What are your duties as Maid of Honour?

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If you’ve been asked to be maid of honour for a friend, you’re probably feeling really excited and pleased. Your friend loves you enough to ask you to be one of the main parts of her big day - hooray! However, you have to do a bit more than wear a nice dress and pose for pictures. Maid of honour duties should be taken very seriously. Here are some of your duties as maid of honour:

Help Calm The Bride Down

There will be times during the planning phases of the wedding and even on the day, where you should help the bride to calm down. It’s rare you get a bride who doesn’t have at least a mini panic attack on the run up to her big day. As the maid of honour, it’s your job to calm the bride down and make her feel better. You should be prepared, because panic can strike when you least expect it!

Help To Plan And Follow Up

Offer to help plan the wedding where possible to take some stress off the bride. You can book vendors and call to follow up appointments, for example. Sort of like the bride’s PA. She will have a lot on her mind, so it will be really nice to have somebody who genuinely wants to help. She might refuse your help, but at least you offered.

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Go Dress Shopping

Go dress shopping with the bride. Go any sort of wedding shopping with her, in fact. Although her husband to be will likely be involved for some of it, men are rarely much help. She’ll need another opinion and perspective to help her make the final decisions.

Plan An Amazing Send Off

One of the maid of honour’s main duties is planning an amazing send off for the bride. The hen party should be a time she treasures dearly! Make sure you stock up on hen party accessories from MPM, and plan some amazing activities you just know she’ll love. It’s up to you to invite everybody too, so make sure you don’t forget anyone!

Keep Things In Check On The Day

On the day, emotions will be running high. A wedding very rarely goes to plan just as you expect, but you can at least help to keep things in check on the day. Make sure everything runs smoothly for the bride so she can enjoy her time in the spotlight.

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Make A Speech

You don’t need to make a full on Oscar’s speech, but it’s nice for the maid of honour to say a few words at a wedding. You can tell a funny story, say something meaningful, or anything you think the bride and guests will like. Remember to keep it appropriate, as grandparents will likely be attending. That being said, if you know the bride and groom will love it, then you can break a few of the rules. You could even get creative and rap a speech.

Suggest Gifts To People

If people discuss gifts, you can tell them what you know the couple needs or would like. It’s better than letting them receive multiples of the same gift on the day.

As maid of honour, you need to be there for the bride and help her as much as you can. Hopefully, she’ll return the favour when it’s your turn!

Rachel x

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Hen Party Ideas

Getting married is a huge thing to arrange. After months of searching for the right venue and booking everything for the date you want, you’re finally ready to walk down the aisle. The cake is made, the dress is fitted, and the flowers are ordered. But there is one more thing that needs to be organised before you become a bride. It’s time to have a spectacular hen party!

It’s common for friends and female members of the family to be invited to the hen do. They may not all be coming to the wedding, so this could be your last chance as a single woman to spend some time with them. Traditionally the bridesmaids or maid of honour arranges everything. However, most brides want a say in the party details and the activities you’ll all get involved with.

One of the best ways to celebrate is to hire a house for the night so you can all be together. Then you can bring the entertainment in. It saves you a fortune in travel arrangements, and it saves anyone from getting lost. You can find plenty of large party houses to rent all over the UK. You might choose somewhere close to home if it’s nearly your wedding date. Or you may even make a holiday of it somewhere further away.

Once everyone has arrived at the house, you can start toasting the event. You may have champagne or wine stocked up. Why not create some pitchers of cocktails? You could even hire a bartender to come in and keep the drinks flowing for the evening! You will also all need a good meal. If you don’t fancy cooking for twenty people, why not have caterers and waiting staff on call to manage the meal? You could even have a DJ creating the sounds for your party.

Entertainment for a hen party is often quite riske. But it’s good fun! You can hire dancers to come to the house and put on a show for you. A less intense option is to have a spa party. You can hire beauticians to come to the house and give each of you a makeover. You could have facials, pedicures, or even a makeup lesson. The choice is yours. Often a mix of all three ideas goes down really well for a large hen party!

You may be loathed to spend a lot of money on your hen do when the wedding costs so much. But this could be your last chance to spend so much quality time with the girls. It’s nice to be all together for the whole evening. And if things get a little wild, at least you are all safe and in a comfortable house. You could share the event with the bachelor party, so you’re not doubling up on costs. This can sometimes be a lot of fun, and even quite competitive!

Hen parties are about getting a little wild, and enjoying everything girly before your big day. Have a lot of fun with your friends.

What would be your ideal hen party? What would you plan for your best friend?

Rachel x

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Photo Diary | Amsterdam | March 2016

Me inside a giant clog!

Rijksmuseum

Rijksmuseum

Sunny Canal

Lots of bikes!

Tulips!

Beautiful Houses

Vondelpark

Vondelpark

Bridges

Clogs!

Stunning Architecture

Cheese!

Oude Kerk (Old Church)

Canal at Night

Canal at Night

Centraal Station

Souvenir! (Had to be done!)

As many of you know, at the end of March, Rory and I went to Amsterdam. Neither of us had been there before and it was somewhere we both wanted to visit. I actually surprised Rory with the trip as a Christmas present but I booked it in October! I had been looking forward to it for so long and it did not disappoint! We both want to go back already!

Our hotel was called Hotel Cornelisz. It was situated close to the Rijksmuseum and Vondelpark. It was the perfect location for everything we needed. The hotel was 3 stars but we couldn't fault it. The only negative was that the room was small but we hardly spent any time in our room and most hotel rooms in the city centre are small. Our stay included breakfast which was lovely. It was a continental breakfast and allowed us to start our day energised.

There were so many things that we wanted to see and do. I knew we wouldn't fit it all into four days but that gives us an excuse to go back! We managed to do so much though and I've never walked so much in my entire life. There was plenty of buses and trams, even bikes or taxis, to get around but the city was so beautiful that we wanted to walk and see all the sights. My feet were in agony though!

Some of my favourite places that we visited were; The Anne Frank Huis, The Van Gogh Museum, Vondelpark, Begijnhof and I loved the 1 hour canal cruise around the city. I would definitely recommend all of these places plus so much more! If you are going to go to popular attractions like The Anne Frank Huis or The Van Gogh Museum, definitely book online beforehand as it will save you so much time.

I managed to book The Van Gogh Museum the night before we wanted to go so we walked straight in and avoided the 1-2 hour queue. The Anne Frank Huis has a strange system online where they only release so many tickets for each day and this is done 3 months earlier ( I believe they're changing it). Therefore, I wasn't able to get tickets. We got there at 8:15am and it didn't open until 9am. We were queueing for a total of 2 and a half hours! That's nothing though. I heard some people spent 4 hours in line!! Book online!!

Overall, we had an amazing time and it was a great experience. I can definitely see why so many people visit Amsterdam because I fell in love straight away! We will definitely be returning in the future as there are still so many things that we didn't get chance to see. See you soon Amsterdam! Maybe next time I'll hire a bike!

Have you been to Amsterdam before? Is it somewhere on your travel list?

Rachel x

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