Tips for maids of honour & masters of ceremony

With the wedding season approaching, my friend, who is going to be maid of honour at her friend's wedding, asked me if I got some suggestions on how to help the wedding couple getting their dream wedding. It's a great honour to be selected to be part of the "wedding inner circle", but for many maids of honour -and masters of ceremony- it's not always clear what their role is. Below, I selected five tips that will hopefully inspire you and help you in being a great maid of honour or master of ceremony.

1. Be a good host

One of the key elements to a successful wedding is that the wedding guests feel involved in the whole event. Guests don't like to be kept in the dark regarding when and where the wedding will take place. They want to know what they can expect.

It's one of the tasks of the master of ceremony to inform the guests beforehand by letter -don't forget to include the dress code- and to play host on the wedding day.

The nicest weddings I've been to were all very well organized and as a guest I felt really pampered. Of course, a wedding is about the wedding couple, but I tell you this: happy guests make a happy wedding day!

2. Good Luck in a Bag

At the moment bride and groom walk out of the wedding location as a married couple, have the guests standing by to throw some rice at them. Throwing rice means wishing them much fertility and wealth (and also make good pictures!)

If you're not allowed to throw any rice (like in Amsterdam where they are afraid pigeons will be picknicking for a long time afterwards), choose something else, like rose leaves or lavender!

3. Please be seated

Is the wedding couple hosting a big dinner party? Making a seating plan is dreadful, but as maid of honour or master of ceremony you can help out, by displaying the plan in an original way. 

I love these examples I found on Martha Stewart's website on weddings. They not only look good, but also smoothly direct everybody to their seat.

4. Long Life Gift for the Happy Couple

It's always nice to surprise the wedding couple with a personal present from all the guests. You can secretly ask them to send in their food recipe for a great marriage or a personalized bottle of wine to start their own wine cellar. I recently went to a wedding party, where guests were asked to write down their hopes & wishes for the couple on a Dutch Delft Tile; very original! 

I also liked this idea I found on -surprise, surprise!- on Martha Stewarts' website:

5. Something Blue...

It's not a Dutch custom, but, seeing it brings good luck (and you like the idea pitched below!), maid of honour, you might want to incorporate this American tradition: 

Something old, something new

Something borrowed, something blue

And a silver sixpence in her shoe 

For the "something blue"-part I found this embroidery with the bride's initials stitched in blue yarn: 

The embroidery is placed in the inner back side of the bride's wedding dress. I think it's a unique and beautiful way to show your affection to the bride!

Pictures © Martha Stewart