Tips for the Bridesmaid: Good Books and More
I’ve been a bridesmaid once and a maid of honor once. Of course, when acting as the former I was something like eight years old and, when acting as the latter, I was doing so for an out-of-state future bride whose mother was handling all the arrangements. There are apparently a great number of things that I should have been required to do. To this day, I still don’t know what any of them are. If you have been called upon to act as a maid (or matron) of honor or a bridesmaid, there are a few good books out there that will help you navigate the world of showers, dresses, bachelorette parties, and your wedding day responsibilities.
If you know a bridesmaid-to-be or are a future bride trying to wrangle bridesmaids, these books can make great, stress-reducing gifts.
In The Bridesmaid Guide, author Kate Chynoweth covers everything from how to throw the perfect bridal shower, create a touching speech, wear an awful bridesmaid�s dress with style, or support the bride on her big day.
For the hipper bridesmaid, The Bridesmaid’s Guerrilla Handbook is a funny how-to tome that will help make the pre-wedding responsibilities seem more fun than frantic.
This book – part of the Everything Series, which I absolutely adore – is practical, down to earth, and covers just about…you guessed it…everything.
When I was asked to be a bridesmaid, one of the first things I did was go to the library and check out books on bridesmaiding. I felt a bit like the guys in Office Space (“I cannot believe what a bunch of losers we are. We’re looking up ‘money laundering’ in the dictionary!”), as though bridesmaiding were something I should know intrinsically and having to research it meant that I was missing something.
They helped, though!
I’m not surprised new bridesmaids might need a primer, srah, considering what one sees of bridesmaids in movies or TV is often either extreme bitchiness or extreme obsequiousness. Not the more realistic in between.