So, you are bridesmaid once again on yet another friend's wedding. You are starting to feel like the woebegone title character in one of those always-a-bridesmaid-never-the-bride movies. About the only thing that keeps your spirits up in these trying times are the elegant bridesmaid dresses the brides choose for you to wear.

However, you have to set aside your feelings of inadequacy, temporarily cease looking for the perfect accessories and shoes to complement your bridesmaid dresses and start looking for ways to become maid to the bride. In the modern sense, of course. Here are some ideas to help you get started.

Invitation Writing

Remember how you used to hate making invitations because it made your hand cramp like hell? Your friend will appreciate all the help she can get in this area. You can organize your co-bridesmaids to assist your common friend in writing the addresses, stuffing the envelopes with the invitations and its accouterments, and pasting on the stamps. Soon enough, what will take the bride a day to finish can be finished in half the time. And all of you will have fun, to boot!

Gift Baskets

If the bride's guest list includes people from out of town, you can volunteer to prepare the gift baskets for them. You have to include maps and directions, phone numbers to call, welcome letter, postcards and guides to the city, and snacks to munch on. With the bride looking after other things for her wedding, your thoughtfulness will be appreciated.

Fashion Show

Admittedly, mean brides will try to make their bridesmaid look frumpy in their bridesmaid dresses to make her look hot by comparison. If the bride does not belong to the mean girls group, you can organize a mini-fashion show for the bridesmaid dresses just to see how you will all look on her big day. Not only will you have fun parading like little girls in their mothers' things but you will also be injecting much-needed doses of laughter for the harried bride. And you can discuss alterations while you are at it. Heh-heh.

Wedding Gown

If the bride opts to preserve her wedding gown for future generations, you can generously offer to take it to the cleaners along with your bridesmaid dresses after the reception. At least, your friend can go straight to her honeymoon with the assurance that her precious, not to mention expensive, wedding gown will be waiting for her, courtesy of her best friend.

Stock Groceries

In cahoots with the other bridesmaids, you can stock the new couple's pantry of grocery items. Let them escape the mundane realities of married life like grocery shopping even for just one more day. Or better yet, you can even transform their house into a romantic place when they come back! And hope that she will do the same for you, too, when you do get married.

Just remember that you are in your friends' weddings for a purpose beyond parading down the aisle in your floaty/dreamy (or worse, frumpy/damned) bridesmaid dresses. Any and all lending hand you can extend to the bride will go a long way towards making the wedding a smashing success.

Best for Bride Bridal Store

5359 Dundas St. West (at Kipling)

Etobicoke, ON, Canada, M9B 1B1