A bride posed for her wedding photos on a Florida beach — with her 34 bridesmaids
A Florida wedding has given the phrase “it takes a village” a whole new meaning.
Casme Carter, 38, wanted more than one bridesmaid. She ended up with 34.
For Carter, it was all about being surrounded by those who have stuck with her through trial and triumph.
“I wanted my girls, my besties, my mentees, my mentors,” Carter said of her beach wedding in Destin. “I wanted all of them to share this moment.”
A singer-songwriter from New Orleans, Carter said she befriended the 34 women at various stages of her life. Six are biological sisters, some are former co-workers, others mentees and mentors who’d become like family.
One of the 34 bridesmaids, Sophia Cannon, referred to the wedding as “chocolate heaven” because of the diversity of women.
The bridesmaids ranged from 21 to 50 and came from as far as Los Angeles. Cannon described the experience as more like a family reunion than a wedding.
“All of the ladies bonded and it really was amazing,” said Cannon, who first met Carter 16 years ago. “Like, I befriended some people [and] to this day, although I know this was almost a month ago, we still connect and I feel like we’ll be friends for years to come.”
The number of bridesmaids wasn’t the only unique part of Carter’s special day. For the June 2 wedding, she found $25 bridesmaids dresses on Amazon, helped fund the living arrangements, even split her actual wedding into a dawn beach ceremony and an evening reception to make it feel more like a vacation.
“I tried to make it as easy as possible for everybody,” Carter said, “because I wanted them there.”
Carter recently looked up the Guinness World Record for number of bridesmaids only to find that she didn’t even come close to a Sri Lankan couple’s 126.
Bridesmaid records don’t really matter to Cannon as much as the bride does.
“She’s so endearing, so genuine,” Cannon said, “and I feel that that is a testament to why she was able to have that many people in the environment that we had during that weekend.”
This story was originally published June 27, 2019 at 10:29 AM.