Happy New Year, everyone! I hope 2015 has been good to you thus far. I know we already had the obvious New Year’s post, but I figured it couldn’t hurt to pile on some extra Auld Lang Syne while I still can.
Spencer and I are probably still on our flight home from Heathrow at this point. (Time zones are hard, you guys!) Even though I want to start phasing out these weekly wedding posts, I can say with absolute certainty that there will be some new content about Paris and London up soon as well as some tips and tricks for planning a great honeymoon!
Right now, I have so many thoughts about our wedding day itself. For weeks beforehand, Spencer and I were told that we wouldn’t remember a thing about our actual wedding. Not the ceremony, not the reception, not the little bits of time in between. And that honestly made me sad. I wanted to remember it all in vivid color, complete with CGI representations of our centerpieces and narrated by yours truly. (Or maybe Emma Thompson. She’d do fine, too.)
Obviously those other guys had been imbibing a bit too much because I remember it all like it was yesterday, and it was actually 20 yesterdays ago. (Just kidding, they probably weren’t that gone on their wedding nights.) However, I do think I had the perfect combination of elements to help me stay fully in the moment, and I’m here to share how to fully enjoy your wedding.
If you’re getting married on Saturday, pretend like the wedding is actually the Wednesday before.
Basically, there’s no way to be fully engrossed in your wedding if you’re worrying about it from the moment you begin planning to right before you walk down the aisle. So act like your wedding will take place a few days before it actually will and have everything completed on that day. You’ll feel so much better the morning of the big day when you haven’t spent the three days beforehand stressing about everything wedding-related.
Put down that smart phone.
When I first heard that our venue didn’t have cell phone service, I considered it a negative. Fast forward to the wedding day, and it was actually a blessing. I couldn’t respond to calls or texts, didn’t have any social media distractions, and wasn’t bothered by emails popping up from work. We spend enough time with our noses in our phones, recording life instead of living it. Don’t make your wedding one of those half-lived days!
Take a chill pill.
You can’t enjoy anything if you’re stressing. When your photos are taking an hour longer than you imagined, take a deep breath and let your groom know the photos with his family will be pushed back. When your dad rips a hole in the tulle outer layer of your dress, laugh it off and thank God it happened after the ceremony. When you find out the bartender ordered so little wine that you’re out before the cocktail hour ends, drink beer (and send your groom’s uncle to the closest liquor store). Basically, don’t stress about the things you can’t change.
Stand still for thirty seconds and take it all in.
I’ve decided that this is key for creating a true, vivid representation of your big day. Stand in the center of the reception, take a deep breath, and really soak it all in. The sights, the sounds, the way it makes you feel. If you give your brain a moment to digest everything, you’ll be much more likely to remember it a day, a year, and even a lifetime later.
Remember the most important thing: at the end of the day, you’ll be married to the one whom your soul loves.
(Isn’t Song of Solomon the most poetic of the biblical books? I feel like it has to be.) And that’s all I have to say about that because, really, there’s nothing more important on your wedding day!
Getting married is crazy and stressful, difficult and wonderful, but your memories of it will be as rose-colored as they come! Make sure they stick around by keeping these tips in mind on the big day.
Did anyone else have a similar experience, or did your wedding day pass in a blur?
P.S. You should also take care of a few wedding incidentals and have your “old, new, borrowed, and blue” figured out ahead of time.
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