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"Last October, I found myself at a freezing cold airport in Detroit, Michigan, at 4\u00A0a.m. The only thing I had in my stomach was a piece\u00A0(or two)\u00A0of white almond buttercream cake. My body was covered in an\u00A0itchy royal blue polyester fabric\u00A0and was one fingernail scratch away from breaking out into a constellation of hives.I had just left the dance floor of a wedding for which I'd\u00A0been\u00A0hired as a\u00A0bridesmaid. The bride? A\u00A0woman I had never met before in my life. She\u00A0hired me because she didn't have very many close friends who had the time, disposable income, or the rah-rah personality to support her wedding adventure. One wine-fueled night, she Googled, \"Can you hire a bridesmaid?\"\u00A0\n\tAdvertisement - Continue Reading Below\n\t\n\nMuch to her surprise, she found my business, Bridesmaid for Hire.\n\nFrom the outside, being a professional bridesmaid might seem\u00A0glamorous. I\u00A0get paid to wear a sometimes decent-looking dress, to have my\u00A0face airbrushed with sweat-proof foundation, and to\u00A0show off my\u00A0club-like dance moves. Plus, there's an open bar, a slew of hot available groomsmen, and a three-course meal on the table. You're probably\u00A0thinking it's as good of a time as Kevin Hart has in last year's movie The Wedding Ringer.\u00A0Right?\u00A0But it's not really\u00A0like that at all. I don't drink at weddings. I don't flirt at them either \u2013 that's mostly because my\u00A0skills resemble those of a middle school girl. I don't even have the time to eat the food, though I do always find a way to eat the cake. I never meant to become a bridesmaid for hire. It was a complete and total accident.I was a bridesmaid\u00A0over a half a dozen times for my friends before starting my\u00A0business a year and a half ago. My life at that point\u00A0consisted of talking to unpromising Tinder dates during the week and walking down the aisle\u00A0holding a bundle of peonies\u00A0on the weekend. I quickly became\u00A0always the bridesmaid, never the ...\u00A0well, you know how the\u00A0saying goes.Being a bridesmaid (not for hire)\u00A0can be\u00A0draining on your wallet, your nerves, your body, and, if you don't get a plus-one, your single-girl ego. You can\u00A0find yourself doing things you would never\u00A0do for another human being, like dancing with the bride's drunk uncle to make sure he doesn't fall over, or creating a bib out of pillowcases and feeding the bride with your fingers so\u00A0she doesn't spill any salsa on her wedding dress. If you do\u00A0it once, you\u00A0instantly go from rookie to veteran, and even though once is enough, there's a good chance you'll have to do it another three or five times.\n\tAdvertisement - Continue Reading Below\n\t\n\nIt seemed as though every time my phone rang, it would be\u00A0another friend from college, camp, or work asking me the same question. I always answered\u00A0without even a thought: Of course,\u00A0I'd love to be your bridesmaid.When you do something over and over again, you get all the kinks out. You learn what mistakes to avoid and how to get through any obstacles that are tossed your way. I became the MVP bridesmaid, the one who fought off premarital stress with my bridesmaid superpowers. I was\u00A0always\u00A0on time, used humor to diffuse bridal anxiety, and came\u00A0prepared with a fanny pack survival kit (things I bought from the travel section of CVS).\u00A0I started to find that being a bridesmaid was something I enjoyed doing. In the end, the bride only wants\u00A0one thing: a gal pal she can\u00A0toss her arms around when times are tough. And I can be that gal.\n\nOne Friday night, after getting asked by two friends in one day to be a\u00A0bridesmaid, my roommate blurted out, \"You've\u00A0become a professional at this.\"That's all it took for me to think,\u00A0Maybe she's right. Maybe I can somehow turn the tables and make back the thousands of dollars I have spent over the years on updos, chiffon dresses, shoes that match the dress,\u00A0and bachelorette parties, where stripper after stripper in a leopard print thong\u00A0has invaded my personal space.I decided to test my idea out on Craigslist and offered my services to strangers who may need a professional bridesmaid.\u00A0Within days, I had hundreds of emails from brides around the world. People wanted to know if this was real and, if it was real, how much it cost. It wasn't just brides that wanted to hire me. I had mothers who wanted to give this service as a gift to their daughters. I had grooms saying they'd pay me however much I wanted so the bride wouldn't bother them with wedding planning. I had maids of honor\u00A0asking if I could do the dirty work for them so they wouldn't have to figure\u00A0out where to go clubbing for the bachelorette party, what kinds of games to play during the bridal shower, or what to write for the wedding speech they would soon have to give.I spent a couple of days sorting through all\u00A0the emails and digesting what it was that these brides who reached out needed the most. I decided to\u00A0offer a couple of different packages: a virtual one for brides who need\u00A0a wedding coach and monthly phone sessions to help them knock\u00A0items off their to-do lists;\u00A0a\u00A0behind-the-scenes package, for brides who need\u00A0someone\u00A0to be there for them on their wedding day;\u00A0a\u00A0down-the-aisle package, for brides who want\u00A0support before their wedding and on their wedding day; and a couple of packages for maids of honor\u00A0and bridesmaids who don't have the time or\u00A0knowledge to take on their new role with\u00A0confidence.\n\tAdvertisement - Continue Reading Below\n\t\n\nSince inventing this job, I've worked with over 40\u00A0brides doing some unimaginable things. I've taken off my bra\u00A0right before walking down the aisle\u00A0because the mother of the bride suddenly\u00A0remembered\u00A0she'd forgotten hers. I've served as a bodyguard, watching the doors of the catering hall like a 5-foot-7 hawk on behalf of\u00A0a bride who had fired her maid-of-honor and was scared she was going to crash the party. Once, I even had to scoop animal droppings from the\u00A0aisle of an outdoor wedding\u00A0with my bare hands\u00A0so the bride wouldn't walk down and stain the edges of her silk off-white dress with poop.\n\nThe strange thing about this job is the kind of relationship I form with my clients. In order to work together\u00A0and work together well, we form a bond. Brides, maids of honor, and bridesmaids turn to me and tell me things that they wouldn't tell anyone else. They rely on me\u00A0to become their on-call, on-the-spot therapist and their go-to person when they need advice on a challenge or a mind-boggling wedding or even personal situation. I've massaged brides'\u00A0cold feet and often listened without judgment as they told me, and only me, that they were getting married for reasons other than love.\u00A0By the end of the wedding, that relationship \u2014\u00A0that friendship \u2014\u00A0lasts even after\u00A0the bridesmaid dress is sent to the dry cleaner (or rolled up in a ball in the back of my closet).\u00A0When I'm out at night or on a date, the most popular question I get is: Isn't it a sad thing if a bride has to hire you? But it's actually not sad at all. Not everyone has a group of friends that are reliable or able to be there for them on the wedding day. Or, they might have a group of friends who could\u00A0be awesome bridesmaids, but they'd rather spare them from all of the dirty work and have a professional bridesmaid on-site to make sure the bridal party has everything they need. In the end, every bride deserves to make it through their wedding\u00A0without having meltdowns and the strong wish that they could just run off and elope. That's all this business is. That's all I'm there to help do, is make every bride not hate their own wedding.Along the way, I've learned what I would want to do when it's my turn to be the bride, but until that day happens, I'll continue being always the bridesmaid. At least now I'm getting paid for it.\u00A0Jen Glantz is a professional bridesmaid\u00A0and the founder of\u00A0Bridesmaid for Hire. She's the author of\u00A0All My Friends Are Engaged\u00A0and frequently wears old bridesmaid dresses to the grocery store and on first dates. Her forthcoming book, Always a Bridesmaid (For Hire), will be released this summer.\u00A0"^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.cosmopolitan.com/lifestyle/a52382/how-i-became-a-bridesmaid-for-hire/>