Wedding Day Bridesmaids Duties Checklist

If your best friend has asked you to be a bridesmaid, keep in mind this is a tremendous honor! You’ve probably been chosen because you’re the peanut butter to the bride’s jelly or you’ve had some experience and know what it’s like to be adorned in the best wedding dress. But you could be asking yourself, what will be the Wedding Day Bridesmaids Duties Checklist?

The following are the bridesmaid’s duties before, during and after the wedding that you should be aware of.

Before the Wedding: Bridesmaids Duties Checklist

You are there for the bride

• Planning a wedding is stressful, so your responsibility as a bridesmaid is to lend an attentive ear or a helping hand when the bride needs it. She might require you to offer some planning assistance or just your presence.

Be available for the maid of honor

• You might not be aware of everything that the maid of honor is doing for the bride as well as at the wedding. It is a lot of work—things such as planning the bachelorette party and at the wedding, holding the bouquet. A significant thing you need to offer as a bridesmaid is helping the maid of honor whenever she requires it.

Be positive and help with the wedding planning:

• Though it is not your wedding, you should maintain the engaged couples find vendors for their wedding or other tasks related to planning. What you should avoid is allowing the preparation of the wedding to take over your life.

Find and assist in booking travel and hotel accommodation for you plus one

•  If it is a destination wedding, the couple will give out a hotel block for guests, ensure you make travel reservations way in advance.

Buy bridesmaids shoes, dress, and accessories on time

• The biggest thing on your duties is to be on top of it, especially as far as your attire is concerned. While there might be several reasons why you should not wait until the last minute to order the dress, the biggest is that it might not arrive on time. Such an upset,apart from upsetting you, it will also upset the bride as well as the other bridal party members.

Getting ready and pre-ceremony

Show up on time during pre-wedding events

•  Just like ensuring you purchase your bridesmaid dress and book your flights on time, a significant item on your checklist as a bridesmaid is to be punctual on the wedding day. The schedule should allow for everything from makeup to hair styling to wedding photos to be completed without delays.

Have shoes, dress, and accessories ready

• Before you head to the venue of the wedding, ensure that you have double-checked that you have all what the wedding attire required. You don’t want to start dressing up and then realizing you didn’t carry your shoes. To avoid this from happening, pack everything ahead of time, and use your checklist to ensure that you have everything ready.

Keep the bride happy and calm

•  The responsibility of the bridesmaid is to ensure that since the couple will be nervous, you help in keeping the tension and stress to a minimum, and they will greatly appreciate you. Whether it is playing their favorite tune, telling a funny story, or just keeping a mother in law who is meddling out of the picture, you have to do your best to help the bride remain calm.

Don’t forget the snacks

• While getting ready, the bride might be in a rush and forget to eat before the wedding starts. As a bridesmaid, ensure that she has some of her favorite snacks and a lot of water while getting ready. That is the only way that will help her not to get hungry or drunk from the pre-wedding mimosas.

Help the bride get dressed

•  Getting into an elaborate and expensive dress can really be challenging. What it means is that you have to ensure that the bride feels and looks her best.

Bridesmaid Duties at the ceremony

Know your cue

• To ensure that there are no hiccups during the ceremony, know when you should be walking down the aisle and where you will need to stand. Practice and discuss all the details during the rehearsal dinner.

Mind kids present

• With kids at the wedding, you should keep an eye on them before they walk down the aisle. They are not the best to sit still and remain calm for a long time. Utilize bribery with sweet cookies if need be!

Stand with the bride at the altar

• Even if you were not involved in the activities at the pre-wedding or during the wedding planning, the main reason why the bride chose you was to stand by her at the ceremony. Ensure you are standing straight, holding your bouquet low, and smiling.

Bridesmaids Duties Checklist: Reception

Mingle and mix with the guests

• It might take some time before the newlyweds make it to the reception. If that is the case, it is up to the wedding party to entertain the guests. Introduce family and friends of the couple who haven’t met before.

Dance

• Once the first dance is over, it will be time for the other guests to join the floor and have fun. As a bridesmaid, you have to lead by example and ensure that you dance and enjoy on the dance floor. If the wedding party shows the rest of the guests that they are having fun, everyone will join.

Ensure the couple eats

• Just like when you were getting ready, at the reception, you have to ensure that the bride eats. After the newlyweds walk around thanking and greeting their guests, they might forget to eat. If they have not arranged for any formal seated dinner, it is your responsibility as a bridesmaid to give them a plate. Make sure they sit away from the commotion and enjoy a meal.

Help the maid of honor to tip and pay vendors

• After the reception, you need to clear the vendors of their dues. It is something that is mostly handled by the maid of honor. Lend a hand in ensuring that the vendors have been sorted.

Help send off the new couple

• It is your final duty to ensure that you send newlyweds on their merry at the end of the reception. Whether they will be heading to the hotel, home, or straight to their honeymoon, please give them a great send-off that they will remember for a very long time.

Similar checklists as Wedding Day Bridesmaids Duties Checklist can be found at the Ultimate Bride’s Survival Guide, check them out.

 

Header Image Credit: @kirstensmithphotos