Attending a wedding usually ends up costing every guest some cash before things are all said and done.
That’s especially true for the bridesmaids, who end up shelling out hundreds — or even thousands — for the pleasure of helping the bride and groom ring in their new lives together.
Well, every bridesmaid except for Jen Glantz.
The New York City copy editor has made a name for herself as a “gal pal you never knew you needed” — aka a bridesmaid for hire. For a fee ranging from $300 to $1,000, the Florida native will act as your bestie through the whole wedding process, helping you plan the big day — and she’ll even be by your side as a part of the wedding party, if you want.
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But don’t call her a wedding planner. “[The wedding planner’s] job is to focus on things. She doesn’t have much time to focus on actual people and meeting the bride and her bridesmaids and maybe even the mother of the bride,” Glantz told The Jewish Daily Forward.
Wedded to the Business from Jewish Daily Forward on Vimeo.
And sometimes friends just aren’t good picks for bridesmaids.
“[Y]ou can have the greatest friends in the entire world, but it doesn’t mean that they’re going to be excellent bridesmaids, and it doesn’t mean that they’re going to be able to provide the support emotionally and also physically that you might need as a bride,” she added.
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With that said, being a professional bridesmaid isn’t all mimosas and dress fittings.
“[S]ometimes you get a little bit less respect because these people are hiring you,” she said, adding that people assume they can dump their problems on her because they’re paying her to be there. “It is a very, very tough job, and I think oftentimes brides do demand a lot.”
But in the year since she launched her business, the 26-year-old has learned to set boundaries with the brides who pay for her services. Each package now has a set amount of phone calls with the bride where she can discuss anything she wants. “It’s mostly about your to-do list and challenges and things of that nature. From then on, the rest of the week we can correspond through e-mail, and that makes it a lot easier to set boundaries.”
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That’s not to say she sells all of her advice.
“My advice for all brides is to close your eyes and remember when you were 10 years old, what was your ideal wedding,” she told The Forward of what she wants brides to know. “I promise you what you thought of when you were 10 or 11 years old is truly what you want and that’s what we’re going to plan, and that’s what we’re going to execute for you.”
But you had better book her fast: Dates into 2017 are already filling up.
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