The Bridesmaids' Guide to Maintaining Composure

As the proud owner of a Y chromosome, I’m not entirely qualified to be dishing out tips on how to be a better bridesmaid. Luckily, Alessandra Macaluso is. She’s the author of the delightfully-titled The Bitch’s Bridal Bible, which has an excerpt featured today at The Huffington Post. The topic: how to keep your cool during the service.

Macaluso conjures the image of a docile young bridesmaid walking down the aisle amidst a fierce hailstorm of pressure and judgement. She freezes, stumbles, loses her cool, and makes a fool of herself. “Do not let this be you,” says Macaluso. Just because you want to support (i.e. not upstage) the bride doesn’t mean you have to put yourself through the ringer. Macaluso says you need to take care of yourself. Eat before the ceremony. Perform some thought exercises to help you get into the zone. Slow yourself down rather than speeding up. Making sure you feel good about yourself gives you a better chance of being exactly what the bride needs you to be.

Take a look at the whole piece (linked below) and then perhaps ruminate on how translatable this advice is to other situations. When are we like bridesmaids in other realms of life? Awards ceremonies, office presentations, family gatherings, etc. How do you keep composure in situations like these? Let us know in the comments.