wedding
5 Ways to Stay Calm on Your Wedding Day
You’ve been preparing for this day for a long long time now, and took care of a million little details and now it’s here. Today you say I do and today of all days you want to be just perfect…
Not to rain down on your parade, but the reality is that most likely at least one thing will not go as you expected. And this most probably has nothing to with how well you planned, or how good or bad the service is, it’s just the mismatch of your expectations vs. reality. The real question though is how you deal with that on your wedding day.
I am one to try and plan (and control) every little thing in advance so that I don’t have to worry about it later. Naturally, for my wedding, I planned everything I could and tried to anticipate what could derail, however, even with all of this planning, I ran into some unexpected situation on my wedding day. So long story short, hopefully, everything goes as planned on your special day, but if some things are off, below is a list of things you can do to better prep in advance and stress less on your big day.
1. Have your wedding day schedule down to the last detail.
As I mentioned above, what helped me stay calm (well calmer) on my wedding day was planning the day of down to the last detail. It really helps to have a schedule on the day of your wedding. Even better, make sure you share that schedule with your wedding party as well as your photographer, DJ, and any other service you have.
2. Send your photographer all the info.
This one is pretty self-explanatory, but also very important to note. The best way to stay calm and avoid people asking you questions while you’re getting ready is to have everything planned. So send your photographer a list of photos you want (or at least the styles) and a list of family portraits and names of people in photos. Your photographer will find the right people and take the right photos if you give them all the info they need.
The night (or two) before your wedding, make sure your photographer has the schedule of the day of the wedding and knows when to arrive and what types of photos you want (whether it be the first look, or getting ready). Also, remember to give them a phone number of one of your family members or your wedding party. You just need someone to take care of that on your big day, so you don’t have to.
3. Have a day-of coordinator.
If you have a chance, and most venues will offer this, have a day of coordinator. They will generally be responsible for making sure all guests get seated, that the rooms are organized and decorated, that the ceremony starts on time, all your vendors know where to go and start on time as well, and will also be there in case you need anything. The extent of services with the day of coordinators varies depending on the venue or company you hire to do that, but in general, they’ll take care of the essentials (mentioned above). If you don’t have a day of coordinator, then ask a person you trust to be in charge of your vendors and the flow of the day. You’ve planned enough, it’s your day to relax, let go of control, and just enjoy the day.
4. Assign responsibilities to your wedding party.
Whether you have a day of coordinator or not, there are certain little other things you could offload to your wedding party and family members. Here’s what you could assign to your wedding party on the day of your wedding:
Getting from point A to point B. Add them to your uber account or give them your phone and the schedule and get someone to arrange transportation. Whatever transportation you have for the day of.
Get food for the wedding party. Don’t forget to eat on the day of and don’t forget to feed your wedding party because after the ceremony those celebratory drinks will go straight to your heads.
Assign a game. Games are always a fun addition to any wedding. I had a shoe game and the musical chairs scavenger hunt games at mine and I asked my MOH to do the chair game and our DJ took care of the other. It was a blast and it felt great that I didn’t need to worry about it.
Give your phone to someone in your wedding party. You don’t wanna be getting texts (unless they’re from your SO) on your wedding day, so assign that responsibility to someone you trust. They can take care of coordinating the vendors or taking care of other little things.
5. Manage your expectations.
I know I know… It’s tough, you’ve been planning for a long time, you took care of all possible little details, you planned the schedule, you want it to be perfect and you want it to be the best wedding ever. What I mean by managing your expectations, is staying realistic. Some little things may go wrong. In my case, it was the flowers we ordered. Despite picking the flower types and thinking I got it all covered when the flowers were delivered to the room, my bouquet looked great, but the groom’s boutonniere was not what I expected at all. I could have asked someone to go and get another one, but there was no time and I decided to just roll with it at that point. In the end, no one noticed that minor thing I thought was a disaster, and the photos look great. There were a few other minor things but in the end, my day was perfect, everyone from all generations was happy, and we danced until the very end of the night. It was a fun wedding day despite the little things.
6. Carve out a little me time.
Most people would say meditate and stuff, and I wish I could just sit down and meditate but I don’t really know how. So if you’re like me, then instead of meditating, just try to carve a little time for yourself. For me, that was the morning of, I arrived at the venue earlier than everyone else and was alone for maybe 20 minutes. It’s not a lot but at least I had a chance to breathe and realize that I am getting married on this day!!! You’ll be nervous, it’s unavoidable, but the most important thing is to accept that you may cry (as I did, although I am not a crier at all), and you may miss some things up (I managed to lift my veil instead of letting the groom do it as we agreed and rehearsed too), and also remember to live in the moment and enjoy the process. The day will go by so fast, so take it slow, don’t mind the little things and enjoy it, it’s a big step!
Also Read
The Wedding Blues: What They Are and How to Deal
First 5 Things to Take Care of When Planning a Wedding
