Not having a bridal party?

It is perfectly acceptable to not have a wedding party. They are not required at all. If you and FS would prefer to have it just be yourself and your FS with the officiant then that is exactly what you should do. Lots of people don’t have a wedding party even if they are having a larger guest count wedding (not just for elopements).
My husband and I had our kids (my 9 year old daughter and his 17 year old boy/girl twins) stand up for us. So we didn’t really have the traditional wedding party, but wanted it to be about us creating our new family.

We're skipping the bridal party. Less stress, money and hassle for us and our friends. We want to focus on us instead of corralling all our bridesmaids and groomsmen all day, and let all our guests just show up and enjoy themselves without any burden!

I didn’t have a bridal party and have no regrets. My best friends still came and got ready right me and came to rehearsal dinner. I looked at it as all the fun of being a bridesmaid without any of the obligation.

View Quoted Comment Thanks Nicole! Are you still picking certain colors? My mom wants to match the wedding party colors.. but if there is no wedding party my thought would be that we wouldn't have certain colors?

View Quoted Comment Since we won't have a bridal party, we don't need any colors for matching attire. My fiancé and I will loosely coordinate just to make sure our outfits and my bouquet don't totally clash, but we don't plan on having anyone else match us. I can't recall a single time I looked at a photo of my friends/family and thought it was ruined because we weren't all wearing the same color. We will still have a general aesthetic/colors for the flowers/decor of the ceremony and reception spaces, but again I don't think anyone needs to match the room lol.

As long as you have 1-2 legal witnesses for paperwork, do what works for you.

No traditional bridal party here. Just a MOH and BM for witnesses. Every person I’ve told has said that’s such a good idea. We just want the intimacy of us at the alter, and have our two people come up for vows.

We had a wedding party, and there was no drama and it was great being able to have those closest to us with us that day. However, they are absolutely not required. Anyone can sign the marriage certificate as a witness. We actually forgot about that until later and ended up having his dad and grandpa do it because that's who was near us when we remembered to sign it. If you don't want a bridal party, don't have one. And the mothers of the bride/groom don't need to match the bridal party even when there is one, so they certainly don't need to when there isn't. Just tell your mom to buy a dress in whatever color she likes, or maybe tell her what the color scheme for flowers/decor is so that she has a general idea if she really wants to match that.

We aren’t having a wedding party. We still get jokes from the parents (kind of passive aggressive comments) but I manage to turn them into positives. Like “most weddings I have to worry about clashing with the bridal party but that’s not the case here” is met with “I know you can wear whatever color you want, isn’t it great?” Or “your friends won’t know they’re important and not standing with you” is met with “I know I’m so excited they get to sit and enjoy the ceremony with their SO rather than standing up the whole time.” It’s worked great so far in stopping the conversation. As far as included close friends, our close friends are still included. They ask/know about wedding planning, are coming to the rehearsal dinner, hanging out with us the night before, welcome to come to the venue at any time, and will be some pictures because they are our friends. Honestly all of our friends have told us it’s awesome that they can just come to the wedding and have fun.

My FH and I are debating on if we will have just the Best Man and Maid of Honor or if we will include others. You really don't NEED a bridal party at all.



As Givemeallthepups said, you can still invite friends to get ready with you beforehand and do a bachelor/bachelorette event (if you want that experience) and keep the intimacy of it being just you and your future spouse at the altar.

Hello Danielle:
Do what you and your fiance want. As other posters said a wedding party is not required at all.
Your parents will get over it and this decision doesn't affect them at all,does it?

I'm 100% sure the friends know they are important to you and your fiance since you spend time with them, you don't need a WP to prove it.