So many nieces and nephews!

bgesler · February 2014

Okay so me and my fiancé are trying to figure out our bridal party. We have so many nieces and nephews! We love all of them and I am esp. close to my one brothers kids but we do not know how to include all of them! We have 10 total! I have 8 just on my side my fiancé has 2. Ages are

girls : 17,16,15,13, 13,11

boys: 16, 12, 7, and 5 months (will be a over a year at time of wedding)

One of the 13 year old girl and the 16 year old boy we are not that close with and could prob. care less if they are in our wedding. But I feel bad including the others and not them. Any suggestions would be great!

AprilH81 · February 2014

With that many I would just invite them all to the wedding and do a group picture with them. Unless you make them all bridesmaids/groomsmen there aren't enough roles for everyone and you can't make up "job" for them.

Inkdancer · February 2014

That sounds like a huge bridal party.

How many people are you inviting to your wedding? If you are inviting 100, 10 bridal party members is a lot.

Honestly, most of these are children. They probably will not care very much about being in your wedding (especially the boys), or even if they do care they may not be able to stand still at the altar for the duration of the ceremony. I would invite them, and honor them that way. Maybe even give them corsages/boutonnieres if you want to. But your bridal party can be just a couple of your closest friends or siblings. You do not have to include all these people. They will not think you don't love them if they aren't in your bridal party.

emmyg65 · February 2014

Just invite them to the wedding. You don't need to find a way to include them, other than spending a little time with them during the reception.

sarahufl · February 2014

We have 9 between us, but they are far younger. Mine nieces are all very young (will be 11 months, 26 months, and 11 months at the time). So they are going to be cute and adorable and we will just take photos.

His 4 nieces will be flower girls and 1 nephew will be a ring bearer, the other nephew is prob too young.

PrettyGirlLost · February 2014

AprilH81 said:

With that many I would just invite them all to the wedding and do a group picture with them. Unless you make them all bridesmaids/groomsmen there aren't enough roles for everyone and you can't make up "job" for them.

What she said, pretend I said it :-)

Inkdancer said:

That sounds like a huge bridal party.

How many people are you inviting to your wedding? If you are inviting 100, 10 bridal party members is a lot.

I don't think the size of a bridal party needs to have any relationship to the number of guests you are inviting. It should just be made up of your dearest beloved friends and family, whomever they are to you. I had never heard of this ratio rule until coming to TK.

Full disclosure- I have 10 BM's and FI has 9 GM's. . . we have 7 siblings between us plus close friends from college.

photokitty · February 2014

Are you getting married in the Catholic church? Have them carry up the gifts - boom, done.

If not, I would not include any of them in the ceremony.

Inkdancer · February 2014

PrettyGirlLost said:

Inkdancer said:

That sounds like a huge bridal party.

How many people are you inviting to your wedding? If you are inviting 100, 10 bridal party members is a lot.

I don't think the size of a bridal party needs to have any relationship to the number of guests you are inviting. It should just be made up of your dearest beloved friends and family, whomever they are to you. I had never heard of this ratio rule until coming to TK.

Full disclosure- I have 10 BM's and FI has 9 GM's. . . we have 7 siblings between us plus close friends from college.

I don't think it's a rule. I just think it looks really bizarre when you have a full 20% of your guest list standing with you. If you really do have that many siblings and close friends, that's awesome. But including a ton of people just to avoid hurt feelings seems a little silly to me.

PrettyGirlLost · February 2014

Inkdancer said:

PrettyGirlLost said:

Inkdancer said:

That sounds like a huge bridal party.

How many people are you inviting to your wedding? If you are inviting 100, 10 bridal party members is a lot.

I don't think the size of a bridal party needs to have any relationship to the number of guests you are inviting. It should just be made up of your dearest beloved friends and family, whomever they are to you. I had never heard of this ratio rule until coming to TK.

Full disclosure- I have 10 BM's and FI has 9 GM's. . . we have 7 siblings between us plus close friends from college.

I don't think it's a rule. I just think it looks really bizarre when you have a full 20% of your guest list standing with you. If you really do have that many siblings and close friends, that's awesome. But including a ton of people just to avoid hurt feelings seems a little silly to me.

Yep, yep. I agree.

Jen4948 · February 2014

Don't try to give every single one a job. In fact, this is a good opportunity for your nieces and nephews to learn that they are not entitled to be the stars of the show at every family get-together. Just take photos with them and don't worry about hurting their or their parents' or grandparents' feelings.

AroundTheBlock · February 2014

bgesler said:

Okay so me and my fiancé are trying to figure out our bridal party. We have so many nieces and nephews! We love all of them and I am esp. close to my one brothers kids but we do not know how to include all of them! We have 10 total! I have 8 just on my side my fiancé has 2. Ages are
girls : 17,16,15,13, 13,11
boys: 16, 12, 7, and 5 months (will be a over a year at time of wedding)

One of the 13 year old girl and the 16 year old boy we are not that close with and could prob. care less if they are in our wedding. But I feel bad including the others and not them. Any suggestions would be great!

What were you thinking about in terms of including the cousins? In some circles it is quite common to have child attendants (look up Princess Margaret's wedding pictures for example) and in that case all the girls are certainly old enough to be bridesmaids. The littlest boy -- if all of the boys are involve and are dressed the same, then he might wear a miniature version of what they are wearing but realistically that would be the most you could hope for in terms of including him. Although I do have a grand-neice who, at twenty-two months, had a ball carrying around the basket of jordan almonds and delivering them to all the guests (whether they wanted them or not!) But the other boys could conceivably stand as attendants too, and the seven-year-old could serve as ringbearer.

Or were you thinking of other ways of including them? If you are having a religious ceremony that includes readings, and some of them are good readers, then that is one way that they could take part. If they are musical, then one or more could play an interlude and/or sing during the signing of the marriage registration -- in fact if yours is a musical family in general and they could pull it off, a choir of cousins might be very memorable! And of course they could certainly serve as greeters and ushers at the ceremony.

cowgirl8238 · February 2014

I would just invite them to the wedding and not worry about them being a part of the bridal party/procession/etc. You can take a few pictures with all of them and then go on enjoying your special day.

tigersgirlgv · February 2014

I second the ideas that if you're doing a Catholic ceremony they could bring up gifts. My cousins and I did that at one of my aunt's wedding. Or I like the idea of corsages/boutonnieres. I would have loved that as a tween/teenager!

RebeccaB88 · February 2014

Just because there are so many of them, I think the fairest thing to do is not include anyone in a special role. Definitely have a niece/nephew picture with everyone, though. Maybe a good one and also a goofy one?

theartistformerlyknownas · February 2014

My 10 yo niece flat out asked me if she got to be in the wedding. I told her "As much fun as it would be to have absolutely everyone standing up there with me, there's just not room. But it means just as much to me to have you there as a guest along with everyone else I love. I can't wait to see you!"

So many nieces and nephews!

Re: So many nieces and nephews!

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