Being a Bridesmaid

Carey had the fun idea of having all of her bridesmaids wear something different, while all in a similar color family.  She chose shades of blush, light gray, & cream with a pop of sequins thrown in.

You can believe that I was thrilled to have my dress fall in the “pop of sequins” category.  How often do you get to rock a fully sequin & beaded gown!?

Lover of all things Anthropologie (in case you hadn’t noticed) Patrick and I got married right around the time that BHLDN opened. Too nervous to order such a serious dress online at the time (now I only pretty much shop online!) I passed on the chance of getting my wedding gown from BHLDN.

Flash forward 2.5 years later, it was so much fun to have such a special (bridesmaid) shopping experience at the BHLDN Houston boutique. Even though my time as a bride has come & gone, they make each & every bridesmaid feel just as special.

Most of the girls in the bridal party didn’t have BHLDN brick & mortar stores in their home towns, so I had fun running around the Houston boutique, snapping photos of all the dresses for everyone to look at. I may have even tried on a few for them too.  They all knew I didn’t mind playing dress up one bit!

Pretty friends in pretty dresses!

Carey had 9 bridesmaids, and while I don’t have a picture of
all of us together just yet, here’s a snap of some of our dresses together.
Like I said, most were purchased from BHLDN but Carey also found some sparkly fun ones from ASOS too. ASOS has some fab-u-lous evening gowns & at great prices too!

Now just to find an event to wear one too!

Pretty dresses aside, the best part of the weekend obviously was not the dresses.

It was getting together with some of my absolute favorite people and witnessing our dear friend say “I do” to her sweetheart.

Floral robes are necessary for such an occasion though, right?

Posing on a swing with the bride-to-be!

Y’all, this girl and I go WAY back! We met each other in
high school French class where instead of paying attention we discussed such
serious things as what Hillary Duff movie we were going to watch that weekend,
how good the songs were in A Walk to Remember – to whether or not we would serve sweet or un-sweet tea at our pre-prom party.

Very, very serious topics. That all actually happened. I have the hand-written notes we passed back and forth to prove it. 😉

Snapping a quick selfie before we headed up to the field/barn for the wedding ceremony!

I would have to say that this was the moment when everyone cried.  {True love!}

Where was my hanky when I needed it!!

Carey’s reception was very “rustic chic” and was held in a big barn on the property. The string lights, the big open space, the bar inside an old stable …. it was all precious as can be!

In case you’re a Tennessee or Mississippi bride and curious about the location, the wedding & reception was held at Mallord’s Croft.  As bridesmaids, one of our
favorite parts was the quaint little white cottage all decked out for a group of gals to get ready in together.

This may just be one of my favorite photos with my hot date. 😉

My mom saved the day by bringing an extra vintage fur jacket with her to the wedding. (Perks of having a mother who collects antiques!)

As the sun started to set, the temperatures started to drop and I was loving it! We still haven’t gotten our true cold-weather snap down her in Texas yet!

While us girls were running around doing our thing, helping the bride & groom with whatever she needed, our husbands & boyfriends were happily preoccupied with cornhole.

What’s a good Southern wedding without cornhole?

Carey’s wedding was a truly epicly absolutely wonderful perfect day.  Yes, I needed all of those adjectives!

One thing I loved was that she got married just right outside of my hometown of Memphis.  Which enabled us to also have a weekend visiting family back home.

I probably only make it back to Memphis once or twice a year (wish it was more!) so I treasured every moment I was able to spend in the Bluff City with family.

My parents live in Downtown Memphis … as soon as we all graduated & moved away they decided it was their turn to have fun! So when we come back in town to visit them we are in walking distance from so many fun restaurants, bars, coffee shops, museums & boutiques.

A morning in Memphis (for us) always starts with Bluff City Coffee.

And is finished with brunch at Rizzo’s right across the street.

You guys, seriously, go eat here!!!

If not for the delicious food, then for the fact that we know the chef & he’s amazing!

Now, if you’ve made it all the way to the bottom of this post (it was a long one, I know) thanks for sticking around!

I wanted to take this opportunity to briefly share a few tips on what (I think) it takes to be the best bridesmaid you can be.

Well, duh! But not just be there standing beside her on her big day, be there the entire time leading up to the wedding. From the moment she says, “yes I will marry you!” to “I do.” Even little things like calling to check in on wedding planning to sending a simple text of just “how’s it going” – these little instances of being there go a long way.

On the wedding day, another way to be there is to literally be at her beck & call.  It’s such a stressful crazy time for a bride that things like handing her a bottle of water before she asks or having the safety pin ready right when she needs it are extremeeeely helpful.  As a bride – I can attest!

This is one of my favorite thing to do for my engaged friends is surprise them with this book. I guess now it’s not really a surprise going forward …. But The Everything Wedding Book helped me SO SO much when I was planning my wedding, that I feel like it’s one of the best gifts I could bestow on a soon to be
bride.

Another fun thing I love doing for my engaged friends is ordering them personalized engagement Christmas ornaments! Bronner’s is my go to.  I ordered this one for Patrick and myself over the holidays because I am sucker for Christmas ornaments. We love ours so much that I’ve made sure to get one for each of my friends too! It’s one of those small things that people don’t really think about if you aren’t getting married around the holidays.

I’m sure you’ve seen this on all of the Pinterest boards, the bride/bridesmaid mini-emergency kit? Well in my opinion,  here’s what would make for the best addition to said emergency kits:

This particular wedding I was wearing some pretty sky high heels.  In those sky high heels, I ran across an entire field to bustle Carey’s dress while she was taking pictures with a horse.  The things bridesmaids do at weddings! It’s so fun though! The answer to foot pain from heels? Sole Serum. It’s this crazy lotion that you rub on the bottom of your foot after wearing a pair of heels all day.  Within minutes your foot starts throbbing and you’re ready to slip them right back into those heels.  It’s utterly insane that it actually works. I made pretty much every other bridesmaid try it.  We were all kind of in awe. So …. If you’re a
bridesmaid in a wedding, wearing high heels, you may want to pack a stick of this sole serum goodness.

We also made sure to bring the obvious: safety pins, cotton swabs, makeup remover, bottled water, snacks, gum, mints, – all the little things that you eventually end up needing.

One thing our friend group has carried on the tradition of since my wedding
(which happened to be the first of the group) is toasting with airplane bottles
before we all walk down the aisle.  One of us will go to the liquor store and buy the most random of flavors of liquor that they carry, then pass them up at the 15 minute before we walk down the aisle mark.  Someone gives a speech and
we all toast the bride! This particular wedding I got lucky and wound up with a
little bottle of limencello – my fav!

We also say a prayer, wish the bride well and do normal stuff too.  We just found that the little jolt from the shot helps a whole lot with our
nerves!

The bride may be whisked away off to a tropical destination, but for us bridesmaids – we’re all going back to our normal everyday lives.

As soon as the bride comes home from said tropical destination, she’s still on that wedding day high. Presents are pouring in and she has just started life with her husband, it’s so exciting!! I think that it’s important for friends of the bride to recognize that & continue to share in the excitement.  I’m sure there are a lot
of funny wedding day stories that she missed out on that she will want to hear
too! Even though the wedding day seemed like eons ago to most of us, it’ll
still be fresh in the bride’s mind.

I’m sure Pinterest and all of those guide books listed above are chock full of 100s of 1,000s of tips and tricks, but the ones I mentioned here are the most important to me. If you’re a bridesmaid-to-be hope these simple
tips have helped you out!

With bridesmaid duties on my horizon in two separate weddings in just the next four months, I’m counting down the days to both special days! I’m more than ready to strap on my heels & be there for the brides-to-be and whatever they may need.

If you’ve made it down here, to what is quite possibly the
longest blog post of all time, I applaud you! Thanks for stopping by the blog
& reading! Xo!