Being a professional bridesmaid can see her helping the bride with everything from the hen's party to picking out a dress. Photo / Supplied
Being a professional bridesmaid can see her helping the bride with everything from the hen's party to picking out a dress. Photo / Supplied
For Kerstyn Walsh, the best feedback she can get while doing her job is when nobody actually knows she is doing her job.
"The biggest compliment for me from a guest or a parent says, 'oh how do you know the bride and groom?'" she told news.com.au.
Since 2015, Walshhas run her own business, Hire A Bridesmaid and as the name suggests, brides pay her to do everything a maid of honour would normally do.
The Sydney woman came up with the idea after watching one of her friends spend her wedding day rushing and trying to organise things.
Today Walsh has two other women working for her as professional bridesmaids, as well as administration and marketing staff. She offers the hire-a-bridesmaid service as well as wedding planning, wedding day coordination and she also works as an emcee.
The cost of her bridesmaid services ranges from $1900 for being there on the wedding day to $8000 for the full bridesmaid experience, from picking the dress to holding the bouquet on the day, plus any travel, dress, hair or makeup expenses.
Sometimes she will be a part of the bridal party, especially if numbers need to be made up to match the groomsman, and often only those in the bride's inner circle know she has been hired to help.
While Walsh wouldn't reveal the most outlandish request she's had to fulfil as a professional bridesmaid, she did share the one thing she refuses to do.
"The reason I chose not to come up with some elaborate back story of how we met and know each other is simply because someone at the wedding is going to ask me a question I don't know the answer to, but if I've been your friend for 20 years, I should know."
Instead, Walsh prefers to say she and the bride are "new friends" who have "become closer and closer throughout the wedding planning process".
While Walsh works with brides during their most stressful moments of wedding planning, she doesn't believe in bridezillas.
Instead, Walsh said the pressure of the big day makes it "no surprise that somebody loses their mind".
"Everybody has their own level of how much organisation they want and how much control they want over an event," she said.
"At the end of a day, it's not human nature to plan a day for yourself and your other half where everybody's attention is on you, where you feel like you're being judged at every turn where there's so much pressure and other people put money in."
Biggest wedding dos and don'ts
According to Walsh, the biggest do when it came to weddings is key to enjoying your big day.
"I think the most important (thing) is to try your best not to read too much into other people's opinions. At the end of the day its about you and your partner," she said.
"Your decision matters, these days traditions are being thrown out the window left, right and centre.
"There's nothing worse than trudging around in wet clothing all day."
Her other don't is one couples will thank Walsh for when they get their wedding photos.
"This is my pet peeve – don't read the speeches off phones, make sure speeches and vows are printed on a bit of paper," she said, "because otherwise in your photos it will look like you're texting."
