The Bride Is The Bridesmaids' Maid

A bridesmaid is called a bridesmaid cos she's supposed to

be the bride's "help" throughout this season of her life.

Unfortunately for me, I've got bridesmaids who are... well, a little less than present for most, if not all of the time. -_-''' One's a student in India, one's an introvert in KL, and another's living it up in Singapore. Me? I'm in Penang. The wedding? It's in Penang, too. And the wedding planning? Well, I'm going solo with it, in Penang. (Sadly, The Fiancé's not around right now either.)

I guess for the most part, I've resigned myself to the fact that I won't get much help from them during this time. What with them all being so very far away and so occupied with their own studies, jobs and lives. I mean, it's not like the world stops when you get married, right? So... yeah. I'm practical enough to know that if I've chosen a bridesmaid who's in some other part of the world, I'll just have to be okay with her not being around to help as much as I hope she will and can.

But today, my eyes were opened.

You see, I kinda decided to tailor my bridesmaids' dresses. Design/Pattern + Cloth + Tailor = Bridesmaid's Baju. Sounds doable enough, right? Right. And since I've had the design/pattern for awhile now, all I needed to know was how much the workmanship was going to cost and how much cloth it'd take for the tailor to whip up a nice dress for each of my girls.

"2 meters per person," the tailor said. 

Okay. Off to the fabric store then!

I left the tailor's and went cloth shopping. And gosh, I never knew cloth shopping could be so very tedious! Shiny cloth, matte cloth, thick cloth, thin cloth, smooth cloth, textured cloth – ARGH! After going through many, many, maaaannnyyy different fabrics (I think the salesman would have murdered me if it wasn't illegal to do so -_-) and picking one, I coughed up the money and texted my bridesmaids to let them know that their dresses were now officially a work in progress.

It was then that, I suddenly felt

like my bridesmaids' maid  instead of
feeling like they were my bridesmaids.

Totally like reporting back to my "bosses"
after effectively carrying out a duty. -_-'''

Sigh.

Now I finally understand why people tend to pick bridesmaids who are not just emotionally close to them, but physically, too. I was idealistic and picked bridesmaids who were emotionally tight with me; but now I see that it's not always the smartest choice. Cos logistically, it just doesn't make much sense.


Think about it! If it's still you doing all the work, this whole bridesmaid hoo-ha is as ridiculous as making a girlfriend dress up in a specially tailored "uniform" with two other girls on your big day for no better reason than to colour-splash your pictures with your theme colour. What's the point in that? The best of friends would dress up and be there to celebrate the day with you anyways, right? Even if they're not your bridesmaids.

This picture wasn't posed. I was evaluating the folds in the cloth.
And in case you were wondering, this wasn't the fabric I purchased.