What Is an Honorary Bridesmaid or Bridal Party Member?

Figuring out how to include all of your nearest and dearest in your bridal party can often get complicated. Maybe your numbers are so high there’s no way everyone can fit on the altar. Perhaps you want to buck tradition and select bridal party members who are not women at all. Or maybe you want to keep your bridal party confined to only immediate family, but you still have several close friends you can’t imagine going through the day without. That's where honorary bridal party members come in.

An honorary bridesmaid or bridal party member is an attendant to the bride whose involvement in traditional bridal party duties vary based on the bride’s desires. They typically walk down the aisle but will not stand at the altar. 

Per wedding planner Neillie Butler, this tradition originated in, and is typically associated with, the American South, where weddings and bridal parties tend to skew larger. (You’re more likely to see honorary bridesmaids or bridal party members at a 400-person wedding than at a 75-person wedding.) In Texas, where the custom is more commonly found in weddings, this group of people is referred to as a House Party. 

Should You Have an Honorary Bridesmaid or Bridal Party Member?

Honorary bridesmaids or bridal party members are most commonly included in a wedding when the bride decides to keep the official bridal party confined to immediate family members, like a sibling or sister-in-law. In these circumstances, the honorary bridal party members will be the close friends the bride would have made bridal party members had they extended the circle. This can be especially helpful if a younger family member (like, say, a teenage younger sibling) is serving as maid of honor—older and more knowing friends of the bride can step in to perform traditional duties such as planning the bachelorette party.

An honorary bridesmaid or bridal party member may also be a friend that is important to the bride but is perhaps not in the bride's core group of friends. A bride may, for example, have a close-knit group of friends from childhood that will serve as their bridal party members, but they could have more recently grown close with a group from graduate school and can’t imagine their wedding day without them. The honorary bridesmaid may not even be a 'maid. There are no rules saying honorary bridal party members must be women.

Whatever your reason for including honorary bridal party members may be, the most important thing to know is that the title is best reserved for a group of people rather than one or two individuals. “If it’s a very small group, one to three people, it’s better to include them as a bridal party to keep from hurting feelings,” says Butler. “Including multiple people at this second-tier works because then they’re like ‘Oh, I’m honorary with you,’ and there’s not this feeling of getting left out.”

Honorary Bridal Party Member Duties 

An honorary bridal party member’s duties can vary from wedding to wedding, so it’s best to be upfront about your expectations when you ask. “A lot of the time the reason honorary bridal party members come into play is because the bride wants to include them in the bachelorette party or bridal party luncheon,” says Butler. “It’s almost like [you’re] giving them a title so you can justify inviting them to all of your events.” To that end, honorary bridal party members may be involved with planning showers or the bachelorette, or even going wedding dress shopping with the bride.

When it comes to the wedding day, honorary bridal party members may or may not be required to wear a specific dress (more on that later), but they typically do not participate in hair and makeup. At the ceremony, they will walk down the aisle. They’ll also participate in group photos during cocktail hour. Come reception, honorary bridal party members should take the same care as the others to encourage guests to get out on the dance floor and engage with other parts of the wedding (like lawn games or a late-night snack station) they know the couple is excited about.

Honorary Bridal Party Etiquette

How Do I Ask Someone To Be an Honorary Bridal Party Member?

Honorary bridal party members are typically selected in groups, so get the group together and ask them all at once. (If that can’t happen in person, Zoom works fine—they’ll likely be itching for wedding details anyways.) That way, the group can ride the wave of excitement together.

Though you don’t owe anyone an explanation about your decision, be thoughtful if you do decide to offer one. That’s easy if you’re reserving the official title of bridal party for family members, but gets a little trickier if you’ll have friends serving as both bridal party members and honorary bridal party members. If your honorary bridal party members are more recent friends, emphasize how grateful you are that they’ve recently come into your life and that you couldn’t imagine the day without them because you know how important they’ll be to you going forward.

Should I Get My Honorary Bridal Party Members a Gift?

“It depends on what duties you’ll require of them,” says Butler. “Is it just a matter of giving them a special title where they wear their own dress and sit down at a certain place? Or are you asking them to buy a dress, attend a bachelorette trip, and do all these extra things?” If it’s more the former, a handwritten card and a small token (luxe candles, bath products, or a ring dish) work great. If it’s more the latter, you’ll want to gift at the same level as the rest of your bridal party members.

What Do Honorary Bridal Party Members Wear?

That also depends. House parties or large groups of honorary bridal party members will typically wear the same dress, with the style selected to complement—but not directly match—the wardrobe of the bridal party. For example: If the bridal party members are wearing beaded blush dresses, honorary bridal party members might don a simpler chiffon style in a similar shade of pink.

Should I Invite My Honorary Bridal Party Members to the Rehearsal Dinner?

That’s up to you! But if you’re looking for a way to keep the rehearsal dinner on the smaller side, this is an easy, understandable line in the sand.

Should I List My Honorary Bridal Party Members on the Program?

Yes! If it was important enough for you to ask someone to be an honorary bridal party member, it should be important enough to let the rest of your guests know of their role in the day.

How Are Honorary Bridal Party Members Involved in a Wedding Ceremony?

Honorary bridal party members typically process down the aisle. If it’s a big group, Butler recommends sending them down right before the seating of the parents and then having them fill the row behind the bride’s parents. (Honorary bridal party members do not stand at the altar.) To further differentiate honorary bridal party members from other bridal party members, you can send them down the aisle two at a time, then have the bridal party members walk down one at a time. The processional order would be the couple, the standing wedding party (bridal party members and the members of the groom's party), honorary bridal party members, then parents.

Are Honorary Bridal Party Members Included in Introductions at the Reception?

“In the South, we typically don’t do wedding entrances, but if we did do them the honorary bridal party members would be included,” says Butler.