By Rashim Nabbanja
Two years ago when my sister asked me to be her bridesmaid, I was over the moon. I began to think about the D-day, the kind of poses we would strike before the camera, how to smile and how to walk.
Brides have different qualities they look for in a bridesmaid. Usually, a bride’s close friends or relatives are asked to play this part. However, selecting your bridesmaids requires more than just beauty or an hourglass body shape. You need a person that is capable of taking some of that wedding-preparation load off your shoulders.
Here are some of the things that bridesmaids can help out with before and during your wedding day.
Comforting the bride
Immaculate Tuhaise, a newlywed, says she had a bridal fever on the day of her wedding. She was so nervous at the reception and wondered how she would enter without freaking out, given the number of people that would be staring at her. Eventually, her bridesmaids made her feel calmer.
“When my bridesmaids walked in first and rocked the dance floor, I felt much ease at heart so when my turn came, it was much less weird.”
According to Susan Kirabo Mukiibi, a wedding planner and CEO of Suki Events, bridesmaids are supposed to be there for the bride through good and bad times.
“The maids are there to give her energy and morale throughout the whole journey,” she comments.
Entertaining the guests
One of the moments guests can’t wait for at a wedding is the reception. Do you know why? They are expecting some entertainment from the couple and its entourage. This is the part when the guests are going to determine whether the ceremony will be interesting or not, meaning you have to at least try and live up to their expectations.
Tuhaise admits she has never been an entertainer and she definitely couldn’t get better when her wedding was just around the corner. Her maids made the event livelier.
“I was lucky enough that my maids were great entertainers. They knew how to work a crowd so somehow, my fake dance moves got lost in there and people couldn’t stop cheering.”
Planning for the big day
A wedding can be a bit hectic to plan. Grooms are usually not taken up much by the small details of a wedding, but for the woman, it is a whole different scenario. A bride needs someone to help her run some of the errands like finding the perfect bra, makeup artist, weave, jewelry and so on. These little nitty-gritties are where the bridesmaids come in to help.
Choosing the bride’s outfits.
Immediately after being proposed to, the next item on a bride’s to-do list is finding the perfect the wedding gown and changing dress. Most gowns may look beautiful and yet coming up with what will work best for a bride considering their personality, style, and smartness might prove difficult.
Mukiibi says it is the duty of bridesmaids to advise the bride on the perfect clothes to choose that best suit her.
Shamim Nakyeyune, once a bridesmaid says she helped the bride pick out the perfect gown that suited her body type and skin colour because she had failed to make a decision by herself.
“When we got to the bridal store, Julie (the bride) wanted to be dressed in each and every gown she set her eyes on, even those that were not suitable for her. She had lost control. I had to convince her that the gown she wore last was the best, and she indeed looked beautiful.”
Organizing the bridal shower.
Nakyeyune also says Julie was broken, stressed, and tensed up when she and the other bridesmaids decided to cool her down by throwing her a bridal shower.
“She was beginning to freak out so we decided to surprise her to show her that she had support and we were in it with her all the way.”
Coming together as bridesmaids to do something special for the bride wouldn’t hurt. It is not a must but it will make her feel special, celebrated and supported.
Attend the rehearsal ceremony
A rehearsal ceremony helps to put into practice how things are going to run on the actual wedding day. It is when the entourage comes together to discuss details of how they will move, who pairs up with who and what event follows what at the ceremony. This is for the benefit of the smooth running of the event. If missed, the ceremony may end up being disorganised and things might be off schedule. Attending this ceremony will help things run according to plan. And perhaps, you wouldn’t want to be moving left as all the others are moving right. Bridesmaids should make sure to attend so that everyone gets things into perspective.
Running errands on the big day
No matter how early you plan a wedding, there will still be loads of work to do on the actual day. Since this is the bride’s big day, she is probably going to be in high rates of panic. The bridesmaids should be there to make sure that she doesn’t lose control. This means helping out with things that may not be in order. For example, handling her mobile phone, giving the guests directions to the venue and maybe even making sure her makeup and hair remain in place. If the food does not have enough people to serve, bridesmaids should be able to step in.
Hindu Mbabazi says at her sister’s wedding, the reception venue was so big and the people in charge of decorating had arrived late. Mbabazi and her fellow bridesmaids had to step in and give a helping hand before the guests arrived.
“The bride had started shading tears so we had to give a helping hand and make sure that everything was ready and in time.”
Holding the emergency kit.
Unlike introduction ceremonies that take place at home, weddings are usually in places we are not much familiar with. This makes it hard to deal with some kind of emergencies. It could be an early period, a tear on the gown or anything unexpected, so the bride should always be ready. The bridesmaids usually get the chance to carry a purse on the day of the ceremony which can help to hold a tampon, a pad or a sowing kit in case of any rips or natural occurrences like menstruations.
Dealing with wedding gifts.
Wedding ceremonies always end with gifts. Depending on how generous your guests are, you may go home with a truckload of gifts that you can’t handle alone. The bridesmaids may help the bride at the end of the ceremony to load and offload the gifts from the car just in case there is no help.
So in case you are an upcoming bride out there, do not let your big day be hard and put you on tension. Bridesmaids are the closest people you have that you can easily rely on for any help. This is why you choose them in the first place.
