I do "wedding
mornings" pretty much EVERY weekend. I also want to say that you can
plan till your a BLUE in the face! Things sometimes happen that are
outside of your control.. so when that happens you gotta listen to Elsa and "Let
it gooooooo".... LOL Here are a couple of tips:
The top 10 in no particular order:
1. Have food available for the bridal party. I have seen and witnessed
bridesmaids run off to find food, arrive late getting ready, or are just grumpy
because they are hungry. If you’re all getting ready somewhere, buy a 24 pack
of those big fluffy muffins from Costco. Or if it’s in the afternoon have a
sandwich plate available. It’s a cheap easy solution to save a lot of hassle
and stress when the bridal party might not have time in the schedule to find
food especially if you have an early morning wedding.
2. Plan enough time for everything. When I meet with my
brides, I always tell them it’s better to have extra time and be able to chill
with the bridal party than having to stress about getting to the wedding on
time. Things almost always get delayed somehow. So it’s good to leave a little
buffer in the schedule share the REAL TIME WITH NO ONE, WELL NO ONE OTHER THAN
THE GROOM.
3. Organize your Day of Attire. Most Brides don't delegate and usually are in and out of my makeup chair doing things they could've avoided if they had just organized the details and delegated. Place your dress, veil, crown, brooch, shoes, jewelry, garter, wedding invitation, rings and any other detail you want the photographer to capture all in one area. That way when the photographer arrives they can find and take pictures of those items. Have the MOH go with you to the florist when you go to approve the samples, that way she knows what to look for when they get delivered.
4. Bring comfortable shoes. Sometimes the high
heels are my favorite part of the brides wedding outfit. But it’s a good idea
to have some cute sandals or something else available in case you need to walk
over some grass or sand to get to wherever you are doing your photos. It might
also be nice for later on the dance floor.
5. Sleep the night before. I’ve been to a lot of
weddings where the bride or groom only got 2 hours of sleep. It makes for a
really long day. Seriously plan to be in bed 10 hours before you need to get
up. Then if you get to bed later or can’t fall asleep you will still end up
with near 8 hours.
6. Pack an essentials bag. Fill it with tums, aspirin and cold medicine. You never know what
your body is going to do the day of the wedding and it’s nice to have something
available for quick relief. Also have multi sized safety pins, bobby pins, needle and thread, two sided tape and a tide to go pen.
7. Put your payments and tips in envelopes and address them appropriately hand them to you Mom or Dad. Usually Dad is the better option since the ladies are all getting ready in the morning.
8. Email a schedule to everyone. It’s a good idea to send it the week before, then just forward the same email to everyone again the day before. I’ve also seen people print the schedule on business cards or little 3×5 cards and hand them out at the rehearsal dinner. It’s a simple way for everyone to keep it in their pocket or purse and not be calling the bride 20 times on the morning of the wedding asking when and where they should be.
9. Make sure someone is responsible for
the clean-up. Make sure someone other than the bride or groom is
in charge of making sure the hotel room where you got ready, or the dressing
room at the church is cleaned and all the left over stuff is collected. Have
the Bridesmaids bring totes to put all of their clothing in and label it with
their names.
10. Don’t stress. I
put this last but it’s the most important. Things might go wrong, and delays
might happen. But in the end you’re still getting married and it doesn’t really
matter. Enjoy the day, laugh about the bloopers, give people lots of hugs, and
smile.
