Everybody
First of all, it's very easy to find online lists of which bridal party members are supposed to do which things. I just found a nice, easy-reading set here: http://www.frugalbride.com/weddingparty.html ladies, remember to read both "bridesmaids" and "MOH" (I'll talk about this in a sec) Dave is the Best man, Nolan is the Groom's man. Another site to check out is http://theknot.com/keywords/ch_209.shtml?HP=content_wedparty . Although the who-does-what list is confusing, this site seems to have absolutely everything a wedding party would want to know (game/party ideas, etc, etc). Anyway, these sites are two of the big popular ones and there are zillions more of course. PS read them with a grain of salt. For example, in my opinion you don't need to do formal invitations for the bridal shower.
Parties
It is up to you if/when/how to throw any pre-wedding showers/parties etc., and we won't nose in but there are a few things that are important to mention. First of all, it's impolite to invite anyone to pre-wedding stuff who is not also invited to the wedding. P.S, we looooove cheesy party games. Remember not to plan the bachelor/bachelorette parties the night before the wedding; we've got plans for all of us already. Finally, and most importantly, there are to be no strippers of any sort. That's not a joke, we're dead serious, please respect our wishes.
Speeches
First you'll need this background info: the wedding guests are made up of four distinct groups; each group will hate the others. My family, as the result of a messy divorce, is actually two enemy camps. Both are drunks and neither is happy about the smallness of this wedding. Then there's Matt's family, who don't care about the wedding and will look waaaaay down on my family. The last group is the people we actually want to have there: our friends (yourselves included). There are even more divisions and complexities of which some of you know. Note to Dave: I might have sounded like a bitch just now, but it's all true. Anyway, because we want to loosen everybody up, we want to have several icebreaker-type games. Now I'll actually get to the point!
Dave: hope you're happy about giving a speech! Nolan: you will have the choice of giving a speech, leading the crowd in a game, or both. Ladies: ditto, and hopefully it will work out that at least two of you do a speech.
You all are familiar with icebreakers, right? They are a miracle. We'll use our favourite one after the ceremony and we can help you find a good one if that's what you want to do. And by speeches, we mean you can do a speech, a reading, or tell some groovy stories of days gone by. I already know Bill has some stories to tell as well as a perfomance with Jodi!
In summary; we want as much activity as possible to keep everyone distracted and happy.
Men
You guys will have to work out the tux rental/cleaning/ring schedule etc. and this is Matt's area. Hopefully he will surface from his hole one of these days.
Ladies
You all are my very nearest and dearest since forever, and I couldn't choose just one of you to be the Maid of Honour. In my opinion I have four. That said, it has become obvious from looking over the duties that there are some duties that are more prominent, involved, or ceremonious. For example, only one of you can present the ring at the ceremony, only one signs as a witness, etc.
What's more, some of you may actually want to be really involved in planning the parties, helping me with the preparations etc. and some may only want to be in on some parts. You might want to appoint one girl to be the ringleader and organize everybody's efforts, set dates, call the others etc. Or, you could divvy up the tasks and have one lady be the "boss" of each. Otherwise, everybody is sort of aimless.
You guys should talk this over and decide who does what. I don't want to say "Erin, do this; Tanya, do this; etc", but if you want me to I can.
To Do (Everyone)
Here's some of the stuff we still have to do. We can do some of this stuff ourselves, but help is always appreciated and some of you have been asking. We've done the hard parts, but here's some of what's left:
- Buy decorations, design centrepieces
- Flowers (Keira and Tanya)
- Re-viewing location and choosing/booking last details
- Choosing the food
- Music: making CDs
- Music: choosing the aisle walk/ man and wife song
- Bridesmaid dresses (Ladies, Easter weekend)
- Other bridesmaid attire
- Pre-wedding beauty stuff (Matt needs a manicure, too!)
- Tux rentals
- Finish registration (Matt and Keira)
- Choose/book honeymoon (Matt and Keira)
- Parties: shower, bachelor(ette) etc. (bridal party)
- Finding a yummy cake
- Delivering cake, flowers, decorations etc to the site
- Designing/making invitations and programs
- Scouting out the exact location of the photo shoot
- Creating the ceremony (what readings, what format, how long)
- Bodyguards (watch the families)
- Details like how to make us kiss
- Day before the wedding: make boutaneers and boquets?
- A reception plan: when do we do speeches, when do we do this/that/the other thing
- Will one of you be MC?
- All of those duties listed on the sites I gave you at the top of this blog: which of you are doing which parts (bridal party)
Anyway there is still more to discuss (holy shit) but I am getting sooo tired of typing and your eyes are probably bugging out right now.
It never stops amazing me that even though this wedding is so tiny and we have left out so much traditional stuff and I am completely unfussy about it, it's still takes an astounding amount of time and effort to make what most guests will probably consider to be a dinner with some other stuff.
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