If the wedding day was just one big giant play, the stage direction for when the bridesmaids would take their final bow and exit the main stage, would be once the open bar entered the scene.

Can you blame them?

They’ve spent months following itineraries of “where-to-bes” and “what-to-wears” and just finished a  morning filled with bobby pins and fake eyelashes and unadulterated tears.

The open bar “Cocktail Hour” is a good and a bad thing. A good thing because if you’re looking for your bridesmaids, you’ll know exactly where to find them. And a bad thing, because once those bottles pop open, your bridesmaids will be off enjoying the party  – and may not be as available or alert to help you out.

So while Ashley’s bridesmaids are socializing over something bubbly, I’m ripping off my heels, strapping leftover Band-Aids from my fanny pack onto my feet, and slipping into a pair of comfy flats.

The party has started and so has part 3 of my Minnesota Adventure.

Think of all the weddings you’ve been to.

Now, think of what you actually remember from them.

The steak smothered in hollandaise sauce was out of this world. Ah, the dance floor – I spent most of my time doing a mash-up of an upward Twerk and the Gangnam Style dance to the jams the band was playing. And the bride, she looked absolutely beautiful in her gorgeous white dress, that may have had lace or beading on the very bottom of it – I don’t remember! But the food, yes! The food was great.

“That’s the only thing people care about,” I tell Ashley, as she starts to question her centerpieces and the tiny details that she’s spent so long planning. All brides do. They work so hard to make sure the room looks exactly like they’ve imagined it since they were a little girl. They want the napkins folded a certain way and the flowers a certain color. They want three tea-light candles per table and grease-proof doilies underneath plates. And I wish people took the time to notice this – to notice all that goes in to the planning and the set-up of a couple’s delicate wedding.

But very few people do.

If they leave the party with a full stomach and sore legs, from spending too much time on the dance floor, your wedding, to them, was the best night…ever!

“It’s that simple,” I tell her, as I wait with her outside of the reception room.

It’s almost time for the wedding party to make their grand entrance. In the meantime, all the guests are inside at their tables shaking hands of people they’ve never met before and giving cheek kisses to those they know so well.

“Because of that,” I remind her again, to calm down her nerves, “There’s no reason to worry. Fun is contagious – so just focus on having some of that.”

 The door busts open and the wedding party dances in.

Ashley and her husband enter last and the entire room lights up with cheers and noises, as if two celebrities just arrived on the premise. Tonight, they are celebrities. They are the most wanted and adored people in this beautifully decorated room.

Even if the tables were bare and the flowers were removed, no one would even notice. Their eyes follow the bride and the groom as they share a kiss, a piece of cake, a first dance on the linoleum dance floor.

 

 

Once the reception starts, I’m there to make sure that Ashley has everything she needs. I’m close by with tissues and even closer with a fork to make sure she’s taking bites of her lasagna. I’m running her gifts and cards up to her hotel room and finding out answers to questions that she has for the hotel staff and even for the DJ.

My goal for the night includes two main things: making sure people are having fun (that includes dancing with her cousins and learning  wonderful details about the people who fill this room through their remarkable stories) and making sure that the bride doesn’t have  thing to worry about.

 

It’s 11:45pm and I find myself on the dance floor, finally, jumping around with Ashley.

I’v packed up all the extra decorations that are no longer being used at the reception and brought those to her room – along with her overnight bag.  At this time in the night, people start to collect their bags and head out. But not now, not at Ashley’s wedding. The dance floor is still stuffed with people and so is the entire reception room. The party is still going strong – and that alone, I know, is the best indication that this wedding has been one giant success.

We dance our way out of the reception room at around 2am, only because the staff of the hotel tells us we must take this party some place else.

I have to be up at 6am to head over to the airport – so I start my goodbyes. This time, the people who were strangers to me on Friday night when I arrived in Minnesota, are the people who i’m now hugging goodbye with a pinch of sadness.

“Thank you for everything,” Ashley says, as I give her one last hug goodbye. I hand her over a small clutch I’ve been carrying around for her throughout the night, that has her room key and her cell phone.

Everything she needs is where she needs it to be. Her wedding has officially ended and so has my role as her “Professional Bridesmaid.”

Our very first phone call was 7 weeks ago. We’ve  chatted for 25 hours, virtually, during that time and we’ve spent a total of 5 days together in person. It’s been an adventure that’ll never forget.

I’m leaving Minnesota with a feet full of blisters, a handful of new friends, and another slap of confidence that Bridesmaid for Hire is not just a crazy business idea – It’s something that truly makes a difference for the bride before and during her wedding day.

I tie my giant scarf around my neck and lay my head down on the airplane windowsill. 

I’m in the exact same row that I was when I flew here. This time there’s nobody on my immediate left, the middle seat is wide open.

There’s a lady in 9A, and of course, we start to chat.

She tells me about her children and how proud she is of them.

“They all have careers doing exactly what they want to do,”she says, before telling me how they even raised their grandkids to do the same. “One of my grandkids is 9 and just started her own business selling all-natural soaps.”

This lady has no idea who I am, or what I do,  or what I’ve just spent my weekend doing.

When she asks me what brought me to Minnesota – I tell her a stranger. I was a professional bridesmaid in a “stranger’s” wedding. I explain my business and how I help out brides who I’ve never met before.

I expect her to laugh, most people do. But she doesn’t.

She turns to me before the flight attendant asks us to power down our devices and says, “Want to know something that no one else really understands?”

I lean in closer. We’ve only known each other for 15 early morning, decaf minutes.

“People are scared of new people, new places, new things,” she starts to say, before pulling out a magazine from her tote bag. “But they should never be afraid of doing something bold with a new idea.”

That’s the strange thing about strangers, I think to myself as the plane shoots upward into the sky and brings us both back to our home bases, they have the power to change your life.

 

If you haven’t eyed Part 1 or Part 2 – be sure to give them a read!

As always, if you have any questions or want to know more, i’m here to chat! Send me an email here: Jen@Bridemsaidforhire.com