You spend so long planning your wedding day, but so many couples forget to actually make the most of it when the day comes. They are so caught up in making sure everything goes to plan, that the day is over before they realise. Here are my top 10 tips to make the day itself as stress free as possible so you can both relax and make the most of what you have achieved!
1. Don’t stress out about the weather!
You can’t control it and you can’t predict it so what’s the point in losing sleep? Do however make contingency plans. Make sure you have umbrellas in case it rains, blankets for if it’s cold, fans in case of a heat wave. Speak to your marquee/tipi company about reserving an extra piece in case your whole day has to be inside. But at the end of the day remember what’s important, as long as you and your other half get married, have fun and enjoy the day who cares what the weather is doing right?
Plus you can get some pretty cool photos in the rain!
2. Don’t cut corners where it counts!
People always say there are three things that guests remember from a wedding, the Brides dress, the food and the music. Did the Bride look amazing? Of course, all Brides look amazing! Was there enough food and drink to keep us satisfied throughout the day and was it tasty? And did we have fun and dance the night away? If you can ensure that the answer to these questions is a resounding yes, then you can be assured that your day will have been a huge success and your guests will remember it as a great day.
3. Make sure someone knows how to bustle your dress!
You have paid a lot for your dress and you want it to look amazing for the whole day, so make sure that your Maid of Honour or one of your Bridesmaids knows how to bustle it properly after the ceremony. Get them to come with you to your fitting and be shown by the seamstress how to do it properly!
4. Don’t lose your other half!
Make sure you stick together during the day and the evening, don’t spend too much time apart. Sure you want to chat to your Great Aunt Annie who you haven’t seen for 2 years, but don’t risk having no photos of you together apart from the organised ones, and make sure you both remember the same wedding day and not two completely different versions because you spent the whole day mingling with people separately and had no time together.
5. Don’t sweat the small stuff!
No wedding day will be perfect, there will be hiccups and small things that go wrong and get forgotten. But I can guarantee that no one will notice, even you and your other half. So just remember what’s important, it’s the biggest day of your lives and you are vowing to spend the rest of your lives with each other, enjoy, soak it up, have fun and don’t sweat the small stuff.
6. Don’t try and do everything!
Delegate! This will be one of the most important words in the run up to your big day. You have your friends and family there and they all have their own strengths and skills, so use them! Your cousin that is over confident and loud, ask him to be in charge of organising everyone for the photographer or your Aunty that loves to bake, get her to help with the cakes/cookies for the sweet table! You can’t do everything yourself, you won’t have the time, plus who wants to be a stressed-out wreck by the time they get to the alter! One way to take the stress out of the day is to hire an On-The-Day Coordinator to come in and take care of everything, suppliers that get lost, guests that need help, sewing the hem back up on the Maid of Honours dress after she caught her heel in it. An OTD coordinator can run the day and take care of anything unforeseen that may crop up. If you want to know more about this service click here!
7. Make sure you eat!
You will be so busy enjoying your day and trying to speak with everyone, especially in the evening when potentially even more guests arrive, but don’t forget to have some food! For one, you have paid out a lot of money for a fantastic feast, so you want to enjoy it too, but you also need to keep up your strength, your wedding day is a long day and you don’t want to be faint and flagging by 9pm through lack of food and water!
8. Keep one massive spreadsheet!
Organisation is key when planning a wedding, you will have so many emails coming in, invoices, dates to remember for deposits, tastings, fittings etc that even the most organised person would struggle to remember everything if it weren’t written down and organised on a spreadsheet. Don’t keep separate lists, keep it all together and somewhere that you can both access it, then there is no chance of anything being forgotten or overlooked.
9. Don’t over complicate things!
The big trend at the moment is DIY and the temptation is to try and DIY everything as you feel it will save you money and you can make it exactly how you want. But the danger is you try and do too much and end up stressing yourself out so much in the run up that you are burnt out by the big day. DIY isn’t always cheaper, there are some amazing suppliers out there, and you can usually find anything you want with a quick Google search. So, be savvy, chose the DIY’s you want to do, that you will enjoy and where you can’t get exactly what you want unless you do, but the rest? Let someone else do the work and take the pressure off yourself.
10. If you can… hire a Wedding Planner!
If you have it in your budget, hiring a planner will take away all of the stress. They don’t do everything, unless you want them to, but they do manage it all. So you still get to make the decisions and choose what you want, but the planner then makes it happen. If your budget won’t stretch to the full planning package, most planners have different options, and will tailor their services to your needs. It's definitely worth looking into and it may not be as expensive as you think, especially if they can save you money and time in other areas!
If you need more help or advise, or want to know more about my Wedding Planning and Styling services, then visit my website willowandrustweddings.com to see how I can help.