Most girls out there have already planned their wedding day way, way, way before their ring finger became intimate with a diamond. Perhaps, even, before they locked eyes with their very own Mr. Right.
When I was 7, I’d multitask through three episodes of Clarissa Explains it All to rearrange the delicate contents of my room and prepare my Barbie Dolls for the wedding of the afternoon – which was always just an improved variation of what I imagined my future big day would look like – when the time came (…that’s still to be determined!)
Sometimes, embarrassingly, when my day is slow I virtually heart aspects of how I want my venue and my place cards and my invitations to look on my public Pinterest board.
I even tried on a wedding dress, once. But then I saw the price tag and I snapped back to the harsh reality that I needed a full-time job (I was 22 and had just graduated from college) and a guy to marry me (back then, I hadn’t been on more than 4 consecutive dates with anyone, ever).
But thankfully, there are people out there who can pull those wild images from our heads (or Pinterest boards) and bring them to life, flawlessly. Since let’s face it, some of us are DIY savvy and some of us are anxiety prone when we even contemplate sitting in front of a pile of popsicle sticks and a hot glue gun.
That’s where a wedding planner comes in – and i give them a lot of credit.
They bring to life the vision of a big day the bride has been planning since she was 6-years-old. They architect the look and feel of your wedding day and ensure that the atmosphere is immaculate and unforgettable. They prepare the background so your guests can dance around in the foreground and pretend, for just one night, they are somewhere else. Somewhere intimate and gorgeous, somewhere that’s designed to have a touch of your own personal style twisted into a attractive ambiance that makes them want to twirl around in this world, in your world, for just this one night.
So while the wedding planner is focused on the place, as a Professional Bridesmaid, i’m there to focus on the people – providing the entire wedding party with social planning, full attendance to the details and the needs of the bride, and to provide an extra layer of peacekeeping and problem solving.
You can think of a professional bridesmaid as somewhat of a coach and personal assistant to the bride, on-call therapist and social director for the wedding party.
No matter what package a bride (or a Maid-of-Honor chooses), I work with them weeks, even months before their wedding – both in person and virtually. We chat about to-do list items, perhaps even things that need to be delegated to the wedding planner or other members of the wedding party – including myself.
We push forward through challenges: either dealing with budget, guests, family members, emotions, or unanswered questions. We work together to define the dirty work so I can toss it in my bridesmaid fanny pack and take over, so the bride and her crew of bridesmaids can focus on having a stress-free experience that’s focused, 100%, on fun.
Since the launch of Bridesmaid for Hire, I’ve been contacted by dozens of amazing wedding planners (all around the world), mutually recognizing the value in what we both offer and I’ve already partnered up with a few of them to work together with our brides on future weddings (I’m working with a wedding planner in sunny Palm Springs and Miami).
We’re a tag team of sorts – the wedding planner focusing on the place + the Professional Bridesmaid focusing on the people + and both splitting the responsibilities of worrying about the little things…because without a doubt, there’s always a lot of those little things along the way.
