wedding bridal parties and siblings

did any of you, with siblings, not have them in your bridal party?

i just saw a friend's wedding pictures and i was a little surprised that her brothers weren't in the bridal party and her sister wasn't her matron of honor (she's SUPER close to her sister).

i know that not all families are very close, so i was just wondering if you did this... what made you decide to leave a sibling out?

Re: wedding bridal parties and siblings

I had both of my sisters & brother, my sister did the same when she got married. My younger sister just got engaged so I'm expecting to be in the wedding. However, when my brother got married none of us where involved. Infairness though my SIL didnt have her brothers either.

Re: wedding bridal parties and siblings

I only have 1 brother and he was included in my bridal party. I know my friend didn't have all her sisters in her bridal party but I think that might be because there is 7 of them

Re: wedding bridal parties and siblings

When we got married, DH did not include his sister in the bridal party (and she was very very angry) but we did have her do a reading at our ceremony.
My brother was also not in the bridal party. I felt he was too young at 16. He did walk my mom down the aisle.
Both of them gave a speech at the reception

Re: wedding bridal parties and siblings

when we got married, I only had my sister as my MOH. my brother was not in the bridal party.

DH has 2 brothers and a sister. He only chose 1 brother as a groomsmen.

We invited my brother and his brother to be ushers and read a passage.

His sister was not included in the ceremony at all, but she was also 9 months pregnant at the time and luckily held off going into labor until the day after our wedding.

wedding bridal parties and siblings

I had all of my sisters and he had all of his brothers. That left my brother and his sister out. I made it up to them by asking them to be the Godparents of our 1st child.

Re: wedding bridal parties and siblings

My friend is the youngest of four siblings...none of them were in the bridal party. I was the MOH and was a little uncomfortable about it. I think the situation really alienated her two sisters.

Re: wedding bridal parties and siblings

My Brother walked me down the aisle, not a true wedding party participant and my two SIL weren't in the wedding party either.

Re: wedding bridal parties and siblings

My brother wasn't in my wedding party. We had 2 attendants each. I had my two female cousins & DH had his two male cousins (he has no siblings, I have no sisters.) It never really occurred to me that he should be a groomsman, b/c he is MY brother but I have seen since then that it is common practice.

Since we only had one groomsman besides the best man (who was with DH before the ceremony), it was suggested that we have an additional usher, so we had my brother do that, but he wasn't in a tux & wasn't in the bridal party photos.

He did walk my grandmother & mother down the aisle though. He's really shy though, so I think that was enough participation for him. I asked if he wanted to do a reading, but he said no. ( I knew he would, so I wasn't offended, I figured I should just check before I asked my aunt.)

Re: wedding bridal parties and siblings

My maid of honor (and only bridesmaid) was my sister. For DH, his brother was best man (and only groomsman). I also have a brother, who I had walk down the aisle with my nephew, who was 1 then and the ring bearer. That way he was still involved. It worked out perfectly.

Re: wedding bridal parties and siblings

I had my sister, but I did not have my husband's sisters.
My side of the bridal party was for my friends and family-not his.
If I had a brother, I would not expect him to have my brother as a groomsman. He has his own friends and brother for that.

wedding bridal parties and siblings

we had my brother, my sister-in-law, and my younger sister, who was 12 at the time and my "jr. MOH"... I only had 2 friends in the wedding party, and there was no way I was singling one of them out for MOH.

wedding bridal parties and siblings

We had my brother and SIL and DHs 2 brothers in the wedding

Re: wedding bridal parties and siblings

for MY wedding.. yes. ALL of my siblings were included. My twin brothers were groomsman and sister a bridesmaid. His sister was a bridesmaid and brother a groomsman. My older brother actually made to my wedding so he gave the Indian Wedding Blessing.

His wedding (my brother) I was not invited to the first one even as a guest... none of us were

Second wedding we got to go as guests, but none of us were included in the party until the VERY last second when my SIL's 'bestie' decided to have an abortion instead (yep, just up and decided no wedding, no kid) so she wasn't feeling like putting on a dress.... so guess Veronica can be in the wedding.. F'ing thank you for such a freaking lovely gesture! Could have not told me the story about the bestie and just invited me but nooooo she made it a point to say only because of the abortion and I *HAD* to speak god's name in reverence if requested (um, ok?). So there I stood. Ironically I had to have my dress made in a hurry since bestie was twice my size and then some. My twin brothers and sister were not part of the wedding but were guests. (ETA: because she said it was HER wedding and she wanted HER people with her before she gave it up for HIM - They got divorced 5yrs later! After she made him move to Iowa for her family and decided they loved her more than him. Go figure! LOL )

I guess it depends on the family. But for my father's side, father's blood.. family is above all else. Family comes first. End of story.

Can't imagine not including my family in my wedding.

Message edited 3/31/2014 4:05:10 PM.

Re: wedding bridal parties and siblings

I had my brother and his wife and my husbands sister, I would never leave them out, we are all close but even if we weren't I would include siblings.

wedding bridal parties and siblings

I had my sister but my DH did not have my brothers

Re: wedding bridal parties and siblings

We did not have my brother or DH's 2 sisters in the bridal party. We had them all do readings.
We each had our 2 best friends from childhood as our co-MOH & co-Best Men respectively. We kept going back and forth about having the siblings in the party but, A) it would have made the sides uneven and B) we just wanted to keep it small. And I really do love my SILs and DH (at least seems to) love my brother. I know my brother was definitely not offended - he only had his best friend and his wife only had her best friend in their wedding when they were married 5 years earlier - and she's the youngest of 11!
I'm pretty sure SIL's were not offended either. I also had at least 1 or 2 other close friends I contemplated adding, but then I felt I'd really want to include the siblings and then what about their spouses/significant others? It just seemed like it would get out of hand.

wedding bridal parties and siblings

DH and I have five siblings between us. Two of them have gotten married and we haven't been in either wedding party. It's fine. I'm not close with DH's sister, and my brother's wife already had quite a few girls.

wedding bridal parties and siblings

I have 1 sister & 1 brother. My sister was a bridesmaid, but my BFF was my maid of honor. I am close to my sister but way closer to my best friend, and my sister understood. My brother was a groomsman, but not because he is my brother, it was because he & my DH are very close and my DH wanted him up there. He has 2 brothers, one who was a groomsman, the other best man. He also has a sister, but I am not close with her at all, and I didn't ask her. She didn't seem upset. I was also not in her bridal party but I didn't care. She has tons of close friends that deserved to be up there with her more than me.
We decided that we would each individually choose our sides of the wedding party. He didn't want me excluding one of my friends to include his sister, and I felt the same way about my brother.

Message edited 3/31/2014 7:36:40 PM.

Re: wedding bridal parties and siblings

I am actually closer with my best friends than I am with my sister but I still had her as my MOH and my friends as the BMs. I would've felt bad if my sister wasn't my MOH even though we aren't SUPER close but everybody is different. DH's brother was his best man, but they are close.

Re: wedding bridal parties and siblings

My brother was a groomsman in our wedding, I included DH's sisters in my bridal party along with my sister who was MOH. DH's brother was the best man.

Honestly, it would never even occur to me to leave siblings on either side out. In my family, anyone who has gotten married has included all of their siblings, both for the groom and bride.

Re: wedding bridal parties and siblings

My brother was a groomsman and DH's brother was his best man.

Re: wedding bridal parties and siblings

DH had his 2 half brothers . He also included my cousin (who is like a brother to me).

I did not include DH's <cough evil> sister. I don't have any siblings, so my bridal party was my other cousin and friends.

wedding bridal parties and siblings

I have a brother who is married and DH has a brother and 2 sisters (one is married). None were in our bridal parties. DH doesn't really get along with his brother -- well that's not true -- let me rephrase. DH and his brother have NOTHING in common other than that they are brothers. DH felt that if his brother was in his bridal party, he would get major flack from his mother for not making him his best man. DH does not speak to his brother often and feels that he doesn't know anything about him and vice versa. Rather than include certain siblings and exclude others, DH and I felt that the best thing to do was to not include any in our bridal parties. My brother walked me 1/2 way down the aisle (my stepdad the other 1/2), one of his sisters did a reading, and my SIL did a reading also. The situation was unfortunate as DH wanted my brother in his party, but given the situation with his brother, knew that he couldn't ask my brother and not his own biological one. We feel that we handled it in the best way possible. Some family members were still not happy, but oh well -- can't please everyone!

Message edited 3/31/2014 8:27:39 PM.

wedding bridal parties and siblings

wow. i didn't realize that not having your siblings in your bridal party was so common.

and here i thought i was a horrible person for not having my sister as part of my bridal party. she had been invited, but i wasn't sure she would even attend... up until the day before the wedding.