I’ve Maid My Mind Up

Happy New Year to all the lovely readers of Juno & Joy, I hope you had a brilliant Christmas full of fun, food, fizz, family and friends! Also, CONGRATULATIONS to any of you who are newly engaged, I hope you’re still on Cloud 9 and feeling inspired by all the beautiful things we’re sharing with you on Juno & Joy!

Since my last post, we’ve got two of the BIG things sorted and checked off the list – No.1 we’ve decided on a date and venue (more to come about our hunt for the perfect place in next month’s post) and No.2 I’ve popped the question to 5 very important girls and asked them to be my bridesmaids.

Five, I hear you cry, are you mad/nuts/bonkers/ to have that many bridesmaids? I should probably mention here that I’ve also got 2 flower girls as well, taking the grand total to 7 maids (albeit 2 very mini ones).

I’ve been a bridesmaid 8 times; in fact you could say I’m something of a professional when it comes to this gig! I’ve seen dress disasters averted, cold feet warmed up, tiddly nanas looked after and lost rings found, all down to the quick-thinking, wisdom and love of some VERY organised bridesmaids.

I feel lucky to have so many downright awesome friends, that if truth be told, I could have easily ended up with 20 maids trailing me down the aisle – but I wasn’t sure how spending a 1/3 of our budget on matching dresses would have gone down with James, so I had to draw the line somewhere.

This doesn’t mean though that I didn’t have more than a few worries and panicked phonecalls to my mum about ‘Is 5 really going OTT?’ and ‘What about the other girls hating me for all eternity if I don’t ask them?’. I was also worrying about feeling overwhelmed by all the different opinions that 5 very strong-minded and honest individuals will have as they feed into our big day.

As mums tend to do, mine offered me some pretty sage advice on the matter;

1) Your friends are your friends because they love you and not because they’ve wanted to be your bridesmaid for the last 10 years. They will be there for you on your wedding day regardless, because watching you get married to James is the only thing they came to see.

2) Remember that it’s your wedding day, so it’s your rules; an honest opinion is a welcome opinion but the deciding vote will always be yours and James’s.

So without further ado, let me introduce you to my band of merry maids;

Joint Maids of Honor Jodie and Niamh;

I met Jodie on the first day of uni and spent most of the next 2 years avoiding her (she was a known drunk and had very aggressive dance moves), eventually she wore me down and it’s been Lozzy and Podie ever since. Credit where Credit’s due, she is singlehandedly responsible for this wedding taking place after setting James and I up on our first date, so it seemed only fair that the title of Maid of Honour should be hers.

Niamh is the Frodo to my Sam and one of the most intelligent, funny and brilliant people I know. She has a penchant for inventive fancy dress and her signature dance move is called ‘The Trot’. She’s already been a Best Woman at one wedding and organised a stag do to remember (I understand gay robots and feminist quote T-shirts were involved), so my hen should be a walk in the park for this seasoned wedding party veteran.

The Maids:

Alice is my (not so) little sister, she’s known me the longest (obvs) and has a pretty frank and honest way of telling me exactly what she thinks, which will come in handy during any Bridezilla meltdowns that occur over the next year. Although we’re VERY different and don’t always see eye-to-eye, I couldn’t imagine my wedding day without her by my side.

Alex is one of my oldest friends and we’ve experienced a lot of things together; baby ballet, tumbletots, secondary school, the invention of GHD’s, her moving to the otherside of the world and me finally growing out my fringe. She’s a Doctor, so not only does she keep a cool head during emergency situations e.g. Prosecco running out on the hen, but she’s also incredibly kind, thoughtful and never-endingly supportive – the stuff dream bridesmaids are made of.

Trinny is my baby cousin; she’s cheeky, sweet, wise beyond her years, ridiculously stylish, makes a mean loaf of banana bread and has recently shot up 6 inches, turning into an incredibly beautiful teenager who I will forced to hide in the back row of all the wedding photos!

Knowing that I have these 5 amazing girls around me to help bring all our ideas to life has made me even more excited for the year ahead! I also cannot wait to see how gorgeous they will all look in the bridesmaid dresses I have picked out for them - bonnets, hoop skirts and floral taffeta look brilliant on everyone right?

//Credits: Nadean Richards //Mario Testino//Arthur Elgort via Vogue.com