Congratulations on all who are getting married this year, and to those recently married. Best of fortune on a successful union.
Last week, I was officially invited to step in for a bridesmaid that couldn't fulfill her obligations. The Bride only has two female attendants though, so I'm very busy trying to pull together a lot of activities in a short amount of time (wedding's early May)....
At any rate, I have about 25 wedding oriented web sites, along with my Martha Stewart Book of Weddings, that I've saved into my favorites folder. A few I've used in the past few days:
www.theknot.com
www.superweddings.com
www.bridesmaidaid.com
If you know of any good wedding etiquette sites, please pass them along, because we're doing a few things differently than the traditional "big wedding/reception after wedding", so I'm assisting her in fine tuning. Any support groups for the dear bridesmaids/maids of honor would be great too! We are really the workhorses of this gig!
I do agree that the cake/sheet cake situation depends on location. Here in California, my coworker didn't notice too much of a price difference between the tiered cake only and a smaller tiered cake and sheets to cut in the back. Maybe they're hip to it out this way--or maybe it was the bakeries she selected!
And boy are you all right about the dress sizes...I wear an 8 (sometimes a 6) and tried on the sized 10 bridesmaid's gown. It fit...if you like the corseted look! I'm sure they could have found a better way to make a bridesmaid feel fat and dumpy than that!
The shoes are bought though...and they're cute dressy strappy sandals that I can wear again!