Nuptial Notes #2

Maid of Honor – Wendy J

I was curious about the origin of the term, “Maid of Honor,” so like everything else for the wedding, I googled.  This is one of the better explanations I found:

“Back in Roman times, the bride traditionally traveled to the groom's home village for the wedding ceremony. The original purpose of the maid of honor and her fellow bridesmaids was to dress exactly like the bride in order to protect her. Any men jealous of the bride and groom would be confused as to which was the real bride. The matching bridesmaids and maid of honor were also there to confuse any malevolent spirits. The groomsmen and ushers in turn dressed like the groom for the same purpose.

The maid of honor was also supposed to help the bride dress and prepare for the wedding (as she does now), as well as aiding her to make the bridal wreath. This wreath of aromatic herbs and flowers was another protection designed to keep away evil spirits.

The title, "maid of honor," may have come from the United Kingdom. It used to be the term for a female attendant of the queen. And perhaps now we know where the bridezilla complex may have come from! I suppose the bride is more or less the queen for a day.”

"The History of Maids of Honor." A Site for Maids and Matrons of Honor! http://www.maid-of-honor.net/index.php?url=history-maid-honor&category=MaidAdvice

Wendy is my Maid of Honor.  She is like family to me, to us.  We have lived life together – loved, laughed, cried, celebrated, and have shared everything in between.  She is smart, witty, funny, driven, gorgeous, caring, loving, and more…she’s my bestie.   I’ll save my speeches about her and the BM’s for the engagement party or rehearsal dinner, but had to share an amazing experience we had the other night.  The dress.  No, not mine, hers.

In the beginning, I was adamant about Wendy having a different dress from the BMs.  As I started to look for dresses, I realized that it’s hard to find a MOH dress that matches the BM dresses, but different at the same time.  I wanted to find a MOH dress that was the same (or pretty close) in material, same color (preferably from the same dye lot), with a similar cut and neckline.  I then found a few dresses at Nordstrom that I liked.  Sizing was limited, so that narrowed down my choices.  I came to the realization that maybe, everyone would just wear the same dress.  Monday night – ordered the dresses (see Nuptial Notes #1).

Tuesday morning – I’m at work and my BBM starts blowing up!  I read messages from Wendy, then I receive an email with a link.  I click on it.  One of the dresses I LOVED, but had only larger sizes, is now showing other sizes available!  Wendy and I scurry to order the dress.  She tries and is having some technical difficulties so I scramble to order it in the size we need.  My order goes thru and thank goodness because about 10 minutes later, the size we need is no longer available.  Praise the Lord! 

I’m not sure that words do it justice from this point, so I’ll just share the pictures. 

LOVE, LOVE, LOVE!!!  Love the fact that it’s made by the same designer as the other dresses, love that it’s also black, long and formal, love the bow in the back and love the train.  Most of all, I LOVE the beautiful woman wearing the dress, who no matter how amazing she looks on the outside, pales in comparison to the beauty on the inside.