By Perfect Wedding Guide ‘National Wedding Expert’, Susan Southerland
Some couples stress out over the wedding planning process. Other couples think that planning the wedding is relatively easy, but how to enjoy the wedding day makes them worry.
As the person who usually takes on the stress of the wedding day for my clients, it was interesting being the one who was supposed to relax and enjoy the wedding day. I am happy to report that I took my own advice, the one that I have given to thousands of brides and grooms over the years…. Nothing, absolutely nothing, should get in the way of enjoying the wedding day. Not the weather, not your future mother-in-law, not a broken nail… Nothing.
You must remember that no wedding day takes off without mistakes; mine included. Here’s are some of the mistakes that happened at mine:
- My daughter wasn’t happy with her makeup (not enough black).
- Some of the studs were missing from the tuxedos.
- The banquet setup staff set the bar exactly where the original ceremony spot was supposed to be.
- We didn’t do a rehearsal (the ceremony was pretty casual) and I neglected to tell the kids how and where to stand. As the ceremony was about to start, my daughter said rather loudly, do I stand here? Do I face everyone?
- My beautiful shoes were killing my feet.
- We forgot the glass for breaking at the end of the ceremony.
- My bra kept showing.
- We were not supposed to have any pork at the wedding and one of the entrees was served with bacon-wrapped asparagus.
Our collective reaction…. Oh well. My daughter got over her initial teenage-temper tantrum and added more black to her eye shadow. No one wore studs. My friends moved the ceremony arrangement to what was ultimately a more beautiful spot. We all laughed about the wedding planner’s ceremony not being perfectly organized (during the ceremony… it’s all on video). I changed into the gold flip flops that I purchased in case my shoes hurt. My husband’s aunt found a glass which was successfully broken a few minutes late. My DJ found duct tape to deal with my bra…. It still kept showing (than Heavens for Photoshop!). Finally, those who didn’t want bacon-wrapped asparagus didn’t eat it.
My point in sharing this with you is that even though I have handled thousands of weddings in which I anticipated and managed thousands of problems, my wedding day wasn’t “perfect.” It wasn’t perfect in the sense that nothing went wrong, but my wedding day was the most beautiful and perfect day that I could have ever imagined… mistakes and all. No one spent a second worrying about what went wrong, we laughed about it and enjoyed the day. It went so fast. I wish I could do it all over again.
How do you plan on alleviating stress on your wedding day? How are you planning to make sure that the day goes off without a hitch? I would love to share your thoughts with other wedding blog readers. Post for me here or email me at susan(dot)southerland(at)pwg(dot)com.
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***Photo credit goes to Kim Nodurft Photography and Ginger Midgett.***
