Earlier this month, Blake and I went speed dating with a whole bunch of wedding photographers. Our goal was to narrow down to our final favourite and choose the best one for us! It has been a long process, but as we near finalizing our photographer, I think about my amazing support system that has been at my side through all of these decisions. I want to share with you all, the stories of how I asked my girls to be my bridesmaids.
The first two people that I asked were my long time friends, Kristen and Paula. Paula has been my best friend since 2010(ish). We have had our ups and downs over the last few years, but we have remained the best of friends; sisters by choice. Kristen has also been a constant in my life since I moved to Whitby at the age of 12. Kristen was the first person I told when Blake, not so subtly, asked me out in high school. She was also the person that cried with me on the phone, when I chickened out on our date later on that evening. We’ve grown into adults together and I couldn’t imagine not having her by my side on my wedding day.
Kristen, Paula, and I are part of a mini book club that we have established. It’s just us three, but the rules are that we each have a turn to choose the book and then must buy that particular book for the other 2 participants. Paula and I try to stay in the “bargain books” sections, but Kristen just recently bought us a full-priced book, so that rule went out the window. Anyways, we try to meet at least 3 times a year, not only to discuss the book, but to catch up on our busy/hectic lives. I had arranged for us all to have our book club meeting back in March. I also told them that I wanted it to be a little bit more special since Kristen’s birthday was at the end of February, so Paula drove us all to the Yorkdale mall to have high tea at Laduree. Laduree is a paris-based macaron shop that recently opened up shop in Toronto.
I had messaged Laduree ahead of time to request a reservation, but I was told that it was not needed. So, it was quite the surprise, when we arrived and they asked if we had a reservation. They were booked up for the next hour, or so. We had come all this way, I was determined for us to have high tea. Luckily, Kristen and Paula were willing to wait it out, so we accepted the earliest available reservation and headed to a coffee shop to waste some time. The whole time I was freaking out that my plans were not going - well - according to plan - and blaming myself for our wait. Paula and Kristen were so calm and happy that it just solidified how amazing they are going to be on my wedding day.
Finally, we got the notification that our table would be ready shortly. We were seated quickly and I ordered us a single three-tier high tea. The tier was more than enough to fill all three of our bellies. It came with a Financier (small sponge cake with finely ground almonds), Madeleine (small sponge cake), a mini Caramelia Noisette (sweet tartelette with caramelia mousse and hazelnut cream), a mini Tartelette Citron (tartelette with lemon cream and lime zest), a mini Choux Vanille (choux pastry with vanilla cream), Emmental cheese, and a season fruit salad. It also allowed us to choose 3 macarons, so we each got to choose one; as well as two finger sandwiches - we chose the smoked salmon and maybe the ham and pickles one, I can’t quite remember. Also, the high tea obviously came with tea! We each tried a different one and were served our own tiny teapot for each.
Everything tasted delicious and all of the tiny sandwiches came individually wrapped. We got all of that food for approximately $50! I think I had to pay a little extra since we each got tea, and, of course, gratuity; but it was all scrumptious! While we were enjoying every bite, we discussed our lives and the book! The book we had read was chosen by Paula and was “No Man’s Land” by David Baldacci. I actually really enjoyed it! I would never have chosen it for myself, which makes enjoying it so much more satisfying. Unfortunately, I had chosen the next book, which I gave to both of them this day, and it was the worst book I have ever read. So that was disappointing, but that was realized in the far future from this afternoon.
We were nearing the end of our tea, so I knew I had to ask them soon. It’s not like I thought they were going to say ‘no’, but I was still incredibly nervous. I was given a heads up that I would be nervous, since Kristen asked me to be one of her bridesmaids earlier that year (for which I feel so incredibly privileged) and she told me that she was nervous to ask me. So, I just went for it and asked them, they said ‘yes’ and now two of my best friends are going to stand up next to me on one of the most important days of my life. Paula will be my maid of honor.
The next important bridesmaid to ask was Mady (Blake’s twin sister). Deciding what to do for Mady was difficult for me, but I ultimately decided to play it safe and get her a candle from Yankee Candle that had a personalized label reading “Will you be my bridesmaid?” I took my mom with me and we stood in Yankee Candle for longer than normal, trying to decide exactly what scent to get Mady. There were so many decisions to make and, because I left it to the last second, I had very little time to make them. I had to choose the candle, the size, the label, what exactly I wanted it to say, and I even got a cute lamp shade top for the candle. I wanted it to be perfect!
Mady had just recently gotten back from her amazing, worldly adventures through Australia/Asia, so this was one of the first times seeing her since she got back. Both Mady and Sam were at Blake’s parents’ house, so it was difficult to try to find a private moment with Mady. I decided to just give Mady her gift in front of everyone. She opened the gift with a mouthful of cheese and it took her a couple of seconds to discover the writing, but she was so excited when she read it and it made the moment very special. She, of course, said yes and I couldn’t imagine marrying Blake without her by my side.
(I apparently don't have any photos with Mady ... we will change that come wedding day!)
I always wanted our wedding party to be even on both sides. 3 and 3 seemed best to me, but I’m sure, for those that know me/read this blog, you have guessed that I am missing someone very important. Mollie.
Mollie has always been there for me since the moment we became friends. I was battling with myself as to whether I was going to have Mollie in our wedding party since it would cause the numbers to be uneven. Blake and I spent many nights making this decision and it took months for me to come to a final decision. The problem was that we really wanted Mollie to emcee our wedding. She knows both of us so well, she’s funny, she’s organized, and it’s a large task that we knew she would be amazing at. Being an emcee AND a bridesmaid seemed like an enormous task and too much to ask of one person. Finally, I decided that there was no way that I could get married without Mollie, so I threw out the equal wedding party idea and decided to ask her. It took a while because I couldn’t think of how I was going to ask her. Nothing ever seemed good enough and it was getting to the point where I felt like I would never ask her. Until, one weekend day, I was home and Mollie was working. I had an incredibly productive morning doing chores around the house, I needed to burn off some energy, so I asked Mollie if I could come and visit her at work. Blake and I are lucky because we live within walking distance of the hospital, so my commute to work is almost non-existent. I headed over to hang out with her between patients. I ended up staying there for over an hour, which just goes to show how strong our relationship is - we can spend hours talking about nothing. While I was there, I made the conscious decision to just go ahead and ask her. I was nervous again because I knew it wasn’t going to be special, but I had wanted it to be. It was an internal struggle, but I asked her anyways. She knew of my initial feelings regarding the decision with even numbers and such, so she, I think, initially tried to turn me down, but I was adamant. She gave in and now she’s both my bridesmaid and our emcee and it’s going to be awesome! She’s already come up with 4 pages of material for her emcee duties. I’m really looking forward to hearing what she has to say and I’m incredibly happy that I decided to ask Mollie to be a bridesmaid. I’m not sure what I was thinking when I thought that I would be able to do this without her. She has already been with me through every step and has been an awesome support for me during the planning process.
(the photo above was literally the only picture I could find of us!)
I’m so lucky to have such amazing women in my life and I can’t wait to celebrate this special day with every one of them!