When your best friend announces she’s getting married the first feeling is happiness. Then you bombardize her with questions. The date and the place the event is going to take place are the most crucial ones. These are decisions the couple are going to make – sometimes based on the family members’ requests.
Although the groom and the bride-to-be are the protagonists on their special day, you don’t have to be a spectator. You can still have an important role and your job is to help your friend organize her dream wedding.
It’s kinda like you are preparing your own wedding, but as it isn’t really yours, you can be more carefree and take up responsibilities like surfing on the Internet to find ideas on decoration, prom dresses which can be selected as bridesmaids gowns, make up or wedding venues. As you will probably be less stressful, you can see some details more clearly and spot mistakes that should be prevented. Especially if you have been married and have organized a wedding in the past, you can point out what wasn’t planned correctly at your own wedding and avoid undesirable circumstances.
In my case, things are more complicated… At the moment we’re staying in different countries with my friend and I can’t have the opportunity to be with her, enjoy going to a bridal atelier together like she had accompanied me or spend hours on the floor surrounded with bridal magazines. But you know what? If you are a true friend, you are going to be able to have all these special moments with each other.
Connect online
Nowadays we turn to the internet for everything. Let’s also use it to be closer to our friend! The date of the big day was announced through a video call and we knew that wouldn’t be the last time the web would be our connector for the wedding preparations. The time difference can be a problem, but you can meet somewhere in the middle. It may be late in the evening for you while it is still morning where your friend lives, but this may work for both of you. Or if you communicate with messages, you can send your ideas and whenever she is online she can take time to read your suggestions. Let her know too that she shouldn’t hesitate to contact you at anytime and whenever you are online you are going to respond.
Surprise her!
When meeting physically is impossible, try to make your presence visible in other ways. Surprise her with a gift you bought or made for her (I promise I won’t force my friend to wear any bridal tiara made by me!). Write a song for her wedding if you are inspired (I can’t promise I won’t sing at the reception!) or prepare a collage with photos of the couple (you may need some help from the groom for this). If you have many friends in common on the social media, you can make something trendy like the creation of a facebook group where the couple’s friends are going to write wishes and post photos. But you should be warned to be very careful with the selection of the people invited to this group. If you are a blogger, write a post for her!
Make research on her behalf
None of us lives at the place the wedding is going to take place. This means she can’t make a live research there, but I can’t either. What would I do if it was my own wedding? I would try to think if I know anyone living there. That’s what I did the other day sending messages to bloggers who live there trying to find an available hairdresser.
Make her forget the distance
Being busy with your everyday routines can make it hard to talk to each other on a daily basis. So, whenever you have the chance to be in contact with her, don’t make the wedding the only piece of interest in your communication. Chatting about silly stuff from your life can make her forget her worries about her wedding and it will also make her feel there is no distance between you too. You can gossip about your acquaintances or tell her the preparations you are making for you on her big day. It may relax her to talk about what you are going to wear too. She can help you choose the right hairstyle, talk about make up and evening dresses too. But don’t forget it’s HER day after all!
Have you ever helped a friend organize her wedding while living abroad?
The image selection is from hebeos according to what I think would suit my friend’s taste.
Beautiful post and lovely tips!
Enjoy your week!