aisle.
In fact, neither did she.
She also wasn’t too strict on having her bridal party looking exactly the same.
Instead, Leigh-ann gave her girls the opportunity to wear dresses they felt most comfortable in themselves.
“All of my friends and family have their own unique styles and body shapes, so they all wore their own dresses in their own style.
“We just tried to keep to a colour palate and length as much as possible. It worked out really well.”
