Wedding Forum - Bridesmaid stress...

Me and my H2B have been engaged 3 years but felt no need to rush to get married and wanted to start our family first. We now have a wonderful 1 year old son and have set a date for June 2016!

My sister, who I'm really close to, is a professional dancer and she's always travelling around the world. She's currently on a 9 month cruise. I was planning to have her as my only BM but it's horrible not having someone super close to talk to and get excited with. I have my mum but she is one of those people who doesn't get excited until it's close and will just go along with what I want. My H2B has a sister and a sister in law, neither of whom I'm REALLY close to but we get along. I don't know if I should have them as BM too so I have someone here to help plan my day and get excited,dress shopping etc? I don't really have any friends I would want and I couldn't have one without the other. What's everyone's thoughts?

My H2B

It's not that I don't want them as such, I've just always talked to my sister about us just having each other.

Can you Skype with your sister, or use Facebook. I used Facebook to get bridesmaids thoughts on dresses and hair and make-up, and I took my mum and my godmother dress-shopping. It's a good idea if you're happy to have her to ask your H2B's sister. It's not unusual to ask the sister of the groom to be bridesmaid, I was for both my brothers' weddings. It's a good way of showing the too families coming together as one.

Is she away for the full 9 months, has she just gone? Or has she already been away for a while? It sounds like you only have the need for your sister as a bridesmaid, so don't feel pressured into asking the other girls to, just because you can speak to them. I still speak to my friends about some of our wedding plans without them needing them to be bridesmaids and it's still just as exciting.

As mentioned above, can your sister get access to fb or any other way of communication? I bet she can't wait to come back and help you plan. You still have 19 months until your wedding, even if you started planning bits and pieces to secure suppliers then you'll still have enough time if you waited for the rest when she comes home.

If you truly only want your sister to be your bridesmaid and nobody else then stick to it. You can maybe have chats with your sister over the internet, Skyp3 maybe, if it is permitted, and have discussions that way with her on dresses etc. Maybe send her images/links to certain things and see what her opinions are on your ideas. It will work if you want it to. You need to be happy on your big day as it will show in your photo's. If you have bridesmaids who you aren't particularly close to, just because you want to get excited about the planning part, then you might not end up with as good photos. I personally have gone with both my FSIL's as one of them I would say I am quite close to, and the other I really wanted to include as we kind of left her out of our daughters christening which I felt wasn't that fair, so this is our way of involving her more. She is really excited and so am I! I can't wait for next year when we start dress shopping!
If need be, you could always say to your FSIL's that you would really like them to go dress shopping etc. with you as you would really value their input, but not actually give them the role of bridesmaid. That way you are involving them in the wedding but you are also sticking to your original choice of bridesmaid :) x