Wedding Chat with Sande - How to propose to your Bridesmaids

One of the first things my daughter Desiree did after Tony proposed to her was to make decisions about who would be her maid of honor and bridesmaids. Desiree has great friendships, many which started at Smith Elementary. Selecting her bridal party was easy. The next decision to be made was how to ask them. Desiree didn’t just want to simply ask them, she wanted to have them all together at the same time and find a formal way to ask them.

The Knot magazine recently did an article that gave some ideas like sending a cute custom made card by mail, or prepare a small gift that includes champagne.

Desiree wanted to have a bridal luncheon. She wanted to present her girls with a card asking them to be a part of her bridal party and give them a small gift – custom made cookies. Because Desiree lives in Houston, my job was to find a venue here in Victoria to have a nice luncheon.

Easier said than done. We wanted to have this at a very nice restaurant (Victoria has but a handful). We wanted the restaurant to have a private room for our luncheon. It had to be on a Saturday to assure everyone could attend. I found out that all the restaurants that were our favorites didn’t open until at least 4:00 pm on Saturdays. You can’t have a luncheon at 4:00! Other restaurants didn’t have private rooms. I kept hitting a wall – it was so frustrating! So we decided I would have it in my home. Not ideal, but we would have to make the best of it. I may have mentioned before that my husband Timmy is unwillingly involved in all my craziness. The back of my house is a large room that is both living and dining areas. My dining table sits 8 but I needed to be able to seat more than that. So furniture had to be moved. Rug needed to be taken up. Timmy was quite busy.

We sent out invitations to all the girls that Desiree wanted in her wedding party, including Jr. Bridesmaid and Flower Girls. Invites were also sent to the mother of the groom, grandmothers and aunts. Tony’s mother Diana is an amazing party planner and was very happy to help me prepare and decorate.

Our theme was soft and vintage. I brought it two 6 foot tables and sat them side by side. Chairs and sashes were rented from Kings Party Rentals. I had spent the last few weeks visiting all the antique shops in town finding treasures I could use as decorations. Lucky for me, HEB had roses on sale that week so I bought dozens of pastel colored roses. I also had succulents throughout the décor. Lots of candles made it very feminine and romantic - just like my bride wanted it.

Each place setting had a small gift that included the custom made card that we ordered from Etsy plus two cookies that Desiree designed. The cookies were made by Cimarron Express. They were delicious and perfect.

The adorable cupcake cake was made by my good friend Michelle Schneider-Lanni from Hallettsville.

The meal was catered by Quality Packers. We had turkey and dressing and all the trimmings. It was delivered on time, hot and absolutely delicious. I ordered for 20 people and we had enough left over that my family was able to eat dinner from it!!

Having it at my house turned out to be perfect. Lots of great conversations and we could laugh as loud as we wanted to. We didn’t have to rush. No one had to tip the servers. And best of all – everyone said yes.

My daughter had the best bridal party. She is so blessed!