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Carrie and the Republicans will secure the border, support our families, and never turn their backs on us. Carrie Lake for Senate. I'm Carrie Lake, candidate for U.S. Senate, and I approve this message. Paid for by Carrie Lake for Senate and the NRSC. I forgot my bagel. Okay, guys, I'm spilling the tea. The most important tea of today is not actually about bridal. It's about what I'm eating.
If you haven't had it, I'm addicted. A cinnamon raisin bagel. Don't hate it until you try it. With cream cheese and then drizzled honey over top.
She's got a sweet tooth. What can I say? But today's episode is about something even sweeter than my sweet tooth, which is an extension of friendship and a kind of serious part of friendship. And that is being a bridesmaid in someone's wedding, being a maid of honor in someone's wedding. And I've had the honor of being in four weddings in my adulthood already to this point. I am... How much is that out of 27? I'm that much closer to 27 dresses, okay? And...
I just came back from Michigan on Sunday from watching my best friend from college, my like honestly longest, most consistent friend of 10 years get married to the love of her life. Also wild someone I went to high school with. So I feel like I was very involved in this wedding. I knew both parties. I am always team Katie, always for the girlies.
But it was amazing to get to see something so beautiful also happen in my hometown where I grew up in Marshall, Michigan. So we had a beautiful weekend this weekend of celebrating Katie. And that's exactly what we're going to debrief and talk about on today's episode as we go through all the wonderful things that come with weddings, with being bridesmaids, with being maids of honor. I'm not married.
I'm not married, but I've gotten the chance to see the behind the scenes of quite a few weddings. So I'm just going to share some of my experiences and maybe answer the question of if I'm ever going to get married. Who knows? But first, a bite of my bagel. It's been sitting for a minute. It's a little bit soft. I was hoping it would have a crunch.
As always, we're starting this week's episode with a rosebud thorn and this one is so easy this week. I think I could be cheesy and say that my rosebud thorn was all surrounding the wedding, which I probably should have said, but I'm going to talk about other things because I feel like my rosebud thorns are my episode where I had the Anna's Guide to Having Lasting Gal Pals. If you haven't heard that yet, the girl who is the feature, Miss Katie Reed, who is now Katie Peters, is the guest on that episode. So if you guys haven't listened to that episode yet and want to hear a little more about
friendship and maybe some behind the scenes of the wedding before we're at this point where the wedding has happened to feel free to go hop on back to that episode and check it out because it's so wholesome and so sweet. But this week's Rosebud Thorn is easy. Yesterday I went to Olivia Rodrigo's concert. So that is my Rose. I danced my heart out. I went with Spotify. Um, shout out Spotify. Also, I hope you're listening on Spotify because that's my favorite place to listen to podcasts. That's not even sponsored. I just felt like saying that to you. Um,
So I got the chance to hang out with them yesterday and see one of my favorite artists. The last time that I saw her was in Michigan. So it was sweet to get to see like all the evolution of music and also scream my heart out to all my heartbreak songs with the person who healed my heart, which is Bruce. So that was a great moment yesterday. And my bud is that I'm currently training for a triathlon. Guys, why? I decided when I was in Paris, a little bit before Paris, I had been...
going on in my mind. I have a close friend, Danielle, who does triathlons regularly. And she kind of said like, oh my gosh, if you and your brother want to do it, you should sign up and do it. And she actually invited Brew too, but he decided against it because he's a little nervous about the swimming portion. So I signed up while I was in Paris and then was like, okay, well now I actually have to start training because a triathlon is happening in two weeks in Santa Barbara. So I don't know what I was thinking, but I'm doing it.
I yesterday started training for the first time and I'm feeling pretty good. I did a seven mile bike and a two and a half mile run back to back just to see if I could because it's a sprint triathlon. So it's shorter than a normal amount. The swim in the ocean is 500 meters, which is,
And truthfully, I like don't know why I'm not more stressed about it, but I swam in high school and college. So I'm hoping I can rely on my form above anything to just give me the longevity to survive. But I will update when I get my first open water swim. I've never had one except for like swimming on vacation in the ocean. I'll let you guys know or I won't because I won't be here anymore if I don't make it. And then my thorn.
Of this week is I feel like i've been getting really bad breakouts It's a cheesy one and you might not see them. Maybe you do see them. They're like right here I always get them around my mouth, which I'm gonna be so rude with y'all I think it's because I ate only fast food when I was in michigan And so I think like just like greasy food. That's not good for me. My skin was like no We miss la food, which I honestly did too. Um My skin's just not been happy this week But thankfully they held out for the wedding. I didn't have any acne on the wedding day It doesn't even matter if I did but I didn't so
A win is a win. And those are my rosebud thorns this week. So if you're sitting with a friend, if you're all by yourself, take a minute, pause this episode, write down your rosebud thorns. Think about what you're grateful for, what you're thankful for. And we're going to get right into this week's episode with not only Debrief and Katie's wedding, but talking about being a bridesmaid, being a maid of honor on this week's episode of Anna's Guide to Being a Bridesmaid. Church's original recipe is back. You can never go wrong with original. Exactly.
Still tastes the same like back in the day. Right now, get two pieces of chicken starting at only $2.99 or 10 pieces starting at only $10.99. Churches. All for valid at participating locations. We're talking about weddings. I love love, okay? That's something about me is that I am a wedding girl. It does not matter whose wedding I'm attending. I will be crying. There will be tears streaming down my face. Waterproof makeup is 100% necessary. The speeches, the daddy-daughter dance.
All of it. I cry. I can't even tell you. Katie kept getting so frustrated because on her wedding day, I think I started crying at 9 a.m. and didn't stop for the entirety of the wedding. So...
I you know just had to keep it real and just like you know cry my heart out that it wasn't me marrying Katie that day we have this ongoing joke that if I could have been her fiance I would have been and the truth is yes um not even for like the actual like being married to someone or any of the spicy reasons that you're thinking of solely because the companionship that Katie offers me in my life I I would want for forever and I would commit to her for that reason but I
Katie's wedding happened and I'm going to give you the quick little debrief. I flew to Michigan from Paris from the Olympics the morning slash afternoon of Monday, the week of the wedding. So I was there five days before the wedding took place.
So I got to the wedding five days before it was happening. So I had Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, and then the wedding was happening on Saturday. I landed Monday night. I rented a car. What car do I rent? It's wedding week. I got a freaking convertible Mustang, you guys. I was living my best life. I felt like a bachelor, like bachelorette maybe on this weekend because I was like...
do I want mother car or do I want daddy car? I got daddy car. Okay. Convertible all week long. It was like this electric blue color, 10 out of 10 obsessed. So, um, I drove out to Marshall, which is about an hour and a half from Detroit where I landed. And the first night was chill. I slept, I got food. I sat at my little hometown fountain, ate, fell asleep. Tuesday started off strong. What happened Tuesday? I picked up Katie. We went for coffee.
That might have been all we did. Listen, this is one thing that was really weird about Tuesday, though. There was a tornado warning on Tuesday in Michigan. So Katie and I got trapped in Battle Creek getting a coffee and sat in the car and just hung out for a straight like two hours waiting out the storm. My ideal Tuesday morning is like sitting at 7 a.m. in the rain, like visiting with your best friend.
If you haven't done that lately and fall is right around the corner, highly recommend. But then we also did Katie's flowers on Tuesday. She, her fiance's mom works at the flower shop. So she was like kind of in charge of the flowers. So thankfully Katie and I got to be really involved in a lot of like the little process leading up to the wedding day. And so we went over to the flower shop that she works at and got to do all the little like centerpieces and pick out the flowers for the bouquets. And we learned how to like
take the leaves off or like trim the bottoms or how much do you trim or like how much do you peel of the outsides of the roses and all that stuff so we had a really great little like girl bonding Tuesday day and I want to say that Wednesday we had nothing that doesn't mean I didn't go bother Katie the whole day but I don't think we had anything like on the agenda like half to do um
But I also want to say like that's the reason that I got in there so much earlier is because I want to be able to be there for Katie every single day leading up to her big day in whatever way she needed. And I think that that's probably like our lesson one of this episode is that the day feels like a wedding and feels like a celebration when you're celebrating them all the way leading up to that moment. Being a bridesmaid. Oh my gosh, being a bridesmaid. Listen.
I made this joke once. I'll make it again. I'm on my way to 27 dresses. And the reason I said is because I have been in four weddings in my adulthood. That might not be a lot, but for me, someone who I don't think like, I don't know that I really pictured myself being in many more weddings than my sisters. I am like very honored to have been in four weddings and I was the maid of honor in three of them.
That's a whole lot of responsibility. And I will be so for real. My first time around, I had no forking idea what was going on. I like honestly was so fortunate that the first time I was a maid of honor was for one of my really close friends, Kaylee. She is currently pregnant with twins now. It's been a few years since the wedding and she gives birth like next month. I'm freaking out. I'm so excited for her to have these two little boys. But that was the first wedding that I was a maid of honor and her and her now husband, Ryan, got married pretty quickly.
close after we graduated college I want to say a year after we graduated college they got married and they had dated since they were like they were family friends like their childhood was them being family friends they had known each other for years on years and years I think they started dating when they were like 14 or 16 like we're together their lifetime lifelong soulmates twin flames partners I can only ever imagine the two of them together they're wonderful um
And luckily, Ryan had two sisters who I really believe knew exactly what was going on because they had been in weddings before. So they helped so much with my maid of honor duties because I think I learned a lot from them in my first experience being one. But what is, if anybody needs like me to explain this, the difference between the maid of honor...
And a bridesmaid is the maid of honor kind of like gives a speech, stands right next to the bride. You have these like little duties throughout the day where you like make sure that her skirt is fluffed and make sure like you hold her bouquet while she's in the wedding. And I signed the paperwork that said they were married and I was a witness. It's things like that. Like there's like these little things where you're kind of just like the right hand woman to the bride.
Okay, is that like a good way to explain a maid of honor? Okay, I feel like if I had to explain it, that's what I would give you. You're also a bit more involved in the planning process. But all the times that I've been a maid of honor, the other bridesmaids do step up quite often to help out where like things might fall through the cracks from the maid of honor. Like in a lot of ways, like I...
Oh my gosh. During all the weddings that I was in, I never lived close to the bride. I was never in the same city as the bride, but she always had friends that did. So a lot of the times those friends would be more of a right hand or more available to help with quick on the spot decision-making. But luckily I've had the opportunity to get to like share these incredible experiences with my friends and getting chosen to be a maid of honor feels so cool. I like will never forget opening Kaylee's and being like,
Like, Kaylee and I had been living away from each other for a couple years at that point, and I did not... We had talked about it in college and, like, kind of said, like, I would love for you to be my maid of honor and things like that. But then suddenly, like, you know, college happened. We both moved to separate places. And I wasn't, like...
we talked pretty regularly, but not all the time. And when I got that letter in the mail and got that little like delivery box, she got us like the cutest little like asking boxes. I was shocked. I literally like cried. I was so happy and so honored that she still thought of me as the friend that she would want to have standing right next to her on her special day. And the truth is I did say to her like,
you know, I don't live close by to you. Like, is, is that an issue? Like what made you pick me kind of like, why would you pick me? Okay. Me looking for someone to hype me up. Um,
But so I kind of asked like, hey, what made you still choose me even though we weren't close together? And she said the sweetest thing and I'm going to repeat it and I hope that I say this in the right way and exactly how she meant it. But this is how I interpreted it and I was very honored how I interpreted it. But so she had said pretty much that like I knew you would be the friend that would support all my decision making and make my day easy.
And like not stressful. And you would just be there for whatever I needed when I needed it and not like challenge my decision making for my special day in a way in my own terms. That's pretty much what she had said. And I thought about that a lot afterward. And I still think about it like that's
Such a like it was such a comforting thing for me that they had had so much trust in me on that day and they believe that I could be someone who would benefit them and benefit them having with them on that day and offer even some form of comfort. So as bridesmaids, as maids of honor, what do I think your role is when you have a wedding? I truly think that it's to be the ultimate support system for your people.
A lot of people think that being a support system is showing up and being at every event. I think that you can be supportive in ways that don't always involve your time. I know it's a huge wedding conversation that I wish I could divulge into deeper. And that's like the finances of a wedding. How do you help make decisions? What about all the events and parties? Truthfully, for all the weddings I've been to, I think Kaylee's might have been Kaylee and my sister.
I'm going to give you a quick debrief. Kaylee was the first friend that got married. Then I watched my older sister get married. Then Clara got married and I was a bridesmaid in Clara's wedding. And then... So, you want to be a marketer. It's easy. You just have to score a ton of leads and figure out a way to turn them all into customers. Plus, manage a dozen channels, write a million blogs, and launch a hundred campaigns all at once. When that's done, simply make your socials go viral and bring in record profits. No sweat.
Okay, fine. It's a lot of sweat. But with HubSpot's AI-powered marketing tools, launching benchmark-breaking campaigns is easier than ever. Get started at HubSpot.com slash marketers. Katie got married and I was the maid of honor at her wedding. And for each of those weddings, I think the only ones that I was able to attend everything during was...
Kaylee and Delphina's. I don't think I missed. I remember flying back for Kaylee's bridal shower. I wasn't able to make Katie's bridal shower. And then I wasn't able to make Clara's bachelorette party. But my sister didn't do a bridal shower and her bachelorette party was in LA. So it made it quite easy for me to attend all of those things. And each of those weddings had a little bit of a different style and had different requirements, I'm going to say, because they each had very different formats. Right.
Okay? Kaylee had...
Kaylee had a decent-sized bridal party, I remember. She had, I think, seven or eight girls. My sister only had family. So when Delfina got married, I was her maid of honor. And this is such a funny coincidence because Brew's family is the same as my sister's husband's family and the vice versa of mine. My family goes girl, girl, boy in the kids. My sister's husband's family goes boy, boy, girl. And my boyfriend's family goes boy, boy, girl. So...
Delphina and her husband, George, are both the oldest. So they each have a younger brother and a younger sister, but swapped. So George's best man was his brother with my little brother also as a groomsman.
Delphina had me, her little sister, and also George's little sister as a bridesmaid. So that way she didn't have to pick any friends for her wedding, which I think was so smart. It kept from anybody getting feelings hurt or anybody feeling like they need to be involved. I'm going to talk about my thoughts on that in a minute.
But it kept it from feeling like you really had to make any decisions. It kind of felt obvious, truthfully. And she still invited all of the friends to the wedding. And all of the friends came to the bachelorette party. And my sister had a destination wedding, so she got married in Greece. So it also involved everybody getting a big vacation. And, like, it was a great wedding. Delfina's wedding was honestly ideal. I will never be able to live up to what Delfina's wedding was. It was, like, a work of art of a wedding. Yeah.
Clara's wedding had a lot of friends as well, which is more similar to Kaylee's wedding. And then Katie also was the same where it was mostly friends. And then she also had her brother in like the brides man. She had like a brides man, like bridesmaids, but brides man, it was cute. So she had her brother as well. Um, but so those different layouts, I think also changed the dynamic on like how you help and how, um,
How you need people to show up for things, you know, because when it's friends, I think it's easier to divide and conquer when it was family. Me and Delfina spoke the most, I would say, about the planning and me and my mom and Delfina, my older sister, spoke the most about the planning. So each of the weddings that I was in had a little bit of a different style, which was nice. And also I'm trying to think about what we wore as guests.
Bridesmaids in the wedding and like dresses and stuff I think that when I I posted this morning a little thing on Instagram asking like what are your questions and opinions and thoughts on weddings And a lot of you guys responded like the fear of the dress not looking good on you. This is a hot take I on every single one of my weddings had
brides who cared a lot that we all felt and looked good in what we wore okay not a single wedding i hate the title bridezilla i think that that's such bullshit because there's no such thing as a groom who like is petty or does like bad stuff on the wedding and gets like you know whatever it's also a lot of the women's responsibility i think oftentimes with weddings so we should not be judging that she has so much stress on her plate and she dreams about this day since she was a little fetus and then wants to have a good day okay anyway that's all
I don't think I'll be a bride to that. No, I'm kidding. I probably will be. But anyway, that's my opinion on that. But what I do want to say is I've never had a bride not care what her friends look like on her day. And that being said, to me,
Two of the weddings that I was in did matching color but pick your own dress. And we did the birdie gray dresses. So, like, you can pretty much, like, pick a tone. And it's like everybody pick a sage dress. Everybody pick a ballerina pink dress. I had two of my weddings like that, which was Kaylee and Katie both did that. My older sister, it was only me and Irini, her sister-in-law, my sister-in-law, who...
We had to pick a dress for. And she had also picked this like really beautiful olive green dress. And I think it was pretty simple to pick. She picked like these stunning silk dresses and they looked flawless. Also though, because it was only two of us and like we both could afford it. She was able to pick a higher end dress to wear for my older sister's wedding. And then for Clara's wedding, um,
She picked one style that we all wore, but it was such a timeless fashion. It was like this beautiful V-neck silk, like fitted and then kind of like ankle mid shin length. And it looked stunning on every single girl who put it on. So every bride that I've had has like been very aware and nice and kind about wanting to pick a dress that everybody looks good in. But also if they pick a dress that you don't look good in and it's what they want, then
This is a hard truth. It is their day. And unfortunately, you're going to love the dress, whether you love the dress or not. Do you know what I mean? It is what it is. I've gotten really lucky, but I know there's times like the dress isn't what you wanted. Even I've ordered dresses and they weren't what I wanted. And maybe the color scheme isn't your thing. Maybe it's not the cut that you like or the style that you like. But unfortunately, I think on the day,
I do think that the bride gets to pick. I'm so sorry. I hope I'm not hurting anybody's feelings by saying that. But also, I remember this video from way back when of somebody talking about how their fiancé had gotten them like a necklace and the bride really loved the necklace and wanted to wear it on her wedding day. Like she saw it on a bridesmaid. Is this like, it might be like a fake thing. Okay, I might be making something up, but I do think about this often.
I put myself in those shoes. If I was wearing what necklaces do I have on? I wear a little diamond cross. I wear pearls and I wear my J necklace. Now Katie's fiance's name isn't a J, but if Katie looked at me and was like, my J necklace is one of my favorite necklaces that I own. And she was like, Anna, that the style of that necklace, it's what I want on my wedding day. Can I borrow it? I would absolutely a hundred percent say yes.
She would in an instant. Does not matter who bought it for me. Doesn't matter who it's from. It's meaningful to me and it would be my honor to share something with my best friend. So all of that comes to say that I think on a wedding day, it truly is about the bride. It's about the groom. The bigger idea of that wedding day is about the love that they share, obviously. But when decisions are being made, if they're not what you would do,
That's okay. It's okay that it's not your decision. You will have your chance for it to be your decision. But on the wedding day, it's whatever the party getting married wants. Okay, y'all, I'm going to give you seven tips and tricks for the wedding day that I'm absolutely obsessed with and I think are so true. And listen to how cool this is. We have a sponsor for my advice. What?
Someone wants to hear me speak? I'm freaking out. So today's sponsor of our seven tips to a perfect wedding day is Fiji water. It's giving luxury. It's giving bougie wedding day. It's giving hydrated and slaying. So I'm going to be sharing with you Fiji tips for what happens on a wedding day and what I think is all good things to remember when you're being a maid of honor, a bridesmaid, or even just a friend of the bride. Okay, so let's start with tip number one.
On the day of the wedding, my job was to be her red hand woman, her servant, her caretaker, and her provider, especially for her outdoor wedding. We didn't want anyone passing out, no locked knees, no dehydration. So what's my job? Bring her a water 10 out of 10 times of the day.
Whenever she looked at me funny, I was like, have you drank enough water today? And it's the most important way to make sure that your person's cared for, loved on, taken care of. And the one thing you're going to forget on your wedding day is to drink your water. So make sure that if you're a bridesmaid or a maid of honor, you're showing up and bringing them their water.
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My tip number two is don't forget to bring reusable straws because you all will get your faces beautified in hair and makeup and you're going to want to make sure you don't get any lipstick smeared on your face. You want to make sure it's lasting all day. Reusable straws for your water and then that way your lipstick will last all day. My tip number three is that the one liter Fiji water bottles, a perfect way to ensure that you're tracking your hydration as you get ready so that you glow from the inside out.
My tip number four is that weddings can be rowdy. We all know it. So remember that you're hydrating in between your little alcoholic drinks or if you're like me, you have to balance out the red 40 from your Shirley Temples and be hydrating as well. And your you in the morning will definitely be thanking you. My next tip is that Fiji water is full of natural minerals and electrolytes, but should not be your only way of getting replenishment on your wedding day.
You need food. You need goodness. You need nourishment. So make sure that you're packing your little clutch with wonderful snacks for your brides and bridesmaids. Tip number six is don't forget that a happy bride always has healthy friends that she doesn't need to worry about. So you need to be taking care of yourself too. Make sure that you're drinking your water because you need to be ready if a problem needs to be solved. You need to wear, you need to be on it. You need to be cool, calm, collected, and make sure that the bridal party has Fiji water on hand.
My final wedding tip was one of my favorite things that one of the bridesmaids did, and that's that she stocked up our bridal suite with a bunch of little sweet treats, tricks, things you might need, anti-wrinkle spray, extra deodorant, and most importantly, water for the girlies. And that's it. That's my Fiji water tips. It's wedding day. The nerves are high. The stress levels are through the roof.
Are we all going to have a runaway bride? That's what we're all thinking. Okay. The answer was not yet, but I'm waiting for the day for some reason. Like I think it would make a really great movie. Like what a story. I'm kidding. I want everyone to fall in love and be happily ever after. And so on the wedding day, how do I, as a bride maid, as a maid of honor show up for the bride earlier in this episode, I talked about this idea that the day felt like the day.
right? The morning of the wedding felt like the morning of a wedding and that it only really felt that way one wedding before that. And it was my sister's, which is one of my most viewed videos on TikTok. And it's that the morning of my, of my sister's wedding, she had asked that we could all as a family go swimming in the ocean together as like a celebratory. Like all I want to do is go for a dip in the water, take a shower, get my hair and makeup done and go get married.
So we all woke up and it was this like beautiful fever dream, which it's so crazy because this one is documented. So I know how this morning felt. Every time I watched that you at TikTok, I relive that memory of what my sister's wedding felt like. And for me, it was this just very ethereal. My whole family was there. We were all so present. We woke up, we went out, we went swimming, we got ice cream. We came back home and started to get ready. And I think what made a really big difference was
for my sister's wedding, for Katie's wedding, is that we were there from way before the wedding until through the wedding. So all week long, we had this anticipation and excitement building for this one really big moment for them. Now, Delfina's wedding, I was 23, I think, when Delfina got married. So I was a little bit younger. I'm 27 now. Oh my gosh, it's been four years? No, maybe I was 24. I'm unsure.
instructions unclear. I was younger at my sister's wedding. So because of that, I feel like I just didn't know kind of like ways that I could like spoil her what she would want from my
being alive longer and getting the chance to attend more weddings and be present for more weddings, I've kind of adapted all these like little things. So for Kay's wedding specifically, I had learned from my parents doing at Delfina's wedding. And so Katie's dad got her a little necklace to wear on her wedding day. She had a cross from Briar's mom to wear on her wedding day. And then while I was in Paris, I found a beautiful artesian boutique.
of jewelry and got her earrings for her wedding day so that was a way to make her just feel like really special and kind of be the cherry on top I did text her before and say like hey have you gotten your jewelry kind of like communicate with her quite a bit on like what do you need on that day what do you want on that day what do you expect from me and so I was able to kind of show up in better ways because I knew what she needed from me as like her right hand woman on that day
Now, that is a lesson that I really want to like touch on. It's not even listed as a lesson in my episode this week, but something I think is so important is the communication that comes before the wedding day.
I really want to make sure that I didn't overstep on Katie's wedding day. Like be too clingy or be everywhere all at once or like, you know, just be like too much in her face or in her space, especially on a day where you want to have peace and quiet and relaxation. So we talked about it before wedding day. I was like, do you want me everywhere that you are? Would you like a break? Do you want me to just be driving you? Do you want me to drop you off? Do you want me to be more with the girls? Do you want me to be like more with the videographer? If somebody comes in and asks a question, would you like me to go walk them out and go show them what they're looking for?
I was able to kind of like pick Katie's brain a little bit just to make sure that I knew what her expectation was from me and how I could show up in my best way possible for her on her wedding day. That being said, there's another extension is me being a content creator. This is kind of something that I was getting into a bit too, is that even though some of my past weddings I have the best memories of,
because I filmed them on Katie's day, I was very intentional not to be on my phone. And I think that that makes a huge difference on a wedding day. You have hired photographers and potentially videographers and people there whose job is to be showing up and be documenting that day.
You will have all the photos that you need from those people. I hope. I capture like little things of Katie, but nothing went on socials. Nothing like really got released until I get an okay from Katie in a way, even though she really, she doesn't really post on social media all that often. So she's somebody who's like post whatever you want. I don't care. But I want to make sure that like,
a really big one is that the bride gets the chance to post her dress before anybody else does that was one that I think is like a universal thing that we should all know especially in the age of social media some people listening might think that that does not matter some people listening might think that they do they're like oh my god no my friend does not care I just think it's a little bit of a respect thing that like she should have the chance to have her beautiful moment and her beautiful photo out in the world before the rest of the world sees it from somebody else so
That was one of the things that I feel like I really wanted to make sure on her day that I was just not on my phone. I felt the way about my sister's wedding too. I really didn't have my phone close to me. I think I filmed the morning and I took videos of her from behind the scenes while she was getting ready because I don't think her photographers got there until later in the afternoon and
And then we did a transition video because of course we did. I feel like that's like my honorary like have to have is a transition video on a wedding day. So Katie's also did have a transition video because we all had like agreed. I was like, which one do you want to do? And she's like the one that we did when I was in LA. So we had this really great moment of making that decision. Okay. And then one more element of Katie's wedding and of a wedding that was different than what I've experienced before. Katie specifically was that I've never had to give a speech at a wedding at Katie's.
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Restrictions apply. See terms at sportsbook.fanduel.com. Gambling problem? Call 1-800-NEXT-STEP or text NEXTSTEP to 53342. At least she didn't do best man and bridesmaid, maid of honor speeches. At Delfina's, we did them at the rehearsal dinner. So we didn't do them on the wedding day. Clara's, I was just a bridesmaid, so I wasn't expected to give a speech. But at Katie's, I did have to give a speech. And this was a major asked question, which I love that people wanted to know this.
is how do you write a speech as a maid of honor for a wedding? Now, I have a master's in film and television production with a focus in writing and directing. So if somebody's going to tell a story, it's going to be me. I'm going to get up there and blow it out of the water. I already know that like my favorite thing about a wedding speech is you almost have to begin writing
where you end and kind of like make a full circle of it and that's how you get a really nice through line for wedding speech so if you are in the process of trying to write a wedding speech for your best friend for your sister for whoever's in your life and you need to get up and present this mine for katie's is that i pick a theme and then i kind of build around the theme and talk about the way that the groom deconstructed that theme for me and like why that makes them wonderful
For Katie's, it was about me being very protective over her and wanting to like be her person and watch out for her. I told a funny story. My opening line was like, I had talked about knowing Briar from my childhood and sharing a lot of experiences with him, like silly things. Like we went to the same church. So we had first communion together or we did, we had, we went to the same college and we both were mechanical engineers. So we had classes and professors and all these things that we shared. But the one thing I wasn't ready to share with Briar was Katie.
Because Katie, who am I? Katie was my college roommate. And I had the honor of killing all the spiders for the last four years. And like, I kind of told this funny story of how like, after seeing how fearful she became of spiders, I realized how she could never survive in the wild. So she would need someone to protect her. And then I talked about like how she had such a good heart and like how that would be her, like that's her greatest attribute, all these things. It divulged in this great story where then it ended up full circling to me saying that the reason I feel so good about Briars that I know he would protect her the way that I would.
And like it becomes this wonderful thing where you realize you don't have to protect her from someone who's just as good of a person as she is. Okay, lovely. That was my speech for Katie's Wedding, Sparknotes version. But if you're trying to wonder how to write it,
Just think about a really core memory or something that really brought you guys together and build from that moment into what is the theme of your friendship? What is the theme of your relationship? And in what ways are you happy that someone is filling a void in their life? And that's how I would recommend writing your speech. So I think after that little spiel about a bunch of different little topics, the greatest lesson is to remember what the day is about. Not only for the two people getting married, but for what they're witnessing that day. And that is...
love and being present. The day is about celebration. It's about watching these two people like commit their lives to each other for the rest of their life. And that's such a beautiful, beautiful thing. There was this moment during Katie's wedding where we were sitting at the dinner table and we were like halfway done with our food and she kind of leaned over and she's like,
someone told me once to look up during my wedding and realize how many people were in this room and like we had this great one where the two of us like kind of got teary-eyed looking out into the crowd of people who were there to celebrate Katie and Briar's marriage and how many people all of their favorite people showed up just for the two of them and like that's such a beautiful moment so don't lose track of
We can get mixed up in all the things. How much, you know, how much attention did you get from the bride? How much did you give to the bride? What dress did you wear? How did your makeup turn out? Who did you talk to? What was the drama in the bridesmaids? All of these things. When you realize that stripped down, none of that matters. And the most important thing is like just being there and being there with your person and celebrating them and celebrating love. All the other things become so insignificant.
That's all that really matters on that day. Okay. The last question. Oh, this like makes me, it's making my hands sweat a little bit, which is weird because I just, oh, I just feel like everybody wants to know. I'm kidding. Um, so the last moment of this episode is a quite asked question of mine. It's a search bar all the time on my TikToks and it's, will I ever get married?
I'm just going to share some thoughts and opinions. Okay. And here's the thing. I love love. The answer to will I ever get married is yes. I think. I hope. I mean, I have to have somebody ask me. You know what I mean? Like, it's not like I would marry myself. I'll buy myself a ring. But also, I love companionship.
I think that what I have trouble with with getting married is that I kind of fight this battle quite often of what my wedding would look like when I get married. Because I think little Anna, like baby Anna, would want like the biggest wedding you've ever seen in your life. The biggest, poofiest white dress. A big old aisle. All friends. All family. All extended family. Everybody under the sun. Literally the whole world's invited. As I get older...
I realized how much like smaller your friend group gets and how much more intimate it gets and how much it really matters just around stuff with people who really support you. And it makes me kind of want to have a little baby wedding. And I also have this really fun idea that I'm going to share with you guys. I'm not decided if this is what's going to happen, but I am going to tell you this. So if it does happen, now, you know, there's a small part of me that would really love to tell no one.
Okay, like picture this one day you open instagram and i'm in a fucking wedding dress Like that's it I got married and everyone's like wait what the fuck happened and it's like it had been going on It had been planning was in my own little world And I can always backtrack and be like here's what I did at my wedding or here's what I did to plan There's a small part of me. That's like it would kind of be fun to really have it be like a little Just me and my husband and my family and my friends moment and I think that I think about that only because like
My life is a little bit public at times. So I think that could be really fun. But then I also get really sad at how much I know I would enjoy sharing all of the little experiences of getting married. And that's such a milestone in life that I don't really want to breeze by it either. So I kind of fight that battle in my brain a little bit. Oh, and one thing I want to add to.
I had, like I said earlier in this episode, I posted something on Instagram saying like, tell me your opinions, your thoughts, your questions about marriages and brides and weddings and bridesmaids. And I got so many questions that I didn't have the answer to because I'm not married, because I haven't had the experience firsthand of what it's like to be the bride and make those decisions. But I do want to offer you some tidbits of advice that I think are really beneficial that I kind of just treat life with.
and I think that they could be universal to marriage and wedding and these experiences. And the first one is to trust your instinct on your wedding day. Do whatever you freaking want. Do what really makes you happy and do what you love.
The people who love you and support you in real life will also be loving and supporting you no matter what you choose on your day, including but not limited to who's your bridesmaid, who's your maid of honor, who's in the wedding, who's not in the wedding, how many people are in the wedding, did they get chosen, where's their seat, what table are they at? Like all of those decisions, the people who really love you won't make you feel like those are difficult decisions. You know, they'll make it easy for you because they'll just be happy to be in your presence on your day.
And also if someone's bringing you stress, just don't invite them. I already know that there is probably like a little list of people who I want to invite because I'm still trying to show up and be enough for them and still trying to like impress them or like make them want to be my friend. Like there's like a list in my brain. I can literally, I'm not going to say it obviously, but like
I know that it exists and on my wedding day I don't want to be inviting people to please them because what peace does that bring me you know where am I winning where am I thinking about on like it's I'm gonna sit on this podcast and say it's your day and then I'm gonna go out and invite people who give me endless stress to make my hands sweat literally no literally could not no will not so
If there's people in your life and you're stressed about, I think I saw some people say like, there's so many family friends. There's so many people who like my parents want me to invite or these people want me to invite or that people. If it's bringing you stress, it's a no from me. Welcome to Anna Answers. Did you hear that crack? That was my shoulder. I have no doubt that you just heard that on the microphone.
Am I getting old? Okay, guys, welcome to this segment of the podcast where it's Anna Answers. And you guys have been calling me. My phone has been ringing relentlessly while I've been talking to you on this podcast. And I'm so excited to hear what your best tip for being a bridesmaid is. If you guys didn't know, you can give me a call and...
I will not pick up on my voicemail will and you can ask me questions about the podcast about life About topics that you want to hear and each week I post on at an exit our or at the anna guides podcast page Where you guys can answer questions on my stories And kind of just fill me in on your life and maybe some responses to questions that I have And if you didn't know this, here's the number
323-433-0683. Give me a ring. Give me a call. Call me, beat me if you want to reach me. And I'd love to hear some stories or answers to any questions that I have from that week. And like I said, this week's episode's question is what's your best tip for a bridesmaid? So let's hear our call this week. Anna, huge fan. Been a fan for years, ever since the beginning of... I'm a fan of you. ...of...
TikTok, any of it. And you asked for wedding day tips. I am literally chin deep in wedding planning. My wedding is less than a month away. I've been planning for over a year. And all I can say to all the future brides and grooms is just listen to each other on what you want, what each other wants, and as much as
As difficult as it is and as much as you don't want to leave important people out, do what you think each other is going to want, what's going to make each other happy, and just focus on what is really going to create the staple for the rest of your life. Okay.
Yes. What did we just say? Literally this. We just talked about this. The idea of like pick the people who bring you peace, fill your wedding with people who love you and support you and make you feel loved. Oh, I love that. I couldn't agree more. That is like a perfect note to end on on this podcast episode that like it's your special day. It's about you and your partner. It's about the love that you share. You guys were doing it. Okay, now I want to get married after talking about all this stuff.
and guys that's a wrap on this week's episode thank you so much for watching i'm so happy you're here i'm so glad that i got to share not only the experience of being in katie's wedding but also get to share with you guys on the other side of the screen or on the other side of this audio um don't forget to
follow along if you would like to at the Anna guide on Instagram and TikTok like comment subscribe and check out all the video versions of these episodes over at YouTube at Anna's guide podcast and also a huge thank you to our sponsors over at Fiji water for sponsoring today's episode