
We were sitting around a fold-out table in the backyard when it happened. My fiancé and I had just returned from an overseas holiday and were still in our loved up bubble after getting engaged.
While in Fiji, we had made the decision not to share the news of our engagement until we got home to fully enjoy the moment where we would tell family and friends. We had been dating for four years, lived together and had talked a lot about getting engaged when the time was right.
But our trip away wasn’t planned. It was something we’d arranged at the last minute when we found a good deal and the proposal was not expected.
Side Note: Here’s the horoscopes when working out. Post continues below.
Now at home in Sydney, we had organised for our immediate family to come over and celebrate our engagement. It was December, it was warm and everyone was buzzing. We were winding down into the end of the year, with special events and Christmas parties coming up.
My partner and I were retelling the story of how our engagement had unfolded when a question floated into the air. “So who are you going to have for your bridesmaids” my older sister Anna asked.
I didn’t realise how loaded the question was at the time and to be honest, I hadn’t really thought about it. We had just got off a plane, were still a little delirious and had only told a handful of people our news. Who was going to be in my bridal party was one of the furthest things from my mind.
But still, I quickly answered with what immediately came to my mind as I began rattling off the names of my closest friends. “I’m not sure, I’ll probably have Alexandra, Caitlin, Emma and Bianca.” A mix of my friends from high school, uni and work.
“You mean you’re not going to have me?” Anna replied in a half-joking, half-serious tone.
“I’m not sure, I don’t know,” I replied. “I’ll probably have Alyssa as flower girl. I haven’t really thought about it.”
Alyssa, Anna’s three-year-old daughter, my niece, was also sitting at the table playing with her food.
Suddenly I began to feel hot as I noticed everyone at the table was looking at us. But while I tried to move the conversation along, Anna wouldn’t relent.
“You mean you wouldn’t have both of us? Well I just think that’s a bit rude. Why wouldn’t you have your sister in your bridal party? I know lots of people who have their sisters in their bridal party,” she continued to argue.
Top Comments
My niece was my flower girl and my best friend's son was my pageboy.
One of my two brothers was a groomsman, the other was the MC.
My best friend did the photography, an aunt made my cake.
I tried to involve as many of my family and friends in the immediate wedding party and other wedding plans as possible.
One SIL, who was not in the bridal party, had married only a couple of months before.
I later found out she was a bit annoyed that her sister was my Matron of honour, but I had thought having just had her own wedding(and not involving my Husband, her own brother)in the wedding party, that she wouldn't mind, as her unmarried sister was my bridesmaid(she had also been a bridesmaid at her own wedding). I didn't think she would want to be a 'Bridesmaid', being married...!
My brother's wife of many years was already my Matron of honour.
Obviously, you can't always please everyone, but I still did my best to involve all of my close family members, as I my thoughts are that a wedding is about a celebration of love, and of welcoming each partner into the other's family...
If my sister married and didn't ask me to stand with her, in her bridal party, I would be incredibly hurt.