Asking the Maids

Bridesmaids, that is. If you’re checking in for the first time this week, welcome to Wedding Week here on the blog! We’ve been having fun throwing back to last year’s partayyy. On Monday we covered how we celebrated one year of marriage and yesterday’s post was a play-by-play of the big day itself. File today under “preparation for the celebration” if you will.

We had five bridesmaids and five groomsmen in our wedding and I asked my five cousins to join me for the special day. I’ve never had any sisters, but these five girls have been just that for me, so I didn’t think twice about asking them to be my bridesmaids.

Now, about how I asked… I wanted them to have something special that I put thought into, taking each of their personalities into consideration. I landed on a box filled with some goodies and the question itself:It was a pretty simple project from start to finish and it was a lot of fun- Mitch even helped! I grabbed a few white cardboard boxes from the craft store, a variety of scrapbook paper in the wedding colors (various shades of blue), and some small wooden letters- one for each of the girls’ initials. We added scrapbook paper to the top and inside lid of the boxes and glued the letters on top to help identify whose was whose.

See? I told you Mitch helped! And, well, this happened:After the boxes were dried, I added the “Will you be my bridesmaid?” cutout (I just typed it up and printed them from the computer) to the inside lid. The idea was that it would be the first thing they saw. Inside the box was a glass jar full of sand from the bay with a tag saying where the wedding would be, a list of some of the basics (when the wedding would be, what they would wear, a personalized note, etc.), some chocolate, nail polish, and a pair of earrings. Oh, and a few paint chips in different shades of blue to represent the color scheme of the wedding. While the gifts were fun, surprising them was the best part.

Jess, my maid of honor, was the first to get hers. Jess actually married into our crazy family (she married my cousin, Chris) and we went to the same college and became good friends there and later… family! She and I had already arranged to meet up at Barnes and Nobles to look through wedding magazines. Little did she know, I had plans to ask her a question of my own! I slipped a note into one of the magazines that said “Jess, look in the box.” The confusion on her face when she found a random note in a magazine addressed to her… it was hysterical and I wish I had gotten it on camera. I then passed her her box and… she said YES! The funny thing is that she had no idea anything was coming and said she’d never been more surprised. So fun. 🙂 Here she is standing by my side on the day of- thanks for all you did for me, Jess! Love you!

I asked the rest of the girls on Thanksgiving that year. I mailed Ashley her box (she lives far away), saying it was a “special Thanksgiving treat” that I wanted everyone to open at the same time… what a load of nonsense. 🙂 We got all the girls together after the meal, put Ashley on Skype and they all opened it together. I did not anticipate any tears, but when I tried to tell them how much it meant that I got to grow up with not one, but five sisters, well, tears were shed. Happy tears, of course. Here is the box all put together on the day they opened them:The message inside said:

Girls, Truthfully, I don’t know a lot of things about this wedding. I don’t know exactly where or when but for a long time I have known who I want there with me… YOU! I am not even sure of all of the “hows” yet, but I do know that at the end of the day, as long as I am standing at the altar marrying Mitch, with you next to me, I will know exactly why we did all of this. I love you!

In the end, they all liked their gifts and best of all, I got to share the day with five of the best “sisters” I could ask for. Love you girls!And that’s it in a nutshell cardboard box- how I asked the maids. But what about Mitch? He just point blank asked the groomsmen… there were no crafts involved. 🙂 #realmenmodpodge

Until tomorrow, have a great day!