A Massachusetts bride is doing things differently for her own nuptials by putting a new twist to a long-standing wedding tradition.
Instead of having only one maid of honor for her upcoming wedding, Anna Vatuone has chosen to honor five of her closest friends and asked them all to be maids instead of bridesmaids.
The 29-year-old writer and brand strategist shared her decision in a TikTok post, that has gone viral with over 551,000 views, and spoke to "Good Morning America" on how this unique idea was inspired by a similar idea she saw from a Reddit post.
Vatuone asked her friend Rachel to be her maid of loving kindness, her friend Becky to be her maid of kindness, her friend Kirsten to be her maid of passion, her friend from college Crystal, to be her maid of courage, and last but definitely not least, Vatuone asked her friend Erin to be her maid of generosity.
"I wrote a letter that basically just said, 'This is the quality I see with you,' and I shared different examples of different times in our lives where I've seen that quality come through," Vatuone told "GMA." "And at the very end, I asked them, 'Would you be my maid of courage? Would you be my maid of generosity and share with me the night before my wedding, what that word means and how you think I can bring it into my marriage?'"
Vatuone captured the moment she shared each letter with her friends and naturally, it brought some of them to tears when they read about the concept.
Coming up with each characteristic to honor every one of her maids came quickly to her because she couldn't imagine not having her friends by her side on her special day.
"One of the things that I said in the video was like, they loved me first. And I think about it all the time. Because I think for so long, I really craved finding a romantic love and wanted to find a great partner and was looking for that and now that I'm engaged to this amazing guy, I keep thinking, I had an amazing love story with my friends already and they showed me how to love, they showed me how to be in partnership," Vatuone said.
The bride wanted to share her post with others online to show that wedding planning is different for everyone and that personalizing your special day is what makes every wedding special.
"I really liked the idea of showing people that actually, there are different ways that we can do this and how can we give back? How can we give back to the people in our lives who have helped us get to where we are today?" said Vatuone.
And so, this fall, Vatuone's wedding will not only center the love between her and her fiance, Trevor Scanlon, but also the strong bond she shares with her girlfriends.
"In a sense, yes, I'm getting married but it's a chance to celebrate a community, our community together – his friends, and my friends – have all helped us get to this place that we are today," she added.
Source: Good Morning America