Maid of honor: saving for your financial responsibilities

It’s a great joy to be asked to be maid of honor in your friend or family member’s wedding, but being maid of honor comes with certain duties, responsibilities and expectations. To ensure you’re prepared to support the bride, use this maid of honor checklist and outline of your financial responsibilities. After you’ve agreed to be the maid of honor, it’s time to find out what responsibilities go along with the title. Use this checklist and talk to the bride to be prepared for your duties.

Maid of honor attire The bride will likely rely on you to help coordinate shopping for bridesmaids’ dresses, scheduling dress fittings or alterations for bridesmaids, or just checking in to make sure the girls are on track. You’ll need to pay for your dress, shoes and jewelry, as well as hair and makeup on the day of the wedding.

Dress shopping with the bride Your job will be to help the bride keep her cool while trying on different dresses and possibly pick up the dress for the bride after alterations are done.

Organize the bridal shower You may be in charge of planning the bridal shower or coordinating with family members, collecting funds from the bridesmaids to cover costs and sending out invitations. This can present an upfront cost for you until you are reimbursed from all the bridesmaids. Be sure to create an event that is within the budget of your entire bridal party, and if you have bridesmaids flying or driving long distances, try to plan multiple events in one weekend. During the party, it’s your job to be the hostess and to keep record of the gifts for the bride.

Be the go-between for the bride and bridesmaids: From dresses to travel accommodations, filter instructions from the bride and comments and questions from the other bridesmaids to take some responsibility from the bride. This also means it’s your responsibility to make sure the wedding party has what they need and knows when and where they need to be.

Organize the bachelorette party Like the bridal shower, it’s also the maid of honor’s job to organize and cover the initial cost of the bachelorette party. While you’ll be reimbursed for this by attendees, you’ll probably be covering the bride’s share of the evening, and you’ll want to have enough saved to cover the expenses until you get paid back.

Prepare a toast You’ll want to have two toasts prepared in case you’re asked to speak at both the rehearsal dinner and wedding.

Do whatever the bride needs There are miscellaneous tasks that may fall to you between the engagement and the wedding. These may include addressing invites, writing out place cards, tasting the cake, taking care of hair, nail and makeup appointments for everyone, and helping with seating chart details. But the most important maid of honor responsibility is to be someone who listens to the bride and understands her needs.

Maid of honor duties for the day of the wedding Your biggest duty is to be the bride’s right-hand-  by helping with these tasks:

- Help the bride get ready

- Keep the bridesmaids organized and on schedule

- Make sure all last minute details are in order

- Keep the groom’s ring safe

- Hold bride’s bouquet during the ceremony

-  dress/veil issues and adjust her train to make sure the bride looks great for pictures

- Witness the signing of the marriage license

- Give a toast at the reception

- Dance with the best man to open up the floor for other couples

Understanding the financial impact of your maid of honor duties and responsibilities In addition to the normal costs you would face if you were just attending the wedding, your responsibilities will come with a set of financial obligations as well. According to Forbes, the average cost to be a bridesmaid is $540, but as the maid of honor, you may face additional costs or simply need to pay for several expenses up front. For this reason, opening a savings account, money market or certificate of deposit can help you be prepared financially for your maid of honor duties. Money markets and certificates of deposit have higher savings account rates than standard options and can help you earn more interest on your funds in a short period of time. This can be especially helpful when you need to put down deposits on venues or entertainment for pre-wedding events. Open a savings account as soon as you find out you’re the maid of honor, and then figure out what you need to deposit monthly to meet your goals based on the bride’s timeline. 

Sponsored content was created and provided by RBS Citizens Financial Group.