Jen Glantz is the world’s first professional bridesmaid and founder of Bridesmaid for Hire. Here’s an excerpt from her new book: Always a Bridesmaid (For Hire).
Rose asks if she can call me Jessica. Her wedding is three months away, and we are smack in the middle of our first phone session together. I have no idea if she pulled the name from a book of the most popular girl names of the ‘80s, or if the name has significance to her.
All I know is that from now on, I’m Jessica.
Here’s how it usually works with a client. First, I’ll get to know the bride — her pet peeves, her wedding conundrums, and her big-day fears. Then the bride will get to know me and learn about my experience as a bridesmaid for hire. I’ll give her some pre-aisle precautions, and we’ll discuss what I should say during the champagne toast at the reception, before the cake is cut and the bouquet is tossed. And then, together, we’ll get to know “Jessica.”
Jessica is the one with the story, the girl who has been places before. The protagonist who enters the wedding from stage left and recites how she knows the bride and how happy she is to be able to stand by her side after all these years. Jessica is the bridesmaid who shows up on the wedding day in my five feet seven inches lanky-armed body.
Sometimes Jessica is Christiania or Meghan with an H. It is always entirely up to the bride.
Sometimes I can have as many as three different names and three different stories in one weekend as a bridesmaid for hire.