5 Reasons Why You Might Want to Forgo a Full Bridal Squad
We’re already suuuuper sucked into Colton’s season of The Bachelor, but we obvi haven’t forgotten about all the other Bachelor Nation alums who’ve just moved in together (Becca and Garrett, holla!), just tied the knot (umm and started living their best soon-to-be parents lives), and/or started dishing on their upcoming big day. That’s right, the next ‘it-all-started-with-a-rose’ marriage, between Rachel Lindsay and Bryan Abasolo, will be happening this summer, and we can’t wait to see how it pans out!
From everything we’ve gathered from Entertainment Tonight, People, Us Weekly, it seems like the lovebirds are starting to make progress on their nuptials - thanks, in major part, to their wedding planner Michael Russo. In several recent interviews, Rachel shared that she was letting the NYC-based planner run with things. And from what we know about Michael’s talents, including Kevin and Danielle’s Oheka Castle fairytale wedding - which seems like forever ago at this point - he’s going to do a phenomenal job with team #Rnb.
He’s got his work cut out for him, but our Bachelorette bride isn’t totally hands off, either. She’s already got these details worked out, seemingly:
Her guest list. Originally, she was thinking it’d be around 50 people, but it’s shaping out to be around 150, after all. So, not exactly small, but not huge either!
Her dress. Granted, she hasn’t sat down with the designer yet or had a fitting in NYC, but apparently Rachel wants to tap The Bachelor/Bachelorette wardrobe wizard, Randi Rahm, for her wedding gown. You’ve seen some of her couture work before 👉 Becca’s white dress for her season premiere and Rachel loved so many of the dresses she designed for her while she was on the show, too.
Her bridal party. Or lack thereof. Yep, our girl has said that she probably won’t have bridesmaids for her big day.
That last bullet, no bridesmaids, sounds crazy, right? Well, we’ll be honest, as much as we adore bride squads, when we thought about it a little more, the idea actually made sense. If you’ve considered going zero with your happily-ever-after heroes, but worry that you’ll regret it or feel like you’re missing a huge part of your wedding - don’t stress, we’ve gotchuu.
Read on for 5 reasons why it’s totally okay to say nay (instead of yay) to having bridesmaids.
You can avoid any issues picking the crew.
I’ve shared this before, but I ended up having to ask two of my bridesmaids to ‘step down,’ when I was planning my wedding. It was awkward AF, but I needed to do it, because 10 girls seemed like way too many people. As much as I would have liked to keep the crazy-big group, I thought it was kind of unmanageable (my sister had 11 when she got married in October, and it was a s***show). Whether you’re freaking out about what family members to include, feeling pressure to include your future in laws (when you’re not exactly their biggest fans), or just can’t decide on what friends - the ‘forever’ or ‘just got close’ (i.e. Bachelor cast member besties?) kind - to have stand by your side, the struggle to pick a crew is REAL. And if you can come right out and say “I’m actually not having a bridal party,” to your posse, you can kill the chaos before it even begins.
You can shop by yourself.
Not saying that you have to invite your entire entourage out to dress shop with you, but inevitably they’ll ask about your aisle style situation sooner or later - and you’ll feel obligated to extend an offer. Shopping on your own can be great, because you’ll be able to rifle through the racks without any ‘off-brand’ recommendations from your ride or dies. You can try things on without feeling like you’ll be coming out of the dressing room to be on display. And, even more importantly, if you’d like to keep your dress on the DL until your ‘I Do’ debut, being able to shop by yourself and grab your gown - without divulging any details to your squad - will be super helpful!
You can look out for everyone’s wallets.
A wedding will always be costly for you, as the couple, and your companions, so if you champion a change from ‘companions’ to ‘company,’ you can save everyone serious stacks of cash. You won’t have to shell out for squad gifts (asking them to be in the bridal party with presents, thanking them with gifts on your wedding day, etc.) and your tribe won’t have to take any time off of work (like, for the bachelorette or the wedding itself, whether it’s destination or not), spend lots of money on a bridesmaid dress - that they might just wear once - chip in for the bridal party and bachelorette preparations, pay for professional hair and makeup on the morning of. We’re all for spending money, if you have it and can splurge without worry, but you don’t have to start with financial obligations. And a bridal party means many of them for both parties (you and them). We say save what you were going to spend on some spa-like bath essentials… and RELAX.
You can move on with the planning without having to keep all apprised.
This is a big one. As much as we loveeee bridal parties and their epic group photos, having a contingency of people to keep track of+informed (when you’re, you know, already planning a huge life event) is a major pain in the ass. If you’re moving full steam ahead with your wedding details, getting stuff done and not having to steal time away from your life to text, email, or call the ladies about bridesmaid dress shopping, bridal shower planning, pre-wedding marching orders, you might just feel totally unburdened. Now, of course, we’re not saying that friends, family members, colleagues-turned-work wives are burdens, absolutely not, in fact, they can be super helpful! But if they’re not - or just don’t have the time to commit - and cause more drama than they’re worth, then why not nip the bridal party problem in the bud before anything comes to blows or, at the very least, causes you any kind of stress.
You can keep the attention on you two.
No one should feel weird about wanting to forgo bridesmaids, after all, it’s your wedding. You make the rules and no one needs to be a player on your team, if you don’t want them to - or just don’t have a crazy compulsion to like ‘traditional’ brides. Maybe you’re an anti-bride who’s just all for mixing things up by going sans maids, or maybe you’d just really like to keep the spotlight on you and your S.O. while you’re standing up there, exchanging your vows, then taking pictures for the rest of the afternoon (while you’re letting your would-be bridesmaids / and groomsmen enjoy the rest of the afternoon without having to pose for portraits or miss out on any canapés at cocktail hour.
And above and beyond all of these reasons...
If you’re feeling ambivalent about the decision to go bridesmaid-less, then decide on something in-between. An all-kids crew is just as good as their adult counterparts… and sometimes we like them EVEN BETTER! Harry and Meghan did it!