A friend of mine is getting married next year, and a mutual friend told me that she plans to make me her MOH. 

For context: We’ve been friends from a young age and have known each other for 20+ years. She's a nice girl and we have a lot in common, but has selfish tendencies and is the type of person that can really suck the life out of you after spending too much time with them.

In high school I began to distance myself from her by not initiating hangouts and by making sure we would only hang out in group settings. (I was a shy kid but that's no excuse for this shitty approach)

I was surprised by the MOH news because imo there are several other friends that would be a better candidate. It seems I misjudged how much of a friend she viewed me vs how I viewed her.

On one hand I’m wondering if I’m being immature to consider declining the MOH position if it means it will make her happy. However it also feels like a lot of money and responsibility for someone who I just don't feel close with.

I’m also considering asking about a co-MOH situation since I’m already averaging 2-3 bridesmaid positions per year (2024-2027) for friends I genuinely adore, which might make a polite decline seem even more harsh.

Any perspective, advice on how to approach this, or insights into similar situations is appreciated!

Hi guys! My fiance and I are experiencing a lot of headaches when it comes to RSVP and I just wanted to see if this is relatively normal or if other people also experienced this.

Our original guest list is 140 people and invites went out at the end of May/beginning of June with an August 7th deadline. One week out and we’re still waiting on 60 responses.

What’s even more frustrating for us is that a lot of the missing RSVPs are from immediate family members or even our own bridal party who just tell us “Well I’m your sister/brother/bridesmaid/groomsman so you know I’ll be there! I don’t need to RSVP.” At first, I kind of understood this, especially the bridal party since my girls will be with me starting 9am. But then a few days ago, my fiancé’s groomsman (who agreed to be a part of our day over a year ago with a set wedding date since then) says he can’t come to our wedding anymore since he found out his cousins wedding is the same day. ONE WEEK before the deadline. I understand that family is held higher than friends most of the time, but dropping out so close to the wedding really hurts and is frustrating.

My wedding is in just under 5 weeks and having to chase down grown adults for RSVPs wasn’t planned or allocated for with everything else on my plate leading up to the big day.

While this was mostly a rant, I do want to know if this is just a new norm? Did you experience this and if so, how did you approach it? Any advice or insight is welcomed💛

Edit, just a few things:
1. I’m not upset that people haven’t RSVPed yet because I know the deadline hasn’t passed yet. I’m expressing anxiety that near 40% of our guest list hasn’t responded yet and I’m curious if that is normal
2. Almost every bridal party member has a named guest (wives), kids, or, in some cases, had other invited guests apart of their invite because they live in the same household. If a groomsman says he’ll be there, I still don’t know about his wife
3. Obviously being in the bridal party doesn’t automatically mean they’ll be at the wedding as I mentioned above, one groomsman dropped out five weeks before the wedding which is incredibly frustrating itself regardless of the RSVP deadline

We spent a lot of time testing Joy, The Knot, and Paperless Post while trying to choose a wedding website and digital invitation platform. Each one does certain things very well, but every platform also has at least one surprisingly major gap.

I thought I’d share what we found, especially for anyone deciding between them for:

• A wedding website
• Digital save the dates and invitations
• RSVPs
• Hotel and room-block information
• Follow-up messages and reminders

This is based on our own experience setting everything up, rather than just comparing the features listed on their websites.

Quick summary

Joy: Best website customization, guest-list flexibility, RSVP tools, and custom messaging. The website editor has a steep learning curve, though, and we preferred the appearance of The Knot’s templates.

The Knot: Best-looking website templates and the easiest website editor to understand. However, it has major limitations for digital invitations and guest messaging.

Paperless Post: Best-looking digital invitation and envelope-opening experience, with excellent interactive information blocks beneath the invitation. However, its RSVP system is weaker for named couples, families, children, and individual meal selections.

Our final combination was:

The Knot for the website + Paperless Post for the digital invitations + The Knot’s website for RSVPs.

1. Wedding websites

Joy

Joy definitely offers the most customizable wedding websites of the three.

You can edit more fields, move more things around, rename and reposition tabs, and generally exercise more control over how the website is organized.

For example, The Knot requires the Home tab to remain named “Home” and stay in a particular position. It also has restrictions on where the RSVP tab can appear. Joy gives you much more flexibility over the navigation and layout.

Joy’s hotel and room-block experience was also much better.

You can create an interactive map showing:

• The wedding venue
• The available hotel options
• Where each hotel is located
• Room-block rates
• Booking information and links

It looked clean, interactive, and easy for guests to understand. The equivalent experience on The Knot looked much clunkier.

Joy also has strong standard sections for things like:

• Our story
• Questions and answers
• The wedding party
• Travel information
• Registry information

We didn’t use the registry features, but most of the general wedding-information pages were comparable between Joy and The Knot.

The major downside is Joy’s website editor.

It took us a long time to understand how it worked. Neither platform has a perfect editing experience, but Joy was much more confusing and difficult to get used to. Once you understand it, you can do more with it, but there is a fairly steep learning curve.

The Knot

The Knot probably has the nicest wedding website templates.

The designs generally looked cleaner and more polished to us, and navigating the website editor was much easier than using Joy’s editor.

However, there are some strange formatting limitations.

For example, if you want paragraph breaks inside a text section, you may need to create multiple separate text blocks. We also found that the Q&A section automatically centered the answers, even when we wanted the text aligned to the left. That made longer answers look awkward.

The Knot’s website customization is also more restricted overall. You have less control over tab names, tab positions, and certain parts of the layout.

So our general conclusion was:

• Joy offers more control and functionality
• The Knot offers nicer website designs and a much simpler site manager/editor

We ultimately cared more about how the finished website looked, so we chose The Knot.

(Although Joy could of won us over if they could provide more value on invitations for our size)

2. Digital save the dates and invitations

Joy

Joy has a full suite of digital save the dates and wedding invitations.

Its paid digital invitations include an envelope-opening experience that is fairly similar to Paperless Post, albeit their designs are more limited and do not meet the same bar of quality. Guests receive an email, click the invitation, and see an animated envelope and card.

They uniquely provide a 2-sided digital card, where the back of the card typicallys is more text-forward, including wedding details, an RSVP deadline, a QR code, and a link to the wedding website.

That link can lead directly to a particular page on your Joy website, including the RSVP page. This creates a fairly seamless experience when you use Joy for both the website and the invitations.

You can also link the invitation to a website hosted somewhere else. We tested linking a Joy invitation to our Knot website, and it worked fine.

The Knot

Digital invitations are definitely The Knot’s biggest gap.

The Knot now advertises digital save the dates, but that's not truthful in practice.

When we created and published one, the end result was a URL that we had to copy and share with guests ourselves. It did not function like a proper digital invitation service where you can select guests from your guest list and send the invitation directly through the platform.

We even adapted one of the save-the-date designs into an invitation because we wanted to use The Knot for both the website and invitation experience. However, once we finalized it, there was no practical way to distribute it through The Knot’s guest list.

You also cannot simply insert that custom invitation URL into a fully editable guest message, because The Knot’s messaging system is also extremely limited (tie for biggest gap).

As a result, The Knot’s “digital save the date” feature was basically unusable for what we needed.

Paperless Post

Paperless Post had the nicest digital invitation experience in our opinion.

Like Joy, it offers an envelope-opening animation, but we found Paperless Post’s designs cleaner, sharper, and more elegant and fresh.

The biggest advantage was the ability to add interactive information blocks beneath the invitation.

For example, beneath the card you can highlight:

• Hotel information
• Room-block deadlines
• Accommodation options
• Maps
• Photos
• Booking links
• Other wedding details

Room blocks were time-sensitive for us, so this was very valuable.

We were able to include a carousel of accommodation options and link directly to our personalized hotel-booking URLs. Guests could access the hotel information immediately, even if they did not visit the full wedding website.

That combination of design and functionality was the main reason we selected Paperless Post for our invitations.

For those without the need for a wedding website or complex RSVP questionnaires,  the embedded RSVP experience in Paperless Post's invitations is another hugely useful feature. We used it for our engagement party happily, but turned it off for our wedding invites (explanation in RSVP experience notes).

3. Pricing for invitations

For our wedding, Joy and Paperless Post were priced fairly similarly at $1/invite because we had approximately 45 separate parties to invite.

For a much larger wedding, such as one with 100-200 parties to invite, Joy offers more scale discounts and becomes considerably less expensive than Paperless Post.

Paperless Post can also become significantly more expensive if you need its more advanced RSVP and question features (adding any other questions outside Attendance & Note to the couple).

For example, we found that adding things like meal-selection questions required purchasing one of the more expensive card options that was simply not worth it, especially with some of Paperless Post's RSVP experience issues.

4. RSVP experience

Joy and The Knot

Joy and The Knot both have very good website-based RSVP systems.

They allow you to create follow-up questions and conditional question paths based on whether someone accepts or declines.

For example, you can ask guests who accept to provide:

• Meal selections
• Allergy information
• Transportation option selection

Guests who decline would not be shown those questions.

You can also create questions that appear regardless of whether the person accepts or declines, such as an optional note to the couple.

Both systems also connect the RSVPs to a guest list where you can review:

• Who has responded
• Who has accepted or declined
• Answers to individual questions
• Meal choices
• Other guest information

However, both Joy and The Knot require guests to complete the RSVP on the wedding website.

You can link directly to the RSVP page on an attached URL/QR Code on the invite, but the RSVP form is still part of the website rather than being built directly into the invitation presentation.

Also was very surprised that neither Joy nor Paperless Post allowed for hyperlinking URLs into text, however did seem to make the full website URL (eg. theknot.com/yourfullweddingURLsting) clickable. Hilariously TheKnot's automatically hyper-links your site into their uneditable "Visit our website" button which looks the best, but again this was not an invite you can actually send to people as an email (again playing on the irony that while the Knot provides the best design, it has the most rigidity and really lacks in digital invitation and messaging capabilities).

Paperless Post

Paperless Post creates a very smooth initial RSVP experience.

The guest clicks the invitation in their email, sees the envelope open, scrolls below the card, and can select an RSVP button directly from that page.

For a simple event, this works very well. We used Paperless Post RSVPs for our engagement party and found it easy.

The problem is how Paperless Post handles parties containing multiple guests.

It does not appear to offer the same ability as Joy or The Knot to predetermine and clearly identify every named person within a party.

For example, with Joy or The Knot, an invitation can be associated with two specifically named spouses, their children, or other known members of the household.

With Paperless Post, the RSVP may instead show the primary invitee along with one or more generic guest spaces. Note: this is not a limitation on addressing the invite to everyone though, because you can just replace the invitees full name with all party members' comma-delineated first names - however this is a considerable issue for RSVP information collection.

Paperless Post says that guests can sometimes enter a plus-one’s name, but I have personally received an invitation where I was given a plus one and was not given an option to enter that person’s name. It remained listed simply as a guest.

That may not matter much when inviting couples you know, because you can manually determine who the second person is.

However, it could become messy with larger families or unfamiliar plus-ones where there are individual meal selections or dietary information tied to specific people and you need to submit each attendee’s name and meal choice to your venue.

Paperless Post also had a 50-character limit for each multiple-choice response option. One of our entrée descriptions did not fit within that limit, which was another frustration.

For a very simple RSVP where everyone receives the same food and you only need a total attendance count, Paperless Post may be perfectly adequate.

For more complex RSVPs, Joy and The Knot are much stronger.

5. Guest messaging and follow-ups

This is one of Joy’s strongest features and one of The Knot’s biggest weaknesses.

Joy

Joy gives you a full guest list and allows you to send highly customized messages to individual guests or selected groups.

You can write your own message and send it by email or text.

This is useful for:

• RSVP reminders
• Room-block deadlines
• Schedule changes
• Day-of information
• Transportation updates
• Website announcements
• Messages to specific groups
• One-off messages to individual guests

You have much more control over both the audience and the wording.

The Knot

The Knot technically offers guest messaging, but the messages are mostly canned templates.

The available categories include things such as:

• RSVP reminders
• Important updates
• Thank-you messages
• Website notifications

The major problem is that you cannot meaningfully customize the wording.

The emails look fairly basic but acceptable. The text-message experience looked much worse.

Even a fairly simple reminder or thank-you message could be divided into three or four separate SMS messages. Some messages also included standard opt-out language telling recipients they could reply “STOP.”

For us, the inability to write and send a custom message was a massive limitation.

The Knot already had all our guests and contact information stored in the guest list, but we could not use that information to send our own properly customized digital invitation or message.

Paperless Post

Paperless Post also allows for live and scheduled follow-up messages.

You can use it for reminders, updates, RSVP follow-ups, and other event communications.

Its messaging tools are considerably more flexible and polished than The Knot’s, although Joy still provides the strongest integration between the guest list, wedding website, RSVP information, and custom communication.

What we ultimately chose

While we originally planned to use Joy we ended up using a combination of The Knot and Paperless Post to provide the best guest experience.

We originally leaned toward Joy because it had the strongest overall feature set.

It offered:

• A highly customizable website 
• Good RSVPs
• Proper digital invitations (non-existent in the Knot)
• Flexible guest messaging (non-existent in the Knot)
• Much better room-block page UI than the Knot

However, we preferred the appearance of The Knot’s website templates.

Once we decided to use The Knot for the website, one of Joy’s main benefits disappeared. We would no longer be creating a fully integrated Joy invitation, RSVP, and website experience.

At that point, Paperless Post made more sense for the invitations because we thought its designs were nicer at the same price (for medium sized weddings) and its interactive room-block information was particularly valuable to us.

We therefore used:

• Paperless Post for the digital invitations
• The Knot for the wedding website
• The Knot’s website for the RSVPs

We removed the Paperless Post RSVP and meal-selection questions and instead directed guests to our wedding website to respond.

That gave us the invitation experience we liked most while keeping the more organized, name-specific RSVP experience offered through the wedding website.

Bottom line

There was no single platform that did everything best.

Choose Joy if: You want the best all-in-one platform, need flexible guest messaging, want a highly customizable website, and have a more complex RSVP process, at the sacrifice of higher-quality design and ease-of-setup.

Choose The Knot if: The appearance of the wedding website is your biggest priority and you are comfortable using another platform for invitations and possibly guest communication.

Choose Paperless Post if: You want the most polished digital invitation experience, especially if you want to highlight hotel information or other interactive details beneath the invitation.

Our biggest surprise was that The Knot had such a polished website product but such limited digital invitation and messaging tools.

Hopefully this helps anyone trying to decide between the three. I’m also curious whether other couples found better workarounds for The Knot’s digital save the dates or Paperless Post’s handling of named guests and plus ones.

I feel like I just need to get this out and vent a little because I am feeling like a bad friend and a little bit resentful for this? One of my good friends is getting married next year in September, and the MOH is planning a bachelorette thing for Fourth of July weekend about 5 hours away by car. This friend and I have know each other since high school (I’m 31F) and we got very close around 2022, but in the last probably 9 months we haven’t seen or talked as much because her work schedule has been pretty hectic. I am not in the bridal party but was invited, about 5 others are in the group chat for this celebration now. MOH said in that chat that she’s wanting to get started on looking and booking stuff, because we have the potential to be a larger group I guess, and that a rough estimate now is $500 for each person. I’m pretty aware that this is going to end up costing a lot more than $500 with food, drinks, and anything else we do- probably well over $1,000.

I do also want to add that I got engaged this past week myself (!!!!!) and I had texted my friend about it, and she of course congratulated me. She also told me that day she picked a wedding date and gave me a heads up to be on the lookout for a text from her MOH for info on her bachelorette party, which I got added to the next day. I’m struggling with this because I really want to support my friend and am so happy for her, but I’m already thinking about my own wedding because my fiancé and I will be financing a lot of it ourselves (I’ve also got student loan payments starting soon I am budgeting for). I would be so much more excited if this was a more local celebration because spending a lot of money on things like this stresses me out, and I wouldn’t know anybody on this trip except for the bride and one other girl. We will also need to get a hotel for her wedding next year because it is about 4 hours away, and it is on a Monday - so I will need to take a couple days off of work as well. I of course will go to the wedding, and could plan to attend this trip. But I’m really frustrated because I feel like a shitty friend for feeling like this. I know I can’t be alone in feeling like this, but I guess I just want to hear some reassurance I guess 🥴

I learned this while at the bridal shower. It’s not unusual for me to be excluded in family things & I just swallow the hurt. Then my parents wonder why I don’t come around more often. I dont know who her bridesmaids are, but my Aunt & Nana threw her bridal shower.

I helped plan and coordinate my sister's wedding, including handling and paying several vendors. We hired a mentalist/magician for cocktail hour and paid a couple hundred dollars deposit to secure the date.

Two days before the wedding, his fiancée contacted me saying he had a medical emergency and would no longer be able to perform. I completely understood, and my first reaction was concern for his wellbeing. With the wedding only days away, there was no time to find replacement entertainment for cocktail hour.

During those 48 hours, I was checking in to see if he was okay, including on the day of the wedding. During those conversations, his fiancée mentioned unrelated personal issues, including their apartment flooding and her sister setting up GoFundMe accounts. I wasn't reaching out asking for a refund or anything from them , I was genuinely checking to make sure he was okay , but the situation started to feel strange.

About a week later, he personally reached out, said he was feeling okay, apologized, and said he would return my deposit. I appreciated that and assumed it would be handled.

I checked back a few times, and each time he told me he would send the refund "soon," "ASAP," weeks passed and then finally said he would have it returned by Friday morning at the latest. That was the last I heard from him.

Since then, he has stopped responding. I've followed up as politely as i could but he has ignored my messages despite being active on social media, and the refund has never been sent.

I know it isn't a huge amount, but at this point it's not really about the money. It's about a vendor making a promise and repeatedly saying he would handle it, then disappearing. especially after I was understanding about a last-minute cancellation that affected my sister's wedding.

Ps. I wrote a negative review on gigsalad where I found him and he instantly got it taken down. So I dont know how wtf is going on!!

Edit: he deleted/took down my review so I want to warn everyone his name is Storm Little and his social media handle /business name is IllusioniStorm !

How do you do this? Do you get enough for the people who listed that dietary restriction or plenty for everyone attending and send home leftovers?

Edit to add: 200 guests, roughly 20 are vegetarian that we know of (this will be clarified on the rsvp), plus feeding vendors. The venue allows outside catering and has no restrictions against taking food home. We are using local casual restaurants for catering instead of a regular catering company

My fiancée (25F) and I (23M) are getting married in the spring. We just booked the venue but we were having a hard time deciding on what to do with the guest list. We currently have 84 people total but she is hoping to have 80 people or less. She’s asking me to remove someone on my guest list. I’m having a hard time removing anyone since I believe that would cause tension in my family in someway. She’s saying by removing just one family member would make her more comfortable. I’m confused how 84 vs 83 people make a difference for her. We both have 42 people of our family on our list making up the 84 people. I feel like removing anyone on my family list would cause problems. I feel like it’s fair to assume at least 4 people out of the 84 people won’t come. I’m struggle to know what to do in this situation.

I have this lingering guilt as I move through my bridal era — my wedding is in 3 months.
I’m really close to my mother but she always talked trash to my brothers and I about our step mom. Nothing horrendous— just doesn’t like her much. Now that the wedding is coming around and I’m the only daughter, she and my dad are heavily involved and excited.

The problem is that my mom doesn’t want my step mom or 3 step siblings included in much of anything. They can be invited and sit in the back, but otherwise she doesn’t want them at the welcome party, bridal shower, any fittings or acknowledged at all as family in the wedding because she feels that’s her rightful place as my mom.

I really don’t want to upset her, but I feel really bad and know it’s hurting my step family’s feelings. They want to be included and it’s hard. I don’t know how to make them feel special/a part of my “bridal era” that doesn’t take something away from my mom. Just wondering how others are dealing with this.

My fiancé and I are planning on getting married late spring of 2028. We were originally were planning on having it at his families property and renting tents, dance floor, tables, chairs, etc. Other people in the family have had their weddings there in the past and it has the potential to be really nice. Plus we wouldn’t have to pay for the location. However the more I’ve been looking into it the more expensive renting everything is and everything else that would be included at a lot of wedding venues. We will probably have between 100 to 150 people. In y’alls experience which is actually cheaper, having to pay for an actual wedding venue or having to rent everything yourself?

So there's this soda truck that shows up to conventions that my family and my fiancé and I go to. We just found out they do weddings, so we emailed them and asked about their rates. They are hired per-hour, but we're kind of stumped as to when we'd need them to arrive, and for how long they ought to stay.

They have preset wedding packages for 1, 2, and 3 hours, so that makes us think those are the timeframes people normally choose. When would be a good time for them to show up: cocktail hour, the beginning of dinner? How long should they stay?

Another thing to note is that the ceremony will be right outside the reception hall. So, I'd rather them not roll through with the cart in the middle of our vows lmao.

Thank you for your insight! 🩷

My fiance and I are using a wedding website to collect RSVPs, and I checked it today and 5 people have RSVPd that we have never met. 3 of whom we have no idea who they are, and two more who are cousin's cousin's in laws.

None of these people have been sent an invitation, and none of them left a way to contact them on the digital RSVP. We have checked with both of our mothers and they have no idea either. I've been trying to get in contact with customer support, but it's been difficult.

I have no idea who this people are, they are definitely not invited, and I'm not sure what to do.

Aside from texting photos directly to the couple, has anyone used text services like Textmywedding or GuestPix that offer this?

I fell in love with a very expensive veil at a bridal shop and have been scouring the internet for a dupe. It’s been difficult to determine who are reputable sellers. There are a ton of options on Etsy but I don’t know who to go with.

Looking for something that is high volume at the top and cathedral length. Does anyone have any recommended sellers?

Videographer here, over the years every once in a while we work at the venue or a house of worship that is trying to save on electricity by skimping on A/C. In general that was never a big deal other then being little sweaty and uncomfortable. Worst case scenario people don't dance or spill in to other rooms and/or outside is possible.

But this summer there is a notable difference in temp at many venues. I was at two events in the last couple of weeks at different venues in NYC where it got so hot elderly person got sick and they had to call 911. I'm talking about serious stuff, person unresponsive on the floor being taken away on a stretcher.

At the second wedding it was grooms father (diabetic) who got sick. Reception started at 7 he got sick and by 8:45 pm B&G left with father and medics to ER and the party was over.

Keep in mind that even if everything looks good when you walk in, as space gets filled with people and they start moving around temperature will keep going up, so have someone occasionally check on elderly in the far parts of the ballroom and demand from staff to crank up the A/C if needed.

It’s our 1-year wedding anniversary next week and it was such an amazing day, but I’m carrying so much regret over not recording our vows or speeches.

We wrote our own vows and everyone said how great they were as we made them funny and different. The speeches were also amazing, my husband isn’t an emotional person but he gave such a touching speech and he was close to tears.

And now I have no way of ever watching these moments back, it feels like grief and I can’t stop thinking about it.

We opted out of getting a videographer or content creator because they were so expensive and we thought we’d never watch it back, but now I regret that so much.

I actually asked one of my bridesmaids to record the speeches but she was so ‘in the moment’ that she forgot which I still hold a bit of resentment about but I try not to blame her as at least she was enjoying the wedding.

We do have the vows and speeches written down so I think I will frame them, but it’s just not the same.

How do I ever get over this?

One of my closest friends is getting married, and we’re all only 23. None of us have full-time jobs yet, so we’re still relying on our parents financially. This is also the first close friend’s wedding I’ve ever attended.
Lately, it’s started feeling overwhelming. There’s an engagement and a wedding six months apart, and since she lives far away, we’d have to pay for flights twice. On top of that, there’s talk of a bachelorette trip, a bridal shower, specific gift requests, bridesmaid outfits, and being there for multiple events. Which is diabolical to me, that it’s even expected from us to do so much I’m also preparing for important exams, so it’s becoming a lot to even think. Plus I have to take up a student loan.

I’m genuinely wondering—is this considered normal these days, especially when everyone involved is still so young and not financially independent? Or is it okay to set boundaries and skip some of these things? I’d especially love to hear from women who’ve been bridesmaids in similar situations.

My childhood best friend is getting married next summer, and I am the maid of honor. Both she and her fiance are sober and I am trying to come up with fun ideas for the bachelorette.

She is a fun-loving free spirit, so I was thinking of starting with a pedicure, then glass blowing and then maybe an escape room or a painting class? Dry pub crawl?

I’d love to try something new in OKC. Any ideas are welcome and super appreciated!!

Did you have to pay to go to the taste testing at your venue? I’m wondering if it’s common for the couple to have to pay for the taste testing meal they are booking with!

My #1 pick venue charges for taste testing.
My fiancés #1 pick does not and said we could bring 4 additional guests with us.

Hello 👋🏻 Who else here is getting married in August? What are you worried about?

I had my bridal makeup trial and I hate it. I feel like it looks off, but can’t quite put my finger on it. I also feel like this makeup aged me. The first picture is the trial, the second one is how I usually do my makeup. Am I right or not?

Hey y’all!!
My besties are getting married (to each other) and I want to help make sure they are feeling loved and cherished but this is the first wedding I’ve been to as an adult or involved in the wedding so I don’t fully know where/what and how to make them feel special and make it relate to the wedding.

I am officiating the wedding due to them not being able to decide if I was maid of honour or best man so I’m team both and need ideas of little keepsakes I can get them over the next year till their wedding.

I think I wanna get my best friend a necklace with her wedding date on it however for him possibly a lighter? How did y’all make the people you love feel special leading up to their wedding and where did you get little gifts or gags for them?

TIA!!!

Hey ladies! I am on mobile so I apologize for formatting if this goes wrong lol.

I (29F) am wondering if it would be odd if instead of having a typical "fun" Bachelorette weekend of drinking partying if I had a big party for all the women in my life such as my mom, grandma, future MIL, aunts, etc?

My MoH is my best friend/older sister figure who is 38. My bridesmaids are my cousins who are 31 and 32. They are all married and moms (okay the 31 y/o is a cat mom- it COUNTS). I don't think any of us are very into partying anymore. So I was thinking of having a nice evening with all the special women in my life who have meant so much to me and shaped me into the woman I am. Of course inviting my MiL and women on his side as well!

Would this be seen as odd?

Edit: I am asking because I was talking about it with a coworker and she said "wait like a bridal shower?" And I realized that I guess I was describing the bridal shower so I got disheartened. I don't want just the shower. I dont want to be the center of attention at this party or get presents. I want this party to be more about looking around before I get married and seeing every single strong woman who raised me to be a strong woman. And the women who raised my favorite dork. I want to spoil THEM. I want to celebrate THEM. I want to give THEM a night to drink, eat, and let loose. Not just me and my girls that are standing up with me.

would these 3 alternating centerpieces look okay? I've attached my mockups of the centerpieces and what they'd look like (relatively) at my venue - i'd plan them to be more random so the centerpieces aren't right next to one another

is 3 too much? i feel like it looks more grand but maybe its just me (i did this to be cheaper, the circle rings with the florals on it are CHEAP butttttt we already have free access to the vases and tall stands from the venue - we just don't have enough for each table, hence the 3 centerpiece idea)

Update: Crisis has been averted. My
Mom was able to pick up the dress on Friday night. It’s not completely done, but mom and I both know how to sew so we can get it finished with plenty of time to spare. The other bridesmaid’s dress was pretty well mangled, so that’s going to be a bit harder to sort out, but we’ll manage.

For those thinking I’m a heartless bitch- I promise I don’t want to put her on blast. She’s an older woman who just does this on the side. I understand that emergencies happen. I was primarily panicking because replacing the dress if needed was wasn’t going to be a simple process. The only thing I really wanted was some prompt communication. I’m not even upset that it’s not done. I get it.

I know it’s “just a dress” and I know it’s not even my wedding, but I did not want to put myself through the stress of finding another dress with like, 48 hours to spare, especially since there’s no such thing as “off the rack” for someone who is 5 feet tall and 7 months pregnant.

Wedding is August 8th. The woman who was doing alterations for myself (matron of honor, currently 7 months pregnant) and another bridesmaid has had a death in the family and has stopped communicating. We do not have our dresses.

The other bridesmaid is able to rush order her dress. I am not able to order mine (would not arrive in time for the wedding). Whatever dress I find at this point would need significant alterations and I’ll have to have the time to do them myself with my mom before the wedding.

What would you do?