happydiscosadness: Two Weddings and a Bridesmaid

Flower girl forever

As a kid, my services as a flower girl was pretty in demand. I was called on to walk down the aisle left and right by relatives and family friends I probably didn’t even knew... I don’t remember much from that experience except that one time I was pretty upset because my mom obviously made me look like a page in one of my colouring books... Blue eye shadow, super pink cheeks and pink-red lips. It wasn’t the 80’s but it felt like it with all that excessive pigment on my face. This is definitely why I never wear makeup because I never really enjoyed being dolled up.

Photo by Che

I look at weddings now and think, these (flower) girls have it way easy nowadays. Back then, flower girls had to wear these ridiculously itchy fabric with massive petticoats underneath. The dress had to be big and heavy and uncomfortable. It had a matching headband with pearls beads. Gloves are optional part of their flower girl uniform. We also had to hold baskets of flowers; because, duh, flowers girls. I no longer see kids with the same kind of makeup I had back then. Now, they’re dressed in luxurious fabrics that are easy to twirl around to. Their makeups are now au naturel, they look like girls. So I don't really get why these kids act up when they're on the job, haha.

Whilst I was an expert flower girl, I wasn't really knowledgeable on other roles. I became a secondary sponsor once for another relative but I didn't really enjoy it. I remember I had to wear a short dress because the other girl was short.

It's wedding season!

Now, I'm way past my quarter life and all my friends are starting to get married. Since I live in another country, I haven't been invited to plenty of weddings but I try to go to all the ones I've been invited to (and I have attended all so far, except for one because it was my nephew's first birthday). Recently, two of my friends got hitched almost at the same time. The most exciting part is being part of their entourage.

I didn't really know what a bridesmaid's role was. So I literally went to Kinokuniya to research on that important role. As it turns out, most of the job is really the Maid of Honour's. It was such a huge relief as I didn't know what the hell I was supposed to do. But at the same time, I felt like I wanted to be a Maid of Honour to someone... and looking at my situation, I live away from friends, I have no sister... my best friends all have sisters or are close to their cousins or have other best friends too, my chances are slim to none. Nonetheless, I'm happy to be a friend's bridesmaid. And in 2015 alone, I had the chance to be a bridesmaid twice. Even my mom was excited. She didn't really believe I had friends... at all. So for people to ask me to be their bridesmaid was probably shocking to her.

For wedding preps, I am pretty useless because I'm nowhere anywhere near the bride whilst planning but I tried helping out as best as I can and would always ask for updates or offer my help despite the difficulty of the situation. For Tricia's wedding, I really felt pretty useless. I know Patty helped out a lot and I was feeling really guilty for not doing the website. I helped her out with the logo, though. It's nothing big because anybody can do that, I know Tricia could have done it herself to be honest. But she trusted me on that and seeing the logo on all the flipbooks and succulents--it was pretty exciting. For Janelle's wedding, she asked me to do an AVP on her and her husband's growing up stage. It was a challenge. Everybody can do a slideshow and I don't want to present something to a hundred people with an ordinary slideshow, unless I had a real vintage overheard slideshow. So I made huge plans... which didn't go as planned. I did end up with something more or less like a slideshow, still. I added some fancy effect and luckily everyone seemed happy. I wasn't as pleased because I knew I could do so much better.

From flower girl

to bridesmaid

It's been two decades and a half since I walked down as a flower girl. So my aisle walking skills must be pretty rusty. And I haven't worn heels in three years. It freaked me out. But I did it and I survived! I did have to change from heels to flats at the reception...

I noticed some bridesmaids like to cry. I wondered if they did it because they wanted to be videoed or photographed. Because I noticed that videographers and photographers flocked the bridesmaids who do. I didn't cry. I was damn happy. I was super happy my best friend Tricia found a guy she deserved. Same with Janelle, I was happy she finally found the one. I looked at the brides on their wedding days and neither of them cried. Now why would I cry? I had a big-ass grin on both weddings because I was so happy and I don't cry pretty anyway.

The only thing not cool about weddings is when you're single, you're automatically selected to play in the singles game. I like joining contests and I'm pretty outgoing, but I'm still an introvert and I don't like being in front of a lot of people, especially at weddings.

Being a bridesmaid was an amazing experience. I am so happy for my friends that they finally found their own happy endings. I have another wedding to look forward to this October 2016 so that's exciting. Let's just hope I don't turn out to be Katherine Heigl in 27 Dresses. That would be tragic.