Your friends each contributed a special gift to your life throughout the years. You can’t wait to walk down the aisle with their support and look fabulous doing it. But these ladies don’t know each other the way you know them. It’s time for that to change. Get some bridesmaid bonding time in with these five fun ideas.

Bridesmaid Brunch

What’s classier than getting your bridesmaids together and eating delicious breakfast comfort food at your favourite spot? Keep it casual or encourage the girls to wear their favourite dress and hat to make it feel like a different time. Don’t forget the mimosas!

Friends Having Brunch

Bridal Meet-ups

Gather weekly or biweekly at a hidden gem that each bridesmaid loves, such as a cocktail bar, comedy club or coffee shop. Rotate the choice between bridesmaids so they can get to know each other and the area more.

Find Your Signature Cocktail Together

Going to serve a signature cocktail at your wedding? Gather the bridal party around an assortment of liquor, garnishes and mixers. Play with the combinations and shake your groove thang to a mixologist playlist until you find your signature sip. Write out the recipe for the bartender and name it something unique!

Long and Short Cocktails

The perfect cocktail maintains dilution and temperature with a larger block of ice rather than chips. Long drinks, served in a tall glass, usually get mixed with non-alcoholic drinks such as juice, which get mellowed by the ice diluting. Follow the 2:1:1 rule of two measures of alcohol to each measure of tartness and measure of sweetness.

What about short drinks? Alcohol gets mixed with alcohol and ice, keeping it to a total of four measures, with one of diluted ice and three of ingredients.

Attend a Trunk Show

Attending wedding-related events also helps your bridesmaids break the ice and gets everyone united on a single, important task. For example, you could take your bridesmaids with you to a trunk show or bridal sample sale to select your dream wedding dress.

At a trunk show you can schedule an appointment to try on dresses you won’t see in a bridal shop, for every body type. Shows can last a day or three, and you often get an opportunity to buy a unique dress with discount when you order on the spot.

Rail of Wedding Dresses

Tea Time and Readings

Invite your bridesmaids over for a Mad Hatter tea party with mismatched dishes and a psychic who will do tea leaf readings, or tarot or palm depending on your preference.

You could attempt them yourselves by putting a pinch of tea leaves into your cup and covering it with boiling water. Let the tea stand for three minutes before the asker drains the cup, leaving only a small amount of liquid at the bottom. The sitter picks up the cup by the bottom and swirls it three times clockwise as the tea leaves and bits cling to the inner circumference of the cup. Then, they slowly turn the cup upside down and let the liquid drain into the saucer.

After the sitter focuses on their question, the oracle analyses the cup from the sitter’s perspective. The handle is the sitter in their own “sphere” of existence at the south, the rim is the present, the middle is near, and the bottom is far. The closer the symbols appear to the handle, the closer in time the events occur.

Get laid back and have a board game night and order in pizza or dress up fancy and go to brunch. Your choice in activities should fit the bridal party, and that will unfold as you spend more time together and bond.

While you should involve yourself in the important decisions, encourage your bridesmaids to get to know each other on their own. Bring those you love closer to you and closer to each other to make memories of a lifetime on your big day!

Guest post by Kacey Bradley of The Drifter Collective

Trunk show information sourced from Ashley & Justin Bride

Images from Unsplash