Maid of Honor: Speeches, Duties, and Responsibilities

The Maid or Matron of Honor

As you're probably all too aware, Being the Maid or Matron of Honor can be a highly stressful job. You're the intermediary in the most important day of a woman's life. Your task is to make sure everything flows well and the wedding goes along as planned. With this job comes some huge responsibilities, but with careful planning and attention to details, it can be easy and fun!

Since the bride will be worried about a myriad of things, and most likely the groom will just show up for the wedding, it'll be your job to take care of certain areas and duties that could normally be overlooked. It's easiest to break down your responsibilities into those that happen before the wedding, and those that happen during the wedding. This will help you gain a better understanding of just what duties you'll be responsible for.

Duties and Responsibilities Before the Wedding

Your responsibilities before the wedding aren't as exact or strict, and may be slightly different for different brides. Your first and foremost duty is to be there for moral support. You'll be her right hand woman so to speak, and as such you need to be willing and able to help out at a moments notice.

Since the bride may be very preoccupied with other things, she may inadvertently overlook some very important items. Your job is to be the rational and calm one. You need to keep a level head and and eye towards the big picture. Try to be like a manager, and be proactive. Basically it comes down to paying keen attention to details. ALL of the details, no matter how trivial they may seem on the outside. This alone can make an average wedding a truly spectacular one!

Being a Maid or Matron of Honour means that one of your main duties will be to help alleviate stress on the bride. Often times, you can help her make many of the important decisions, and offer positive feedback on her decisions.

Setting the date and time as well as and finding the perfect location is often an area that a maid of honor can offer her assistance. You can go with her and visit the potential locations, helping her arrive at the perfect venue.

Along with the location, she'll need to make many decisions related to the actual wedding party. Food and drink, decorations, music type, band or d.j., etc. There's no shortage of questions that need answers when it comes to the wedding reception. She'll need a lot of help here, and by helping her order and keep track of item arrivals, you'll be helping her out immensely.

In order to lessen the amount of work that the bride has to do, you may be asked to help address and mail out the wedding invitations. If the bride hasn't chosen them yet, you should offer to go with her to help her make a decision.

One of the most important pre-wedding responsibilities you'll have as maid of honor is in helping the bride with her dress and those of her bridesmaids. Your feedback will be invaluable in this situation! Your duties will be to help her to make sure of delivery times, potential alterations, fittings, and any emergency that may crop up. You will also become a liaison for the bridesmaids and the bride. By doing this, you'll filter out a lot of the trivial details that the bride needn't concern herself with, and in doing so will ease the burden on her.

Two of the more enjoyable events that you'll be responsible for are the bridal shower, and the bachelorette party! Bridal showers are traditionally pretty conservative, but since you know the bride very well you can tailor it to her tastes and style. The same holds true for the bachelorette party. You can plan it from a mild movie with the girls to a wild weekend in Las Vegas, complete with the Chippendale Men!!! Again, it all depends on the bride and her comfort level and tastes. Whatever you do, have fun with it. It should provide a great memory that no one will ever forget.

The Big Event - The Wedding

This is the critical day where the bride will need the most help. Emotionally, she may be on the edge and need moral support. She may also be completely overwhelmed, and need a calm, cool and collected friend to make sure everything goes off without a hitch.

You'll need to be part therapist, part manager, part bodyguard, part mother, and part superhero! You'll calm her nerves, carry the ring, and bouquet, and bear witness to the marriage license signing. All very important, yet easily performed. Just remember to keep calm.

You may also need to help her to look her best by assisting her with makeup and getting dressed. Make sure you have a pre-wedding checklist of essential things to bring. Common items like beauty aids, needle and thread, aspirin, medications, anything that you can think of that could be used to avoid a disaster!

Basically stay with her and provide her emotional support along with anything else you can do to make her wedding day the magical experience she deserves.

The Wedding Party Reception

You've made it through everything and so far it's gone off without a hitch. Now you're at the reception, and you've really only got one duty left, and that's to give a toast or speech! The best piece of advice you can get as to writing the perfect speech is to write a speech from the heart. Tell some stories about some of the fun and touching things that you've done together as friends. Try to make it heartwarming and playful at the same time. People love a good story! And it's even better if at the end, it places the bride in a most favorable light. Just remember, if you're honest and the story has heart, it will be a hit.

If you've planned and paid attention to details, you'll see all your hard work pay off. You'll also have a very happy bride that will be indebted to you for the help you've provided. And most importantly, you'll be able to relax a little and enjoy the fruits of your labor - a wonderful wedding!!! Now grab yourself a drink, if you drink that is, and get out on the dance floor and have a blast. You've earned it!