Getting married is hard work, and a bride needs all the support she can get. Some of her most important support will come from her immediate family, as well as her fiancé. Bridesmaids are another source of vital support for the bride. Typically, bridesmaids will be the very closest of the bride’s female friends and relatives. They’re people she can confide in and rely on. They’ll be there to help her every step of the way, from choosing the perfect dress to making sure that everything goes smoothly when it’s finally time to walk down the aisle. With this being the case, it’s really important that bridesmaids cooperate and work well as a team.

Unfortunately, this isn’t necessarily always the case, and conflicts can arise between bridesmaids. A common source of such conflict is competition. Each bridesmaid cares deeply for the bride and wants to prove her worth as a friend. While this is a positive sentiment, in some cases it can transform into a competitive impulse. In this week’s blog post, Loving Invitations would like to offer some advice on creating the right conditions to avoid this kind of dynamic.

Encourage Your Bridesmaids to Have Fun Together

The closer your bridesmaids are with each other, the less likely it is for competition and conflict to arise. If you’re lucky, all of your bridesmaids are already good friends and are very unlikely to clash. However, perhaps some of your bridemaids are not very well acquainted with each other. If this is the case, you should do everything you can to foster camaraderie among them. Arrange fun activities that all of you can do together, and encourage them to connect with each other. If you’re successful, not only will it help your wedding to go smoothly, but your bridesmaids will have found new friends.

Don’t Play Favourites

As we mentioned above, in many cases conflict between bridesmaids arises from competition. Each bridesmaid wants to demonstrate her value as a friend, and there may be a sense that someone needs to prove that she is the bride’s “best friend.” For this reason, it’s important that the bride treats everyone equally and makes it clear that she is grateful for everyone’s help. Of course, it’s entirely possible that one of your bridesmaids is a little closer to you than the others, and that’s normal. Just make sure that you avoid obvious favouritism. If you make it clear that you don’t have a favourite, then any motive for competition is eliminated. If choosing a maid of honour, try to do so with a clear, logical reason. For example, your maid of honour could be your sister, or your oldest friend, or some other special relationship to you that doesn’t necessarily equate with favouritism.

Give Your Bridesmaids Separate Responsibilities

You need your bridesmaids’ help, that’s not in question. By agreeing to be your bridesmaids, they’ve agreed to help and support you as you prepare for your wedding day. As result, you should feel that it’s okay to request your bridesmaids to help with specific tasks. This means you can assign different areas of responsibility to each bridesmaids. Doing so will allow them to work well as a team without stepping on each other’s toes. Each bridesmaid will be in charge of her own task, which is different from the others, and this reduces the scope for competition.

Make Sure That Each of Your Bridesmaids Feels Special

You value each of your bridesmaids as individuals, otherwise you would not have asked thm to be your bridesmaids. It’s important that you show this. Fortunately, it’s easy to do this, and there are a number of ways in which you can do so. Make sure to listen carefully to feedback from all of your bridesmaids, and do your best to take it on board as much as possible. Allow each bridesmaid to have an opportunity to express her personal style and put her own stamp on the wedding. Most importantly, make your gratitude clear to each one of them individually.