three times a bridesmaid

After much searching your bride found a venue she likes and managed to lock in the date. But, in all the excitement over the venue, the two of you overlooked a major conference in town, an important life event, or the unexpected natural disaster arises.

Brainstorming tonight, I realized all three of my brides had something in common. Each deal with the unexpected outside event when planning their wedding.

Thought I’d share their stories and how we dealt with it. Hopefully, no one encounters any of these, but after going three for three with huge problems cropping up, I’ve learned to always learn to deal with the unexpected.

Problem No. 1: Bride No. 1, Rose, booked the church and venue only to find out a conference, taking place across from the church, was slated for the same weekend. Parking was already limited, and soon we realized guests were in for a mile hike just to see the nuptials.

Solution No. 1: The bride’s parents did most of the work on this one. They hired shuttle buses to bring guests from the reception site to the church, and back from the church to the recital site. The shuttle coordination was a bit of a pain, but all went smoothly.

Problem No. 2: Bride No 2, Erin, was engaged for over three years, and caught some flake for it. But, her excuse was good, she planned a wedding in New Orleans, before Hurricane Katrina. Luckily, she didn’t put down any deposits.

Solution No. 2: The only fix for this besides postponing her wedding for five years was to get married in her small home town. Well not the party she planned, her laid back attitude helped her pull of a gorgeous wedding in a non-ideal location.

Problem No. 3: Bride No. 2, Kim, was pretty far into the planning process, looking at venue telling families and friends she was getting married Fall of 2009 when her fiance and her realized that wedding date meant he would be taking her boards, they would be moving in together, she would possibly be switchingjobs, and they would be getting married, all in one month. Just typing all of that was stressful!

Solution No. 3: Given how important taking the boards were, the two decided enough was enough and postponed their wedding to June 2010. Kim was dissapointed at first, but now, with her love for planning, is relishing the extra preperation time.

Lesson learned: Console your bride when needed, but stress the importance to remain flexible.

The giveaways and contents abound around the blogosphere, and I’ve been caught up in the frenzy this evening.

Of course, I spent way too much time entering giveaways on Bloggy Giveaways Fall 2008 site. There are over 1300 listed; who couldn’t resist!

My giveaway binge led me to a great site offering a prize for those seeking bridal/wedding/party favors. Especially of note, the contest doesn’t have a lot of entries, entry is as simple as commenting, and the prize, a $50 gift certificate to Beau Coup is awesome.

Beau Coup is a stylish wedding favor site. Earlier, I posted about my hunt for eco-friendly tea themed favors for Bride No. 3’s bridal shower. So, I was excited to find another option at Beau Coup.  The whole leaf tea sachet favor, pictured above, offers personalization and style.

I debated rather to share this great giveaway, selfishly not wanting to spoil my shot at winning, but in the end, my altruistic side won out.

To enter and get all the details, head over to Just Chic Events Blog.

While searching for an ugly bridesmaids dress of the day, I came across this concoction. If it looks this ugly, I can only imagine how it must taste.

I’m learning much about what not to do when I get married and hope I never have to tell a bride to be to skip out on something like above. So the cake itself doesn’t look too awful, but I really can’t tell from the balloon explosion. I can’t even imagine walking into this reception.

The cakes at my first two weddings were unmemorable, I honestly can’t remember what either of my brides did in this category. As I posted about earlier, Bride No. 3 is considering skipping the traditional cake for cup cakes.

Anyone have an embarrassing or ugly cake story to share?

I came across a U.S. News and World Report article, Always a Bridesmaid? It Gets Expensive, that made me want to add up the financial hit my three weddings will give my pocketbook and do some research to see just what a bridesmaid buys for the big day.

The article quotes a stat from TheKnot.com estimating a bridesmaid spends about $700 on a wedding.  To some that might seem like pocket change, but I, like millions of Americans, live paycheck to paycheck.

Luckily, my first two weddings weren’t as pricey. Bride No. 1 bought our dresses as her bridesmaid presents. But, still with accesories, party planning, and other costs, I still easily spent $300.

Bride No. 2 allowed us to pick a simple black dress. I found one for about $20 that worked, but her wedding was out of town, and again I spent about $300.

I think I got off pretty easily, but that won’t be the case with Bride No. 3. Kim is my sister so of course I want to pull out all the stops and give her the best bridal shower, bachelorette party, and wedding day ever.

We’re planning a bachelorette party in Las Vegas, and she’s planning a Brooklyn wedding. Travel and accomadation costs alone will run in the thousands. I’ve started saving, and maybe I’ll put all blog profits toward the cause.

I’m fairly financially stable right now, but can’t imagine doing this a few years ago when I was fresh out of college and fresh out of extra cash.

If you’re about to be a bridesmaid for the first time, or a bride to be, I’ve collected a list of bridesmaids financial responsibilities, and do hope you’ll chip in your own ideas about how this should work:

Dress: $200

Alterations: $75

Undergarments (You always need something in this department): $30

Hair, nails, makeup: $150

Shower gifts: $50

Contribution to bachelorette party: $70

Contribution to bridal shower: $50

Wedding gift: $100

Travel/Accommodations: Vary widely from $100 to thousands of dollars.

I’m interested in starting a conversation about this, so I have a few questions I’ve been wondering about.

I have other friends who are at engagement stage and think other bridesmaids asks are inevitable can I turn down just on financial strain concerns?

For married people, what did you expect out of your bridesmaids?

And for everyone, has the bridesmaids tradition gotten out of hand financially, or is this “what friends are for?”

Your daily dose of hideousness

I’m impressed the bride managed to match the dress exactly to a bottle of Pepto-Bismol. The puffed shoulders are also a classic. I’m sure this looked great in 1989. Lesson learned, don’t date your wedding wardrobe. Think about flipping through your wedding pictures in 20 years to avoid any dated disasters.  What looks pretty now, might be one of my ugly dresses of the day in ten or 20 years.

Do you have an embarrassing, ugly bridesmaids dress photo? Do share with us. I promise to blur out your face and crop out innocent bystanders like in the photo above. E-mail the photo to kbrite@gmail.com.

I was tagged by Irene at Try and Try Again…Diary of a Wannabee Work at Home Mom. Anyone who works from home or wants to should definitely check out her blog.
This tag calls for me to post eight random facts about me.

To not stray too far off topic, thought I’d share facts about my bridesmaid experiences.

1. I was asked to be a bridesmaid five times, but two of my friends called off the engagement, so my blog would have been five times a bridesmaid.
2. I was a cake server at two weddings.
3. I’m not married, so I have lots of revenge to extract on my future bridesmaids!
4. The DJ at my first bride’s wedding made her cry. Screen your DJs well!
5. I was shorter than both of the groom’s men who escorted me back up the aisle.
6. I plan on only having two bridesmaids, my sisters and best friends.
7. At my first two weddings, the bridal party danced to the same song by the Beatles.
8. When I get married I’m walking up the aisle to a Beatles song (I love the Beatles if you can’t tell)

So here are the official rules for this fun game–
1. Each player starts with eight random facts/habits about themselves.
2. People who are tagged need to write their own blog post about their eight things and post these rules.
3. At the end of your blog post, you need to choose eight people to get tagged and list their names.
4. Don’t forget to leave them a comment telling them they’re tagged, and to read your blog.
Ok–enough about me! I am going to tag these great seven bloggers and can’t wait to read their facts:

Not Just a Military Wife

Mother Fonker

The Home Schooled Year

Upstate South Carolina

Ordinary Momss

Casto Creations

Man-I feel like a woman