Bridal Party Purpose

Well they do help with all that aha or if you give them the tasks to they would. I told mine I wanted a shower and a bachelorette and they planned them.
They also help support you and can help you put together your wedding if you need.
It's pretty much expected they'd be there to support you and that in itself is defined by you. What you need and want them to do.

I've been a bridesmaid twice. Both times I've assisted with planning the bridal shower & bachelorette (but the MOH took charge of being the main planner), bought my dress, got ready with the bride the morning of, etc. That's basically what my bridesmaids are doing, except my mom threw my shower.

Waaaaay back when they supposedly had true duties (according to my FH the best man was supposed to coordinate the caterer and the MOH was supposed to coordinate the florist and decor), but not so much anymore. Even further back they existed for all sorts of reasons, you could fall into quite the wiki rabbit hole if you wanted to research the history of wedding parties.

Now the bridal party are people who you'd like to honor by asking them to stand with you as you form your union. I expect them to support me and my FH as we prepare for this time in our lives, on the day of, and after. I expect my MOH to hold my bouquet, and to give a speech.

Otherwise there's not much else to it besides being there on time in the right clothes

Well those are the things that I would expect from them as well, but often I see people comment on here that they aren’t expected to do anything... so then why even have a bridal party ? I was just making sure.

The purpose is to have your nearest and dearest friends there to support you on one of the biggest days of your life. Not to throw you parties or plan your wedding.

The purpose of the bridal party is to confuse evil spirits as to who's getting married so they'll leave them alone and not cause the couple to have bad luck.

The answers to this depends largely on how traditional you are where you live tbh.
Tradition had it where the party members did help you with a wedding and all the planning, it's where the tradition of siblings being the party come from.
Nowadays it's more like a witness and an honor to stand next to someone.
But in many socail circles, like my own, the wedding party is still very much involved. When I was a bridesmaid I made the arch, the rest did the other decorations. Some still do the bridal shower and bachelorette party.

Most bridal parties I have been involved in are more hands on. Helping with parties, decor/planning and buying their dresses, etc. If you have needs of your BP be upfront so they can decide whether or not they want to participate. I don't think it's wrong to ask things of your BP but make sure they want to do it.

My bridal party helped with my shower slightly, but my mom did most of the work. My MOH was basically my “bounce ideas off of” person throughout my engagement too, but other than that none of them really did much, and I was kinda wondering what the point was too......

BUT on my wedding day, they were AMAZING. I did my own makeup so they were super helpful giving me feedback and making sure it looked perfect. They helped me wrap bouquets. When my dress was too big (apparently I lost weight the week before my wedding and discovered it didn’t fit anymore about 5 mins before our ceremony!) my bridesmaids were lifesavers, running around the hotel looking for safety pins and pinning me into the dress. They also helped keep track of the marriage license, of my purse, helped organize people for photos, etc.

The planning process I definitely did not feel like I needed them very much anyway, but the day if I seriously could not have done without them.

I use my bridal party to bounce ideas off of and to vent. One of my MOHs has volunteered to design our wedding koozies! They will help me with setup at the venue. I’m only having a bachelorette party and they are planning that.

I think it is up to the bride on how you would like to use them. I would caution you to let them know your expectations that way they can decide if they can be as dedicated as you will need them to be.

I think this comes down to the difference between expecting help vs. dear friends offering help. I would never expect it or place those expectations on my nearest and dearest but, sure, it's nice when close friends and family offer to help because they genuinely want to.

This may be colored by the fact that I have been voluntold to be free labor at weddings and I do not enjoy any part of that.

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Is that true?! Genuinely fascinating! I love all the strange superstitions that get buried under tradition.

As for the 'duties' of the bridal party, it's really just to support you. They can throw you parties or help with arrangements if that's your agreement, but foremost they're there to celebrate with and support you! It's also nice to have your closest friends on the day of, lots of shared memories, fun photos and heartfelt speeches.

Buy an outfit and stand next to you on the day of. Anything else they do is an added bonus.

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This is the true reason for the Bridal party! Nothing more, nothing less.

I dove into this research back when I first got engaged because I never understood the reason for a Bridal party. It is true that the point of bridesmaids is to have multiple women standing in a row so that evil spirits are confused as to which one is the bride and therefore cannot curse her and the marriage. I'm not worried about evil spirits, so I'm skipping the bridal party. Besides, I've been in 8 weddings and I am truly the only "maid" left in my life haha.

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Yep! That's also where a veiling part comes in. Although there's also a christian tradition of covering ones head in church for modesty purposes as well. Reasons why everyone wheres a hat to a royal wedding.

View Quoted Comment Ok so that’s why you invite all your important people there to be in the audience to witness such an occasion... so what is the point of a bridal party ? Essentially that is why everyone is there right ?

View Quoted Comment Wow is that true ? Bc that actually makes sense, lol, I’ve never heard that before... cool.

View Quoted Comment Sounds like you had an awesome bridal party!

View Quoted Comment That part about confusing evil spirits actually makes sense lol, I’ve never heard that before but that’s very interesting