To My Brides | When Your Day Doesn’t Go as Planned

21

Sep

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To My Brides

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Your wedding day is the most important day of your life and it goes by in a flash (and yes, the pun was intended)! I remember my wedding day being over in what seemed like minutes! You have planned for months and months, maybe even years for your big day! You have planned everything to the last detail: from the flowers to your shoes to your cake topper. You want everything to go as planned. You want everything to go perfectly.

Can I be honest with you? Everything won’t go as planned. AND THAT’S OKAY! Most of the time, if things don’t go as planned, it is because the timeline doesn’t go as planned. Of the over 100 weddings I have shot in the past 8 years, I have had only ONE that pictures started on time. The hair appointment took longer than expected. The makeup was still getting put on. It POURS on your day and you’re getting married outside. The dress took longer to put on than the bride realized. The groom wasn’t at the venue on time. I even had a wedding in which we started their First Look over an hour behind our scheduled time and still got everything done we needed to. I build so much extra time into the day that if we do “get behind”, we will catch up somewhere else!

The items that get left at home or the florist that might be 10 minutes late are things out of your control. Let your coordinator, bridesmaids, friends of your parents, even me take care of those things. You should not be worrying about those things on your day! All you have to do is show up, smile, and look pretty… oh and say “I do!”

So here are some tips on how to not stress if things don’t go as planned:

1) Before the wedding, have someone ahead of time designated to deal with these little things. If you have a coordinator, they will be the one to deal with this stuff for you. You will meet with them before the wedding and they will talk through your day. If you don’t have a coordinator, pick a good friend of you or your mom’s that is organized and can help you navigate the day. A good coordinator (hired or friend) won’t let you know when things go wrong, unless it’s absolutely necessary for you to find out. I always recommend hiring a coordinator- at least a day of coordinator. They will make sure things go as planned!

2) Expect to run “late”. Again like I said, there’s only been one wedding in which we started exactly on time for the First Look or for portrait pictures. On average, we start pictures 30 minutes after the timeline says we will. I plan for this. I plan for extra time in the day. I have you covered, so don’t stress over this part of the day. I got your back, girl!

3) Lay out all of the small items you need days before the wedding and put them in a box or bag. Your detail items like the ones I will take pictures of can be put into a box so that when I get there and want to take pictures, you’re not scrambling to get your girls to find these items while you’re in the middle of getting your hair done.

4) Make a list of what you need to bring and what your bridesmaids or mom needs to bring and put someone in charge of it the day before. Things like your marriage license, passport (if you’re leaving the next morning to go out of the country), tips you might give your vendors, etc. This helps make sure you have everything ahead of time and puts the responsibility on someone else. Oh and if you happen to forget your marriage license and are driving two hours to your wedding and can’t turn around to go get it… don’t stress over that either. I know someone (cough cough) who had to get it taken care of after the honeymoon. 🙂

5) Just soak up your day and don’t worry about the small things. This is your wedding day! You are to enjoy your day; and no matter what happens the day of, at the end, you’ll be married! Just remember that! 🙂

I hope these few tips help you as you plan your big day! If you are a past bride, feel free to share anything that worked for you leading up to your wedding and the day of!

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  1. […] week, I did a blog post on “When Your Day Doesn’t Go as Planned”. It ended up being a very successful blog post that got shared a lot by my brides. Many of them […]

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