Your wedding day is debatably the most important day of your adult life, and this fact can be stressful for many brides. As the day comes closer, that stress level tends to rise.
While planning the biggest day of your adult life, the last thing you want to do is stress. While some brides like to think that they can be nonchalant and just go with the flow, it usually ends in that girl having some kind of stress-related panic the week of (or worse, the day of) the wedding.
In order to avoid this kind of thing, (and you can avoid this kind of thing) it is important to make your plans, stick to them, and leave nothing to the unknown. Even more importantly, remember that it is your day. It is about you and the person you love tying the knot, and the people there are lucky to celebrate that with you!
While this seems vague and confusing, it is far simpler than most brides think it is. Because in reality, the little details are the things that make the biggest difference, and in the end, it is all about you and your future spouse.
Instead of freaking out on your bridal party, here’s a list of some simple things you can do before the wedding as well as some things to remember when planning the wedding that will ensure that your wedding is absolutely perfect.
1. Practice Walking Down The Aisle
One of the biggest things brides worry about is tripping on their way down the aisle. This is not an irrational fear, especially if the wedding is outside and on uneven terrain like grass or sand.
As soon as you buy the shoes you’ll be walking in, start breaking them in. Wear them around the house for extended periods of time so that by the time the day arrives, you are not fidgeting from foot to foot while you say your vows.
The week of the wedding and the days preceding it, practice walking down the actual aisle in your shoes. This will not only give you practice and make it less likely that you’ll fall, it will also make you feel more secure in the fact that you’ve done it successfully before, so you can do it again!
Take this advice for everything in your wedding. Whenever there’s something that can be tried or practiced, take advantage! Make sure the music for the ceremony works and plays on cue, have dress fittings more frequently as the day approaches to avoid surprises, and make sure you study your vows at least a little bit to avoid losing your place or stumbling over words.
2. Save Money On Alcohol
One of the most exciting things people will look forward to about your wedding will be the bar, especially if you decide to have an open bar.
This can get expensive without needing to be, and there are some little tricks to having an open bar at opportune times to save money.
Many guests tend to abuse the open bar during dinner, finishing more drinks than they usually would because they are focused on eating and drinking. If you close the bar during dinner, guests are more likely to make their drinks last. You can reopen the bar when dancing starts and visitors are more distracted by the festivities and less likely to drink in excess.
Some venues also have different ideas and plans for getting the most out of the bar services without spending a fortune on alcohol. Be sure to do your research with the venue and whoever is helping you plan.
3. Do Things In Advance
The thing that most brides do not realize while they are planning their dream wedding is that their dream can be a lot less expensive if they just plan farther in advance.
Hundreds of thousands of dollars can be saved by booking the caterer and the venue early. As a bonus, the sooner things are done, planned out, and set in stone, the sooner you can stop worrying about them and move on to the next thing you have to plan.
Weddings take much planning, and not all of it is dress shopping and cake tasting. The more you can be confident about and get done quickly the better.
4. Don’t Crash Diet
The truth about trying to lose weight fast before your wedding is that there’s no healthy way to do it. In reality, most women who lose weight faster than is healthy before their wedding end up gaining it back when the day has passed.
You have hundreds of other things to worry about while planning your wedding, and your future spouse loves you just the way you are.
In addition, you will not be able to enjoy planning your wedding or the day of your wedding if you are worrying about fitting into the mold of a perfect bride that you have in your head. If you do not eat right in the time leading up to your wedding, you’ll be cranky and tired, and then on the day of your wedding, you’ll quickly lose energy for all the festivities.
Moreover, when your feet, back, and face start to hurt from holding that position and smiling for pictures for so long, you’ll be wishing you had eaten more than just fruit for breakfast.
5. Eat
While we are on the subject of food, it is critical that you make sure to eat at your reception.
Many brides get so caught up in taking pictures, dancing, and saying hello to friends and family that they do not have time to sit down and have a well-earned and entirely necessary meal.
The way to remedy this is to have food brought out in courses as opposed to buffet style. This encourages guests to stay in their seats and eat while you and the wedding party do the same.
There’s no way you’ll make it successfully through the night with a stomach full of wedding cake and champagne alone. Beyond that, you carefully chose the food for your wedding, and you deserve to be able to eat it.
6.Write Your Own Vows
Weddings are always fun, but most guests you ask will tell you that they absolutely dread the ceremony.
In addition to the classic advice to keep the ceremony short and sweet, it is a good idea to give your guests something they want to listen to. Instead of repeating after the person presiding over your marriage, write your vows.
They can be funny, romantic, tear-jerking, or anything you want them to be. However, they are more interesting and personal than prewritten vows, and they are something that you and your spouse will never forget.
7. Personal
Weddings are one of the most revered and old-fashioned traditions in the world. Every culture has their own list of rules and regulations about the proper ceremonies, and cultural traditions are wonderful!
However, the important thing is to limit your wedding to the things that are important to you. It is more important to make your wedding personal to you than to try and make sure you’ve covered all the expected bases.
Is it a bad thing to include a short tradition in the ceremony to make your grandmother happy? Not necessarily! However, don’t change anything about your wedding if it is not something you want or are okay with.
The day is about celebrating you and your new spouse. Although there are other things that are important, none are as important as that fact on your wedding day.
8.Think About Your Guests As Your Friends and Family, Not Just Numbers.
When planning a wedding, spouses tend to get overwhelmed and lost in the numbers and prices and all the different options they have and decisions to make.
In order to avoid this, think about your friends and families when you are making decisions about wedding activities, music, and pictures. Ask yourself if you can see your guests doing or enjoying certain things. This will make it far easier to plan and make certain decisions.
9. Lots of Pictures
Your wedding is your once in a lifetime day, planned out just for you, and you want to remember it. That is not to say that you’ll ever forget the fun you have, but pictures are helpful to remember all the little things.
Have more than one photographer for sure, and make sure that they do not only take staged pictures. The best pictures are often the candid shots taken when no one was looking or paying any attention to the photographer at all.
Even during your ceremony, have a photographer taking pictures of the kids falling asleep and your mom crying her eyes out. Those will be some of your favorites!
In the end, your wedding will be as perfect as you allow it to be. It is not about having perfect timing or the way the food tastes; it is about you and your new spouse celebrating your love with your friends and family.
Although these things are sure to keep your stress level down and help you plan, remember to not let yourself get too caught up in anything other than how much fun you have and how much you love your new spouse. If all else fails, there are plenty of advice guides and websites out there including weddings-magazine.com.
The writer, Kate Stefanski, loves nothing more than to plan for weddings, and when asked to write about how to create the perfect wedding practically jumped for joy with the idea. If you wish to learn more about Kate you can visit on Google+.