The extra-mile bridesmaid

NAOMI PIKE freelance editor

To some, being asked to be a bridesmaid might be a case of grin-and-bear it while secretly wishing you were just an ordinary guest. When Naomi Pike’s friend, Ellen, popped the question, however, it wasn’t just an honour but somewhat preordained. ‘I felt very excited but also entirely unsurprised as we’d been talking about my appointment to the role for 10 years prior to her engagement,’ says Naomi, who took her duties to the next level. ‘It was super-important to me that Ellen felt confident in her decisions and so, alongside being hyper-organised, I was a champion of making sure she was her best self with no regrets looking back.’

Naomi left no stone unturned for the hen do, which she chose to organise single-handedly with ‘everything thought out to the nth degree’. For Ellen’s long weekend in Windsor, Naomi planned a cameo by the bride’s girlhood crush, actor Chad Michael Murray, who ushered everyone into the venue via a pre-recorded message booked a year in advance, welcome packages for each hen that included vintage copies of the novel Breakfast At Tiffany’s (Ellen has always loved Audrey Hepburn), a packet of seeds to grow your own Sweet William (the groom’s name) and even a personalised newspaper.

The big day itself went off without a hitch (Naomi sent emergency sun cream to the marquee with the wedding coordinator – and lucky she did as the sun, a somewhat unpredictable sight in South Wales, beamed down on the happy couple). And, instead of signalling her path was finally diverging from Ellen’s, Naomi wasn’t nursing a sense of loss post-wedding. ‘When you’re single, it can be easy to feel like your friends are passing you by, or moving on, but throwing myself all-in meant that I never experienced that.’