Wedding Trends That Take The Cake

You’ve taken a huge step and popped the question. You’re going to get married! But, while your bride-to-be may be handling a lot of the details with (major or minor) input from you, you still have a big decision to make. Who’s going to be in your wedding party? And harder still, who are you going to choose to act as your Best Man?

In order to help you make an informed decision, we’ve broken down the responsibilities that you’ll need your Best Man to handle, and we’ve given you some ideas on who you might want to choose.

Your Best Man will have a variety of very important responsibilities. You’ll want to choose the person for the job according to who is most likely to be able to complete the required tasks successfully. After all, you want to pick someone who will help the wedding run smoothly, not the person who is the most fun to be with. A Best Man’s responsibilities might include:

• Making sure you arrive at the church on time.
• Keeping track of the wedding rings–and the ring bearer, if you have one.
• Acting as a formal witness to the signing of your marriage license.
• Giving a speech at the wedding reception. (Keep in mind here, that you’ll want someone who’s not afraid to speak in public.)
• Helping to choose the men’s formal wear for the wedding.
• Organizing the Bachelor Party (Keep in mind that you’ll want someone who can plan a fun party, but one that won’t get too out of hand.)
• Assisting with your honeymoon plans.
• Helping to keep you organized.

As a final note on the responsibilities of your Best Man, you’ll want to choose someone who can actually afford to take on the responsibility. Unless, of course, you are footing the bill…

So…who do you choose?

First of all, your Best Man needs to be responsible to complete all of the above tasks and more, but he also needs to be trustworthy. After all, you’re only planning on having one wedding day, right? And you want it to go off without a hitch.

When considering who to choose as your Best Man, you may have both a brother and a best friend that you can trust with all of the responsibilities. In this case, experts say that you should always choose your brother, provided you have a good relationship with that individual. After all, blood is thicker than water and friends come and go.

In some cases, a groom-to-be may not have a brother, but has a close relationship with a sister. In this case, it’s perfectly fine to have your sister stand up in the wedding for you. Just keep in mind attire and bachelor party duties. You may want to have a best friend plan your party and you’ll want to check with your sister to see if she’s rather wear a tux or a dress that compliments the groomsmen’s tuxedos.

If you don’t have any siblings, the job of  Best Man generally would fall to a friend. A long-time best friend would be a good choice. This person knows you well and can be invaluable in helping with plans for the bachelor party and wedding day particulars.

Another option might be to make your fiancée’s brother the best man. This will definitely help you score points with her family, though it may not bode well with your friends. In this case, though, it’s up to you to make that choice.

Once you’ve chosen your Best Man–and your groomsmen–you’ll want to formally ask them to be a part of your big day. Doing this in person is best, and you may want to ask everyone over a meal or a beer at your favorite pub. After all, it should be a celebration!

Plan your announcement well in advance, so that you can give your Best Man and your groomsmen as much time as possible to plan for your wedding. They’ll want to put your wedding date on their calendars, plus you’ll want to give them as much time as possible to plan for your wedding financially.

Once you’ve chosen your Best Man and groomsmen, you’ll want to start thinking about a thank-you gift you’d like to give to them for their extra efforts on and before your wedding day. Since you’ll be buying each member of your wedding party a gift, which is traditionally distributed at the rehearsal dinner, it makes sense to buy each person the same gift. Try to come up with something more creative than a tie or a pocketknife, though. Think about what your friends have in common and give them something relevant to everyone that’s cool and a little bit unexpected–but don’t go overboard on the price! For some great gift ideas, visit Best Little Wedding Shop.

Lisa Bakewell