u/mysticalorbit

My fiancé and I were recently chatting about wedding plans and the topic of a wedding party came up. He was a bit nervous that I have more friends than he does, and of how that would work with our wedding party. I have about 12 people I would like in my bridal party (which I know is already kind of ridiculous but I can't figure out how to cut it down lol), and if he stretches and includes my brothers, he will have 6 in his groom party. Not a problem, just a difference in our personalities!

Then we kind of jokingly said, "maybe we just shouldn't have a wedding party at all!"....but now have been thinking about it, and I wanted to hear people's opinions and experiences with their wedding parties, or from folks whose friends didn't have a wedding party, before making a choice on whether or not to have one!

For context, we will be inviting about 60 people to our wedding, and it will be a destination wedding for most of them except a handful who live in the same state as us. I had never planned on having a matchy-matchy bridal party, and hoped to just let them wear whatever they feel most comfortable in (maybe within a wide color palette). There are a lot of different style preferences, skin tones, body types, and gender expressions in the folks that would be in our party, so it seems silly to force them all to wear the same things. Also, our guest list is just over half our family, so of the 25 or so guests that are friends, we would have 10-18 of them in our wedding party?? That seems kinda weird to me too lol. But I do want to still feel like my closest friends are part of the whole thing, and we had thought to maybe do a combined bach party with those people...so I'm not sure how that would work out if we choose to forgo a wedding party.

But I also realize that being on a wedding party is expensive and can be stressful (as someone who actually kind of hates it myself, even though I obviously love and support my friends who have chosen me as a bridesmaid!!), so I wonder if it might actually a bit of a relief for them to just be able to experience it as guests. Any and all advice is welcome!

My fiancé and I were recently chatting about wedding plans and the topic of a wedding party came up. He was a bit nervous that I have more friends than he does, and of how that would work with our wedding party. I have about 12 people I would like in my bridal party (which I know is already kind of ridiculous but I can't figure out how to cut it down lol), and if he stretches and includes my brothers, he will have 6 in his groom party. Not a problem, just a difference in our personalities!

Then we kind of jokingly said, "maybe we just shouldn't have a wedding party at all!"....but now have been thinking about it, and I wanted to hear people's opinions and experiences with their wedding parties, or from folks whose friends didn't have a wedding party, before making a choice on whether or not to have one!

For context, we will be inviting about 60 people to our wedding, and it will be a destination wedding for most of them except a handful who live in the same state as us. I had never planned on having a matchy-matchy bridal party, and hoped to just let them wear whatever they feel most comfortable in (maybe within a wide color palette). There are a lot of different style preferences, skin tones, body types, and gender expressions in the folks that would be in our party, so it seems silly to force them all to wear the same things. Also, our guest list is just over half our family, so of the 25 or so guests that are friends, we would have 10-18 of them in our wedding party?? That seems kinda weird to me too lol. But I do want to still feel like my closest friends are part of the whole thing, and we had thought to maybe do a combined bach party with those people...so I'm not sure how that would work out if we choose to forgo a wedding party.

But I also realize that being on a wedding party is expensive and can be stressful (as someone who actually kind of hates it myself, even though I obviously love and support my friends who have chosen me as a bridesmaid!!), so I wonder if it might actually a bit of a relief for them to just be able to experience it as guests. Any and all advice is welcome!

My fiancé and I were recently chatting about wedding plans and the topic of a wedding party came up. He was a bit nervous that I have more friends than he does, and of how that would work with our wedding party. I have about 12 people I would like in my bridal party (which I know is already kind of ridiculous but I can't figure out how to cut it down lol), and if he stretches and includes my brothers, he will have 6 in his groom party. Not really a problem, just a personality difference between us!

Then we kind of jokingly said, "maybe we just shouldn't have a wedding party at all!"....but now have been thinking about it more, and I wanted to hear people's opinions and experiences with their wedding parties, or if you have been to a friend's wedding that didn't do bridal parties, before making a choice on whether or not to have one!

For context, we will be inviting about 60 people to our wedding, and it will be a destination wedding for most of them, except for a handful who live in the same state as us. I had never planned on having a matchy-matchy bridal party, and hoped to just let them wear whatever they feel most comfortable in (maybe within a pretty wide color scheme). There are a lot of different style preferences, skin tones, body types, and gender expressions in the folks that would be in our party, so it seems silly and rude to force them all to wear the same things. Also, our guest list is just over half our family, so of the 25 or so guests that are friends, we would have 10-18 of them in our wedding party?? That seems kinda weird to me too lol. But I do want to still feel like my closest friends are part of the whole thing, and we had thought to maybe have a combined bach party with those people...so I'm not sure how that would work out if we choose to forgo a wedding party.

But I also realize that being on a wedding party is expensive and can be stressful (as someone who actually kind of hates it myself, even though I obviously love and support my friends who have chosen me as a bridesmaid!!), so I wonder if it might actually a bit of a relief for them to just be able to experience it as guests. Any and all advice is welcome!