Recently, I married the love of my life. That’s great for us, but my wedding means nothing to you. What’s important is your wedding. Therefore, as my gift to you, here are a few freshly-tested wedding tips:
1. The Wedding Is Tomorrow
When we reserved our wedding chapel, the planner there advised us to make “the wedding is tomorrow” our mantra. Even though we still had several months to plan, we took him seriously.
No matter how much time you think you have, the date will sneak up on you. In fact, my bride and I had already postponed our marriage once, due to the logistics getting away from us. No matter how strong your relationship, postponing a wedding is a bummer. But once we started saying, “the wedding is tomorrow,” we began acting with a sense of urgency.
We knocked out most of the major planning in the first week, which left us plenty of time to address all the smaller challenges that weddings always bring; and we had fun doing it.
2. Tailor Your Traditions
There are a lot of great wedding traditions, but you should not feel pressured to include them all. Select only the ones that make sense for you. You’ll be glad you did.
For our wedding, we decided to eschew the cake, the band, and the bouquet throw, to name just a few. While the wedding planner thought we were being skimpy, we had our reasons.
For example, I am highly sensitive to refined sugar, as is the bride’s father, and my bride doesn’t even like dessert, so why should we have had a cake? With the money we saved on this and other items, we took the entire wedding party out for a reception at our favorite a la carte restaurant, where the food was better than any caterer we could have hired. It suited us, and that is what really matters.
This doesn’t mean we didn’t do anything traditional, because we did. We rented a very lovely chapel, and we added a sand pouring ceremony that felt right for us. But we also read the traditions “menu” like our favorite restaurant’s menu: a la carte. In the end, we had the wedding we wanted, at a price we could afford.
3. Hire Professionals
Depending on an amateur to do a professional’s job is a risky proposition. For example, we were excited when a friend offered to take our wedding photos as a gift. Unfortunately, it’s been six weeks since the wedding and she hasn’t sent us a single photo – not even a digital one.
Yes, she’s a nice person and she owns a high-end camera, but she’s also just a hobbyist who works at her own pace, and no matter how good the photos are, getting them months after the big day is not what any couple has in mind. Luckily, we also decided to pay a professional to take photos. They came out great and were delivered in a timely manner. It probably saved a friendship.
The same approach holds for your chef, your dressmaker, your hairdresser, your baker, and just about any other service associated with your wedding. Your friends may mean well, but a proven professional is the only way to go.
4. Go Ahead, Register
We are a middle-aged couple and we didn’t really need much in the way of household items. On the other hand, a lot of people who weren’t even attending our wedding wanted to give us gifts. So we were convinced by an acquaintance to register at a department store and we are glad we did. The process was extremely simple, and since we picked out items we could actually use, every present we received was something that makes our lives easier or more efficient.
5. Know Your Guest List
We invited only those friends and family closest to us. Yes, you are having a wedding so that others may witness your union, but your marriage is not about other people. If you want to invite everyone at the office, go ahead, but remember, all of these people will disappear during the ceremony itself. You will be there alone, with the love of your life, and after all, that is how it should be.
I hope these five tips help make your wedding day the special memory you deserve.
