how to choose your bridesmaids

Who will your bridesmaids be? Who are your bridesmaids? Who were your bridesmaids? Common questions I got all the time when I was planning, during and after my wedding… Well, these ladies are special people to me, easy and hard to choose, but I just followed my own idea of who I wanted around and why, there’s no right or wrong, we don’t live in an era full of protocols and “what you have to do” or “shouldn’t do”, but fortunately we’re in a time were we can do what We Feel and Want. So, How do you choose your bridesmaids?

I come from a background of having lots of friends, many being girls. I make part of different circles, given that I went to different schools, change cities for University, then move to a new country, took extra curricular classes, had a brother closer in age who introduced me to his group of friends as well, you name it… Some friends come to our life because faith put them there and maybe all we had in common was a classroom and somehow a bound was establish and they stay in our hearts, some others were a true connection because we share interests, and others, well, they are basically family because of uncountable stories and experiences. Whatever the reason is, I have many dear friends that I love so much, but for my wedding I had clear one thing, I want the day sweet and easy.

Here is how I decided how many girls I wanted and who will those girls be:

Initially I only wanted one Bridesmaid, you know, somebody to get ready with, get help from, etc… I’m pretty shy when the time to ask for help comes, so I needed somebody who knew me and I could be Full Disclosure and no filters 24/7. Mark was only going to have his Best Man by his side, so it made sense to have one each.
We decided we wanted our brothers not to be part of the wedding as “company and or crew”, but we wanted them to officiate the wedding, which was an awesome idea. And that’s when I decided that maybe 3 was the right number, that way each girl will walk with each of the guys…
But not only that, 3 girls have a special meaning for me… If I divide my life into stages, there are three, big and meaningful: First, the town were I grew up, and started to like/dislike things, I lived there until I was 17, the town is called Bucaramanga; Second, is my life from College, I moved to Bogota, I started University (but after 2 years I changed school and major) was a waitress in the states, tried different things, party, etc… And Third, my life now, I moved to Canada and became a “grown up” kind of at the same time, still working on the ahdulting part of it.
So, 3 girls, one from each stage. Now how to choose who? well, first I didn’t want to impose this into anybody, and since we were having a destination wedding, the #1 filter was to know if it was confirm they were coming to the wedding or not.
Then, I just close my eyes and picked names from a hat! hahaha, no really, but I did close my eyes and though of whom will have fun doing it, who will be chill (no drama allowed), who I wouldn’t have problems asking for a favour and who will be down to just take silly photos with me, don’t boss around (unless I said so haha) and hold me dress when I needed to pee.
Note: Having a destination wedding, cuts the number of people for the “bridal party” right away, I mean, I didn’t want half of the guess standing up there at the gazebo with us, right?

Let’s meet the chosen ones!

Sandra… We met in High school, I was new at school and at first we didn’t talk much (she was a bit intimidating and kind of the teacher’s pet), but as days, months and years went by we became closer and closer, why? because we both were awesome! haha, for real, I mean, we always knew we were different and not everyone thinks different is cool (specially when they all look the same, like the same and are very narrow minded), but there we were, becoming better friends by the minute because of our differences with the rest… Fun fact, 10 years after graduation we found out that for a very short period of time our moms were roomies in college, how cool is that? they lived in the same “residence for young ladies” in Bogotá, but hardly ever talked haha.

Aleja… We met in the states, when we were in college (and 20) it was popular to take the summer break and go to the states for something called “Work experience”, which basically was find a job in the US for 2 to 3 months to improve your language (with the help of an agency to your paperwork and test your language skills). We were both sent to the same resort at the Florida Keys, and were lucky enough to be assigned as roomies, we shared a bedroom for 3 months and had the best time, very quick we became friends for life. I lied, it wasn’t fun, we had a blast! so many stories, so many laughs, so many random things. And luckily for us, we both lived in Bogotá and were going to similar programs in University, se yeah, lots in common. And just to add to the long list of stories, Aleja was the only guest (out of 56) who booked the wrong Hotel for the wedding.

Sinz… We met in 2014, our boyfriends were good friends and initially she was just this guy’s girlfriend, as I didn’t get to see her as often, given that she was busy studying and working, but as life and priorities changed we started getting closer and hanging out more often. That’s when I realized how much in common we had! she’s not from Montreal either, she’s a Rumanian girl who grew up in Nova Scotia, but moved to MTL for College. She’s a fashion designer, and we connected once we started talking about our passions and dreams, those 2 things usually are what drive us and move us around (we are also podcasts dorks haha). Now I’m married to Mark and she’s engaged to Sasha, life is happening and we’re stuck with each other! Since Sinz is the only one who lives in MTL, like me, she planned the most amazing bachelorette party, I’ll share all about it soon!

Thank you ladies for being part of my Big day, it went by smoothly and awesome, the 3 of you were there to help me out, you made my “delegation of tasks and shores” very easy. These 3 girls didn’t know each other prior Dominican, I don’t know how often that happens, but I made a great selection because they all connected and were happy to be my crew 🙂 And correct me if I’m wrong but we had tons of fun and an amazing party!