When a professional bridesmaid books a high-profile wedding, she must keep her identity a secret from the bridal party and the handsome reporter covering the event.
Starring: Hunter King and Chandler Massey
Image: Hallmark Media
Is Being a "Professional Bridesmaid" Really a Thing?
We've all heard of wedding planners, though the industry is facing a downward trend. As of 2021, only 27% of couples hired one (which still seems like a lot). The reason? According to IBISWorld Market Research, increasingly tech-savvy, soon-to-be newlyweds are taking advantage of the Internet and DIY resources to cut costs.
Wedding planners are responsible for decking out the venue and managing vendors. They coordinate the florist, baker, caterer, musicians, photographer, and anyone else involved in the big day. They manage transportation and accommodations for guests, send out invitations, and track the RSVPs.
What's left for a professional bridesmaid to do, and why would anyone need to hire one?
Professional bridesmaids are hired to be consultants to the bride and groom to make sure all the personal and social aspects of the wedding run smoothly. They function as therapists, personal assistants, bouncers for rowdy guests, and any other role the bride needs. They can assist with planning showers and bachelorette parties, making wedding dress decisions, writing vows, and everything in between.
Jen Glantz is the woman who birthed the professional bridesmaid industry. By age 27, she had been in so many weddings that her friends joked she could be a professional. Glantz ran with the idea and posted an ad for her services on Craigslist. She was shocked when her ad generated over 500 responses in less than a week!
Glantz now boasts a thriving business with additional employees. You can find her online at bridesmaidforhire.com. Not only does Glantz teach others how to launch a professional bridesmaid business, but she's also an author and podcaster who created a newlywed card game and newsletter for scared, soon-to-be moms. Glantz is undoubtedly the inspiration for Hallmark's Spring 2023 movie, The Professional Bridesmaid.
How much do professional bridesmaids make? Glantz charges a $2,000 base fee per wedding and offers add-ons at various price points.
Why Would a Normal Person Need a Professional Bridesmaid?
It seems we are living in an age where people lack coping skills.
Planning a wedding is stressful, but hiring others to do all the planning is like hiring a professional shopper to buy all the Christmas presents for your loved ones--it robs you of the joy of doing it yourself. Choosing the perfect Christmas gifts for your friends and family allows you to put your heart into the task, and the recipients feel the love from the personal touch.
If you are walking down the aisle toward your forever love and you've invited the people closest to you to share in your joy, why would you disengage from the entire process by farming it out?
It IS a ton of work, but if you aren't willing to invest in planning your own wedding, how committed are you going to be to your spouse. Marriage takes a heck of a lot more work than wedding planning!
It's no wonder half of all first marriages end in divorce and 73% of third marriages fail. Our culture wants everything to come easy and has lost the tenacity to stick with the work involved in maintaining healthy relationships.
Glantz revealed to Business Insider that there are two reasons why people hire her:
- They don't have any close friends. Research shows that 1 in 5 millennials lacks a close friend.
- Brides do have a lot of close friends, but none that are reliable.
Even worse, Glantz acknowledges the deception involved in hiring her. She keeps her identity a secret, creates a fake back-story for how she and the bride know each other, and even writes a heartfelt maid-of-honor speech based on lies! In many cases, the groom doesn't even know she's an imposter.
Lying to your "soul mate" before you're even married is hardly building a solid foundation. No wonder so many marriages flop.
Any bride with an ounce of integrity would not engage in this type of duplicity, and a professional bridesmaid who would pretend to be someone she is not is nothing more than a fraud.
The Professional Bridesmaid Shares the Reasoning Behind Some Wedding Traditions
Why do bridesmaids dress alike?
The movie answers that question. The tradition stems from Roman times when brides were viewed as property to be kidnapped. An entourage of women dressed alike to serve as decoys. The glad tidings were also thought to attract evil spirits, so if all the women dressed alike, the evil spirits would be too confused to harm the bride.
Image: Hallmark Media
Why do brides carry a bouquet?
Again, the flowers were believed to ward off evil spirits.
Why do brides toss their bouquets?
It was once thought that brides were "lucky" because they found love, so after the ceremony, single friends would rush the bride to rip off a piece of her clothing, hoping to tap into that same luck. To protect her dress, the bride started throwing the bouquet as a diversion while she made a run for it!
Although The Professional Bridesmaid only shares three reasons behind wedding traditions, here are a few more:
Why do brides wear white?
In 1840, Queen Victoria wore a champagne colored gown when she wed Prince Albert. Those who wished to imitate royalty started wearing the same color, which appeared to be white in illustrations of the period. Purity and virginity during the Victorian Era was also highly valued.
Why do we wear wedding rings?
You've likely heard that the wedding ring symbolizes eternity because it has no beginning and no end, but giving wedding rings can be traced back to the Egyptians. The Egyptians selected the fourth finger as the most appropriate spot because they believed a vein of love ran through the ring finger and straight to the heart. When Alexander the Great conquered the Egyptians, the Greeks adopted the same custom, inscribing their rings with Eros and Cupid. The Romans later decided that gold was the ideal metal to use.
Why do we refer to marriage as "tying the knot?"
This dates back to Celtic weddings where the couple's hands were tied together to symbolize unity. Each knot that was made on the rope stood for a vow, and the rope served as a keepsake.
Why are there groomsmen and a best man?
Groomsmen once served as bodyguards, and the best man was literally the best at using a sword.
Why is wedding cake served?
In Roman times, wheat cakes were baked and broken over the bride's head to represent fertility. Eventually, multiple layers were stacked on each other, and the married couple would see if they could kiss over the "cakes" without knocking the tower down, and if they succeeded, they were thought to receive good fortune.
All the wedding traditions we take for granted have an interesting history!
Some rainy day, do some of your own digging to discover why brides wear a veil, why the ring bearer uses a pillow, why we throw rice, why a groom carries his bride over the threshold, why June weddings are the most popular, what is significant about honeymoons, the reason behind the garter toss and wedding bells, the history of bridal showers, the origin of wearing something blue, and why fathers give away the bride.
There's a reason behind everything!
Thoughts on The Professional Bridesmaid
Hunter King and Chandler Massey make a cute couple, even though their budding relationship takes a turn when Henry discovers that Maggie/Maisie has been untruthful about her identity. In a couple scenes, Massey's eyes even well up with tears, which is a rare sight for a Hallmark leading man.
Image: Hallmark Media
Maggie is hired by Mayor Shepard of Columbus, Ohio, to be an undercover bridesmaid in his daughter's wedding to make sure the wedding goes off without a hitch and brings no negative publicity to his political campaign. If she's successful, he will put in a good word for her with a bank exec she's trying to court for a loan. Maggie's dream is to grow her business and hire more employees.
Henry is a journalist known as "Mr. Relentless" who'd much rather be covering politics than weddings, and he keeps trying to pin the mayor down on his plans for Evergreen Park--will the mayor preserve it or build condos in the middle of it? It's a hot issue that could sway the election, and like the typical politician, the mayor avoids answering the hard questions. (It's Hallmark though, so he eventually agrees to an interview to be honest with his electorate--like that would ever happen!)
Does Evergreen Park exist in Columbus, Ohio? It does not, although there is an Evergreen RV Park in Dundee, Ohio.
Does the Columbus mayor earn a salary that would cover the highfalutin wedding expenses rapidly accruing for his daughter's wedding? Not in reality! The mayor of this Ohio capital currently makes $186,736 per year, yet in the movie, he finances a wedding fit for millionaires or billionaires. It's Hallmark, so it doesn't have to make sense.
Alexis Shepard lies to her bridal party that Maggie Bailey is really "Maisie Ryder," a name she concocts based on her horse. The rest of the back-story is that Maisie is a sommelier from New York--it's her lack of wine knowledge that tips off Henry that something's fishy.
It's pretty pitiful to watch the bridesmaids make so many errors for Maggie to fix. Chloe tries to make up for not being around when Alexis's mom was dying, but she flubs everything up in an epic way. Ruthie is too busy planning her own wedding to focus on her duties as a bridesmaid. Who needs friends like these?
All-in-all, The Professional Bridesmaid is an okay movie that is worth watching once. Who justifies lying to their inner circle of BFFs like Alexis? Movies about weddings too often center on financial vulgarity invested in the pomp and circumstance rather than the reason for the special day--young couples in love committing to each other for life.
Being a professional bridesmaid might be a real thing, but as a career, it's as dumb as it is weird. Anyone who needs this service perpetuates snowflake culture. Put on your big girl panties and handle conflict and stress like an adult!
What Do You Think of Chandler Massey as a Leading Man?
Chandler Massey is a Days of Our Lives Alum who works full-time as a Data Visualization Specialist for a Georgia healthcare company when he's not acting.
Massey has starred as the love interest in Hallmark's Next Stop, Christmas and as a special needs character in Heart of the Matter.
Heavy.com shared that Massey recently proposed to longtime girlfriend, Stephanie Bennett, a real estate broker. In a strange twist, Bennett also proposed to him during their engagement photo shoot.
Um...why?
The whole point of an engagement photo shoot is that the couple is...already engaged. This must be some new and stupid gimmick for social media fodder or a militant feminism soapbox, and if I were Massey, her odd proposal would be a red flag that would make me rethink my choice of a mate.
Image: kimhymesphotography via Instagram--Atlanta, Georgia
Massey has boy-nextdoor appeal and brings a lot of heart to his roles. Would you like to see him star in more Hallmark movies? Share your thoughts in the comment section!
I would love to see Massey in more hallmark movies. He is a great actor and makes a fantastic leading man.
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