Helpful Chart for Choosing the Bridal Party

Pickle: Choosing Your Girls

One of the first steps in wedding planning is choosing the bridesmaids.

The Pickle: I can't have 20 bridesmaids. How do I narrow it down?

The Solution: There are several articles you can find on this particular topic so I will give you a handy chart to aid you.

Essentially, fill it out, see who gets the most marks and you got your girls.

Well, mostly anyway. Let me explain.

According to my filled out chart below, I wanted 8 bridesmaids, I needed 4. The chart tells me it would have been Merissa, Mel, Jessica and Lila (names changed from my actual girls' names)

Here is how the chart is set up.
~ Absolute: The ones who will be your bridesmaid, no thinking about it.
~ Best/Closest: The girls who you are closest to and consider your best friends
~ Oldest: You've known these girls since childhood or since high school, or since college.
~ Family: Blood is thicker than water they say.
~ Facebook: Looking at how often you communicate. Do you facebook this person often?
~ Text: Do you text this person often?
~ Phone: Do you talk on the phone often?
~ Hang Out: Do you hang out, shop, eat often?
~ Meaning: This is the most important. What is the reason God brought that girl in your life? What role did she/does she play? How has she affected or changed you?

Merissa is my sister and my all-star on the chart.
Mel is one of my closet right now and very much a part of my life still. She was a no brainer.
I gave up Jessica, my bestest friend ever because she is in the military and couldn't get leave. I had no choice.
I gave up Lila because while she was my closest cousin, choosing her would have put a rift among my 3 other girl cousins in my family. I gave her a different role in my wedding and she knew and understood.
Ana was my sister to be, essentially family and saw it as absolute for her to be my bridesmaid. Plus, we get along so it was something I wanted.
Mary is one of my best friends who is probably the one friend I feel God actually brought to me as an answer to prayer at a certain time in my life for a specific reason. She holds a lot of meaning for me, so I chose her.
Jerry and Chrissy, while we used to be close and we have history, it just didn't feel right putting them in my wedding when we hardly speak anymore.

After analyzing the chart, I actually chose Merissa, Mel, Ana, and Mary. (Jessica would've been my fifth, but I chose not to replace her, hen....)

So you can fill out the chart, but the last column could change your mind. Fill out the chart based on your relationship with that person now, not on how it was when you were in fifth grade. Pray about it and you will know who are the right girls to be in your wedding and it will feel right.


Download the chart Here or make your own.
Read this very helpful article from The Knot. 

Hopefully, the process is easy rather than painful. :-)