There is an old nursery rhyme which you may remember says that little girls are made of sugar and spice and all things nice. It goes on to say that young ladies are made of ribbons and laces and sweet pretty faces. I think a modern day version of that rhyme could be adapted to fit today’s bridesmaids and in particular the role of Maid of Honour. Our modern young ladies are made of tougher stuff than ye olde time baking ingredients and fabric fandangles. Loyalty, resilience, a sharp sense of humour, ninja-like problem-solving skills and a mobile phone – these are what today’s young ladies are made of.
Here is a Maid of Honor who in my opinion gave such amazing commitment to the bride on her day that nothing would stand in her way. She can remain nameless for now unless I hear from her but those attending this wedding will know who this is. She is seen here with Thomas, while we were scouting for a spot for a family shoot.
Seeing her at work started me thinking about the ritual of weddings and the lingo. Why do we have these people come stand with us when we exchange vows during our ceremony? Moral support? If nothing else, we need someone to hand our bouquets to.
A search on the internet quickly brought up a suitably obscure origin that we might have thought existed but never really searched for before. According to Mr Wikipedia the tradition originated from Roman times. Brides and grooms needed to have ten witnesses to trick the evil spirits, that used to like lurking around weddings, by dressing identically to the bride and groom so they wouldn’t know who it was getting married. True or not, take it as you like. We don’t find multiple brides standing up there anymore (think of that budget blow-out!) but we still have the support of the maids tricking the would-be gremlins trying to sabotage wedding days all over, be it a forgotten wedding dress back panel or a torn wedding skirt.
I’d love to hear how your maid of honour supported you on your wedding day or how she is currently supporting you. They all deserve pats on the back and nice cold glass of bubbly!
{Apologies for the pun in the post title. That’s a little bit of my dad showing through!}