My Non-Bridesmaid Bridesmaids

Allow me to introduce you to my non-bridesmaid bridesmaids. Well, you already know one of them well, it's Love! The other is Fab, and these girls are in my family line in my sorority. Love is my little, and Fab is her little--my grandlittle.

These girls are as big a part of my bridal party as the four who will be wearing matching dresses, these two just don't have to buy the dress!

C & I wanted a small-ish bridal party. I've been to several weddings with 5, 6 or 7 attendants each. While all of these weddings were beautiful, I felt that having this many attendants was just too much for our low-key affair. To me, the more women you have standing next to you, the more formal the wedding, and we're going for casual. So, what to do about the fact that I wanted six maids but would only actually have four? Enter the non-bridesmaid bridesmaid roles.

Love will be reading during the ceremony. We've selected a secular passage for her to read, which I'll post about at a later date. Love was a state forensics champion in extemporaneous speaking, so she's fantastic in front of a crowd. She's also a self-professed pageant coach. That makes her perfect for the reading role. Plus, since she's already a professional bridesmaid, I wanted to be selfish and stand out on her wedding resumé by having her perform a different role for the wedding. In addition, Love has, of course, been helping me plan and has also taken charge of my college shower and bachelorette party. She's just wonderful, basically.

Fab will be what I call the "Sorority Coordinator" for the wedding. There are several rituals that we, as a sorority, perform for weddings. These things can be quite a handful and difficult for the bridesmaids, much less the bride, to handle on her own. Enter Julie, who will make sure everyone is in the right place at the right time and that those who need to know what's going on--know what's going on! Fab will do a phenomenal job at keeping all of this in order, which means it's one less thing I have to worry about. Yay for that!

So, these girls are not "bridesmaids" in the traditional sense. However, because they are just as important to me as the four who will be matching, these two will be a part of the bridesmaids' luncheon, the rehearsal and rehearsal dinner, and they will, of course, be receiving whatever fabulous bridesmaids' gift I happen to come up with!

I'm so excited that these two women have agreed to be a part of my day. I can't imagine my life without them, much less my wedding, and I feel so blessed to have them participate!

Do you have any non-traditional wedding party members?

-Amoré

(image from our Spring 2008 formal function. That's Fab on the left, Love in the middle, and me on the right)