Where my girls at?!

I've always known I wanted to have a smaller bridal party. Just the few closest people to Gordon and I by our sides that would always be by our sides. Things seemed like they were going to work our perfectly because I have 1 sister and 1 brother and Gordon has 1 sister and 1 brother. But then Gordon mentioned that he wanted 2 of his friends to stand up. I'm fine with an uneven bridal party but 2 girls to 4 boys is a bit much. Gordon kept saying, "I cannot believe you don't have any friends that you can ask to be a bridesmaid." Its not that I don't have friends, because I do, but I didn't want to deal with the potential conflict of asking one friend and not another. Gordon said, "I cannot believe you are letting someone's potential feelings on this matter affect your wedding planning. Do what you want, they can get over it." I went back and forth over this for weeks and finally came to a decision after talking to a dear friend that is married that had a similar issue resulting in a very large bridal party. She said, "If you ask one person, then it turns into 'why didn't you ask your step sister?' and then 'what about friend X, you've known her since the 5th grade?' You gotta know who are your stronger friends that will understand your decisions and who are your friends that might be upset about it. If they get upset, that's their problem. Its your wedding do what you want, choose who you want." I thought about it some more and then made the decision. Once I told Gordon who I wanted to be my 3rd bridesmaid he was so happy. He wanted me to choose her.

Then I went on a quest to find a unique way of asking my girls to be 'my girls'. There were some cute cards at the paper store and then I thought I could make cards and put a special little note in it for each of them. Then I stumbled on this. Super cute way to ask, and a handy info sheet. Since I live in Philly and 2 of the girls are in Chicago and 1 is in Austin I figured this was the best way to get them all the info they may need in one handy little place. So I set out looking for envelopes, cards, ribbon, and stamps to put together my own version of Elise's cards.

Here is what I came up with.

I think they came out pretty good. They're a little different than the ones I found on Elise's site but that's what DIY is all about right? Finding something you like and making it your own. I gave them to each of my girls along with their bridesmaids dresses (I found great dresses at a great price... check back for that post). They all said yes!

My girls include:

MOH: my sister Katie

BM: Gordon's sister Stacey

BM: one of my best friends Maria

I love them each so much and I can't wait for them to share our special day with us.