sumbride
Ideal_Rock
- Joined
- Feb 17, 2006
- Messages
- 3,867
Here''s a quick little list of what I learned from my wedding that might help... please add to it!
1) hire a day of coordinator. It cost me $250 but she kept the peace, got everybody in the right spot, and gave people a different target for their questions and emotional breakdowns. Don''t like what''s happening? Not my fault! Yell at the day of lady! We had a couple of personality clashes, but in the end, I was glad we hired her. Ask your florist and photographer for recommendations. They know who is good. And listen to her! She wanted me to cut the cake when we came in the room. I declined, and that was ok, but we ended up doing the father daughter dance right after the cake cutting and nobody saw it because they were all standing in line for cake. I should have done the dance BEFORE the cake.
2) have candy in the bridal suite. For the bride? well, yes, but most importantly, that box of Lemonheads I brought with me worked REALLY well at getting the flower girls to stop crying, wear the head piece, and walk down the aisle. I didn''t know how much it helped until my sister in law told me the next day that she had the rest of the box in her purse.
3) Eat SOMETHING. Eat before you put on your dress... but not too much... just a little something bland and full of protein. Then, eat something between the wedding and the reception. One of my friends made a plate for me and pulled me into the corner of the dining room, away from everyone else, so I could eat and refresh before dancing the night away. It was the best thing ever. Later on, hubby and I walked around the buffet, munching, but we made sure the photographer wasn''t looking! What? never seen a bride eating a lamb chop directly from the chafing dish? it was GOOD.
4) stay hydrated. I was really worried about needing to use the facilities in my dress. Especially since I''d had a nervous bladder all morning and up until I put the thing on I was in the bathroom every half hour! But one of my friends told me she had worried too and ended up not needing to. I kept her in mind but I still didn''t drink much for the first 2 hours in my dress. Finally I chilled out when people handed me a drink with a straw. And for the record, I didn''t end up needing to go until after I took my dress off!
5) Figure out your exit well before it''s time to leave. We were signalling the DJ that we were ready to leave when my mom said "where are the keys to the car?" I said "umm... in my purse... that my sister took to the hotel!" we had a brief minute of panic before I remembered that no, I hadn''t actually gotten them back from my MOH who drove us to the club, so they were, in fact, in her posession, and she was still there. Crisis averted, but it didn''t make for a smooth ending. Also, my sis had taken MY stuff to the hotel, but DH''s stuff was still in the locker room. It was gathered up by drunk friends and put in someone''s trunk and he didn''t get it until 2 days later. Luckily we weren''t leaving the next morning. If he''d taken 5 minutes to pack it up and give it to my sis, he would have had his shoes and deodarant available immediately.
6) emergency kits Ours were STOCKED. And all that really got used was the advil, immodium, tums, breath mints and double stick tape. But at least we had everything available to us. Of course, one of those same drunk friends that mixed up M''s stuff, dumped the mens kit all over the lobby of the country club, so make sure the lid can be easily secured!
7) Be nice! tensions can run high on the wedding day but make sure that you''re careful with your targets. The only person I really got mad at was my makeup artist, but I never have to see her again, so that''s ok. I didn''t yell at her, but I was fuming by the time I left because she made us late. Your wedding party and your family don''t deserve to be yelled at! Make it a happy time and keep them from hating you later!
Practice the art of seclusion! By surrounding you with people that can help keep others away from you, you will be able to stay calm. The chairs were originally set up in the wrong place, but I didn''t know about it until the next day. The cake was an hour late. Didn''t know about it. You don''t NEED to know. It will be better if you don''t. At the same time, it''s good to have people give you "happy progress reports". When our judge arrived, she passed on a message to tell me. I heard "She''s here, just wanted you to know!" and "The DJ is setting up now!" and "the weather has REALLY cooled down" (it hadn''t but it was nice to hear). It''s ok to not know everything.
9) Enjoy it! I think it was JCrow that said she didn''t want to spend her whole wedding catching up with her mom''s 3rd cousin''s daughter, or something like that.... so I practiced that same thing. We had a LOT of people at our wedding and I knew I wouldn''t be able to talk to everyone, so I decided to just have fun and now when I look back at the wedding, I''m really glad that I wasn''t stuck in small talk the whole night.
10) Let it go. The idea of picking 3 things that you care about during planning is very important to keep you focused, but when it gets to be the day of and even those 3 things aren''t EXACTLY what you wanted... realize that you can''t redo it and just go forward. Maybe you can get money back later, but don''t let it ruin your day. Nobody else noticed. Really.
1) hire a day of coordinator. It cost me $250 but she kept the peace, got everybody in the right spot, and gave people a different target for their questions and emotional breakdowns. Don''t like what''s happening? Not my fault! Yell at the day of lady! We had a couple of personality clashes, but in the end, I was glad we hired her. Ask your florist and photographer for recommendations. They know who is good. And listen to her! She wanted me to cut the cake when we came in the room. I declined, and that was ok, but we ended up doing the father daughter dance right after the cake cutting and nobody saw it because they were all standing in line for cake. I should have done the dance BEFORE the cake.
2) have candy in the bridal suite. For the bride? well, yes, but most importantly, that box of Lemonheads I brought with me worked REALLY well at getting the flower girls to stop crying, wear the head piece, and walk down the aisle. I didn''t know how much it helped until my sister in law told me the next day that she had the rest of the box in her purse.
3) Eat SOMETHING. Eat before you put on your dress... but not too much... just a little something bland and full of protein. Then, eat something between the wedding and the reception. One of my friends made a plate for me and pulled me into the corner of the dining room, away from everyone else, so I could eat and refresh before dancing the night away. It was the best thing ever. Later on, hubby and I walked around the buffet, munching, but we made sure the photographer wasn''t looking! What? never seen a bride eating a lamb chop directly from the chafing dish? it was GOOD.
4) stay hydrated. I was really worried about needing to use the facilities in my dress. Especially since I''d had a nervous bladder all morning and up until I put the thing on I was in the bathroom every half hour! But one of my friends told me she had worried too and ended up not needing to. I kept her in mind but I still didn''t drink much for the first 2 hours in my dress. Finally I chilled out when people handed me a drink with a straw. And for the record, I didn''t end up needing to go until after I took my dress off!
5) Figure out your exit well before it''s time to leave. We were signalling the DJ that we were ready to leave when my mom said "where are the keys to the car?" I said "umm... in my purse... that my sister took to the hotel!" we had a brief minute of panic before I remembered that no, I hadn''t actually gotten them back from my MOH who drove us to the club, so they were, in fact, in her posession, and she was still there. Crisis averted, but it didn''t make for a smooth ending. Also, my sis had taken MY stuff to the hotel, but DH''s stuff was still in the locker room. It was gathered up by drunk friends and put in someone''s trunk and he didn''t get it until 2 days later. Luckily we weren''t leaving the next morning. If he''d taken 5 minutes to pack it up and give it to my sis, he would have had his shoes and deodarant available immediately.
6) emergency kits Ours were STOCKED. And all that really got used was the advil, immodium, tums, breath mints and double stick tape. But at least we had everything available to us. Of course, one of those same drunk friends that mixed up M''s stuff, dumped the mens kit all over the lobby of the country club, so make sure the lid can be easily secured!
7) Be nice! tensions can run high on the wedding day but make sure that you''re careful with your targets. The only person I really got mad at was my makeup artist, but I never have to see her again, so that''s ok. I didn''t yell at her, but I was fuming by the time I left because she made us late. Your wedding party and your family don''t deserve to be yelled at! Make it a happy time and keep them from hating you later!
Practice the art of seclusion! By surrounding you with people that can help keep others away from you, you will be able to stay calm. The chairs were originally set up in the wrong place, but I didn''t know about it until the next day. The cake was an hour late. Didn''t know about it. You don''t NEED to know. It will be better if you don''t. At the same time, it''s good to have people give you "happy progress reports". When our judge arrived, she passed on a message to tell me. I heard "She''s here, just wanted you to know!" and "The DJ is setting up now!" and "the weather has REALLY cooled down" (it hadn''t but it was nice to hear). It''s ok to not know everything. 9) Enjoy it! I think it was JCrow that said she didn''t want to spend her whole wedding catching up with her mom''s 3rd cousin''s daughter, or something like that.... so I practiced that same thing. We had a LOT of people at our wedding and I knew I wouldn''t be able to talk to everyone, so I decided to just have fun and now when I look back at the wedding, I''m really glad that I wasn''t stuck in small talk the whole night.
10) Let it go. The idea of picking 3 things that you care about during planning is very important to keep you focused, but when it gets to be the day of and even those 3 things aren''t EXACTLY what you wanted... realize that you can''t redo it and just go forward. Maybe you can get money back later, but don''t let it ruin your day. Nobody else noticed. Really.
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