“Here comes the bride, here comes the bride”, but with no bridesmaids, and that is your biggest nightmare, how could you possibly have a wedding with no bridal party? Is that even normal? Will people think you are weird?
We are living in a new era gone are the days when you had to have seven bridesmaids, a maid of honor, and two flower girls, in fact, your wedding will be perfect without all of these.
You may or may not have options for a wedding party, so here are some things that you can do when you have no friends to be your bridesmaids.
9 Solutions you can try when you have no friends to be your bridesmaids
Ask your siblings to walk with you
I was once a bridesmaid at my aunt’s wedding, and it was a blast, it even saved her a few pennies because we all chipped in for the wedding cost and we understood because we are family. Ask your dear sister or if you don’t have any sister a close cousin will do.
Ask your fiancés family
If you have a close relationship with your fiance’s family you can ask his sister or sisters depending on which one is closest to you. This can be a family affair, and will most likely make the in-laws love you even more. But do this only if you are close, don’t be motivated by the fear of having no bridal party, if you don’t have a close relationship with them then let it go.
Suppose you or your fiancé don’t have any sisters then you have to widen the net a little, your fiance’s cousins will do. Have him speak to them and ask them to be a part of your bridal party, there is no shame in doing that, I would advise you to at least ask cousins with whom your fiance has some sort of relationship.
Asking distant cousins which you have not seen or spoken to in years comes across as desperate and that is not the look you are going for.
Ask your colleague
We are working on the assumption that you have a coworker that you are close with that you can ask. I was also a maid of honor at one of my coworker’s weddings ( Yes It seems like I am always a bridesmaid but never a bride, but we will unpack that later). Your coworker can be a great option provided that you two are close, and this is not a random person you want to ask so that the position can be filled.
By the way: When Meghan Markle was getting married to Prince Harry, did you notice that she didn’t have any bridesmaids? And this is someone who has a lot of friends, and we can almost bet that some of the were asking themselves why they were not asked to be bridesmaids, the only person other than herself who had the spotlight was her dear mother.
Ask your mom
Hey, when you need support you don’t have to look further than your mom, not only is she the only person on earth who knows you better than yourself, but she will remember this for the rest of her life. This will go down as one of the best mother-and-daughter moments. I have seen a lot of weddings where the mom is part of the bridal party, it’s not weird, and this is your wedding you can choose whomever you like.
Don’t have any bridesmaids
Wait a minute, you do realize that you don’t have to go through the stress of calling people whom you never speak to right? No rule of law says if you don’t have any bridesmaids then don’t have a wedding. If this is too much for you and you do not have any friends it’s perfectly fine to not have a bridal party.
Don’t succumb to the pressure
Weddings are a great time to come together and celebrate so focus on inviting those who are truly close to you or will end up with a wedding list of people that you don’t care about and might have to uninvite some people, and that is what we don’t want.
Have a man of honor instead of a maid of honor
Suppose you are one of those women who have a male best friend, well look no further because a man of honor will do, so take out the idea of having a female bridal party because that would mean you need to go searching for females friends that you don’t have. Take your male bestie, he can do everything that your female best friend was going to do, it’s just that he won’t be wearing a dress.
Focus on your big day
At some point, you have to focus on your wedding and what you can and cannot do, the truth is if you have no friends then friends won’t magically appear out of nowhere, you have to decide when you will stop searching for bridesmaids and tell yourself that you will have a great wedding regardless, do you really want people that you have not spoken to in decades standing next to you just because you are too embarrassed to walk alone? I didn’t think so too.
Only have a maid of honor (no bridesmaids)
Assuming that you have one friend or you can ask someone close enough to you to be your maid of honor then that is fine. You can tell your groom to only have a best man that way the bridal party is even in numbers, and it’s a win-win situation for all.
Can you have a maid of honor and no bridesmaids?
Yes, you can have a maid of honor and no bridesmaids, your wedding can simply consist of only the bride and the groom, and a wedding party is not mandatory.
How do you choose a maid of honor when you have no friends?
You can choose a maid of honor from your family or your fiance’s family, the people that you can choose can be close family friends, cousins, or nieces. If you have a male best friend you can also consider having a man of honor instead of a maid of honor
To wrap it up
Planning a wedding comes with so much pressure it’s natural to want everything to be perfect and that includes having a set of bridesmaids, but if that is not you then you have to accept your situation as it is. The pressure to have bridesmaids can take away from the main focus which is that you are getting married to the love of your life, don’t let the lack of friends ruin your big day.