There’s an old wives tale… “three times a bridesmaid, never a bride.” I’ve looked it up and there are 2 suggestions for where this originated from.
Firstly it’s suggested that the role of the bridesmaid was to distract any evil spirits that wanted to ruin the marriage and attack the bride. Therefore bridesmaids were at risk of being attacked themselves and gaining bad luck in love.
The other suggestion is that being a bridesmaid is a time when you will look your very best and be on display, therefore if you were a bridesmaid 3 times and hadn’t attracted a man, then it was likely you never ever would!
Rude!
I did however also find out that in the 1920s, Listerine used the phrase “often a bridesmaid… never a bride” as a slogan in a campaign for their mouthwash, suggesting that bad breath was the reason they’d never found a husband!
So now I’m living a life of super paranoia about all of the above as I’m about to be a bridesmaid for the ninth time. Yes, NINTH. I’ve done the “three times a bridesmaid, never a bride” three times and come back round again! Madness.
I just like to think that I’m a super good friend and that’s the reason why! And I actually love being one!! It’s such a privilege to be asked!!
This weekend I have been on a hen weekend that I organised for my best friend. I’m her maid of honour… and I’m not going to lie, I think I nailed it. But after organising many a hen do before, she struck lucky by me having had a lot of practice. Therefore I pulled together all my previous hen planning to create one big magnificent weekend. I actually think I could do it as a weekend job, I’ve got that good at it!
When she announced her engagement 2 years ago, I made a pact with myself. That being that I’d 100% definitely have a boyfriend for her wedding.
As well as being a bridesmaid 9 times, I’ve attended many weddings where I’m “just” a guest and I’d say out of all the weddings I’ve been to, I’ve had a plus one at 2 of them. So I was determined that for my best mate’s, I’d get myself a date. Her wedding is in 7 weeks. I’m not so sure I’m going to find myself a plus one by then…
At one of my sister’s weddings, I even caught the bouquet..! (ok so actually the reality of what happened was that all the girls had pre discussed that what they’d do was, as my sister threw her bouquet, rather than run to catch it, they’d all run away from it- meaning I was guaranteed to catch it which I did!) but that tradition/old wives tale has not worked for me!
I am turning into a real life film- I am becoming the girl from ‘27 dresses’! My wardrobe genuinely has a shelf just for my bridesmaid dresses!! They come in every shape, size and colour if anyone wants to borrow one?
I also found an online quiz. The title being “How Many Times Will You Be a Bridesmaid Before You’re a Bride?” I decided to give it a go… the answer it came back with…
Six Times: We looked into our crystal ball and predict you’ll be a bridesmaid six times before you’re the star of the show! Don’t worry, your big day is coming. No need to stress out… Yet.
They’ve at least worked out I’ll be a bridesmaid a good few times in my life!
I did also find another old wives tale to do with bridesmaid bad luck and apparently if you trip up as you’re walking down the aisle, it means you’ll never be a bride! You watch now, I’ll go flying at the wedding in June. It’s a long aisle too!
I’m pretty much a professional one so if anyone would like to hire me, do get in touch. All I ask is to have a nice dress and lots of red wine on the day. I’m pretty easily pleased. I’ll even dance for most of the night on the dance floor- ok with shoes off- in fact, my shoes will probably be off after the church but hey, I’m a classy kinda girl.
So. Only time will tell if I’ve had the curse of “NINE TIMES A BRIDESMAID, ABSOLUTELY NO CHANCE OF BEING A BRIDE”… I’ll keep you all updated!!
I have a few “mental messages” to share with you:
This was the first message I received off this guy…
D*******: I’m doing ok mate… just want it all sorted lol… will keep you updated.
1 minute later:
D*******: Sorry I don’t know what happened there… so…. How’s it going?
He clearly is a copy and paster- i.e. sends the same messages to girls but accidentally pasted a message to a mate… and I now want to know what he wants sorted! Clever. But odd.
And this:
G**: Hi, I like your profile, you seem really cool. As a none cool person I think that we should run an experiment to see what would happen if we went on a date. It’s all in the name of science. What do you think?
Tempting… but no thanks.
Below is the print campaign from the 1920s… it apparently worked very well for them!
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