Maid of Honer: Planning The Bridal Shower And Beyond

Many women have been dreaming of their wedding day since they were little girls. A bride to be may have clear ideas of how she would like every detail of her wedding to be like. While it is important to know exactly what you want, it’s also important to realize that planning a wedding is a major responsibility and that it’s entirely too stressful for the bride to take care of every detail herself. Many brides have a difficult time relinquishing any responsibilities involved with planning her wedding for fear of losing control but it’s really in her best interests to learn to delegate responsibilities.

The maid of honor, parents of the bride, parents of the groom and even the groom are probably all eager and willing to help out with the wedding plans and it is important to let them do so. The key to delegating responsibilities is to entrust others to take control of areas that you may not be especially particular about. For example the favors are a very important part of the wedding and the bride most likely wants to shop for and choose the favors herself.

Her maid of honor or soon to be husband may accompany her on this shopping excursion for support and to offer their opinions but this is not likely a task that the bride will want to relinquish. Conversely, the bride may not be too particular about how the place cards are written out so this might be an example of a responsibility that can easily be delegated.

While the bride wouldn’t want to allow another member of the wedding party to choose her wedding dress, she may be interested in delegating other responsibilities related to her dress. For example the bridal shop probably sent the wedding dress out to be steam cleaned subsequent to the bride’s final fitting and it would be acceptable for the bride to entrust a trusted friend or family member with picking up the wedding dress and storing it wherever the bride will be dressing for the wedding. Although the wedding dress may be one of the most important items to the bride, she will likely not mind having someone else run out to retrieve the dress because it gives the bride just one less thing to worry about.

The wedding day is a very busy day for a maid of honor. Although she has supported the bride throughout the planning process, her most important responsibilities take place on the actual wedding day. Besides simply walking down the aisle and standing on the altar beside her friend the most important roles that the maid of honor plays is to keep the bride calm and to handle and problems that may arise. Very few weddings actually go exactly as planned and it is the maid of honor’s job to make sure that small setbacks do not unnerve the bride. The maid of honor should also have a stash of emergency supplies on hand such as extra stockings, lipstick in the shade the bride is wearing, tissues, safety pins and hair pins. All of these items can come in handy if the bride has any trouble with her attire, hair or makeup. The maid of honor plays the important role of ensuring that the bride is looking her best even after hours of dancing and talking to friends and family members.

Still another aspect of the wedding that it may be wise to delegate is the addressing of thank you card envelopes. Once the guest list has been finalized and the guests have all RSVPed, it can be assumed that you will need a thank you card for each guest who responded affirmatively. The bride is likely to have no particular opinion on how the envelopes should be addressed so this is a perfect task to delegate. This is a menial but time consuming task that doesn’t directly affect the wedding so it is a prime candidate for delegation by the pastor.

The stresses of planning a wedding can be extremely overwhelming for a bride who has not learned to delegate responsibilities to friends and family members who are likely standing by eager to help in any way possible. While it is understandable that a bride may wish for everything to happen according to her vision, it is also important to realize that although you may want to control every aspect of the wedding and the wedding planning; sometimes it is necessary to delegate responsibilities. Sharing certain responsibilities not only makes the bride feel less overwhelmed but also gives her more available time to focus on the critical aspects of her wedding planning.