Bridesmaid got with ancient relative by the end of reception (6,3)
I believe the answer is:
nearly man
'bridesmaid got' is the definition.
I know nothing about this answer so I cannot tell whether it can be defined by this definition.
'ancient relative by the end of reception' is the wordplay.
'ancient' becomes 'early' (I've seen this in another clue).
'relative' becomes 'man' (I can't explain this - if you can you should believe this answer much more).
'by' means one lot of letters go next to another.
'the end of' suggests the final letters.
The final letter of 'reception' is 'n'.
'early'+'man'='earlyman'
'earlyman' put after 'n' is 'NEARLY MAN'.
'with' is the link.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for nearly man that I've seen before include "Teenage boy is" , "one who didn't quite make it" , "not the expected success" , "one failing to fulfil his potential" , "not quite a success" .)